Fifteen historic sites will participate in the 2023 Explore Warren History Trail, November 4 and 5. Each site will open 10am-4pm on either Saturday or Sunday, and tour-goers can visit one or multiple sites at their own pace each day. Printed trail maps will be available at all locations to start the tour-goers off on their history adventure. The event is free, rain or shine, and recommended for individuals and families of all ages.
Each stop along the trail offers something different and exciting for the whole family. Every site will have representatives on hand to convey the history of the location, and many sites will offer special tours, demonstrations and festival activities. Interactive children’s activities are also planned at several locations. Full descriptions, schedule details and a digital map are available at WarrenHistoryTrail.org.
As it approaches its bicentennial in 2024-2025, Warren County celebrates a remarkable history as well as its reputation for the cleanest waterways and richest farmland in New Jersey. Stemming from wilderness times well before the county’s official formation through 1824 legislation, the area’s earliest settlements were in Greenwich, Oxford Furnace, and Pahaquarry.
Situated at the confluence of the Delaware and Musconetcong Rivers, Greenwich was the gateway for the northward migration of Quaker, German, and Scots-Irish settlers landing at Philadelphia. Oxford Furnace’s first pioneers arrived in 1726, but real growth followed the building of the furnace in 1741, creating Warren County’s first hub of commercial activity and population growth.
In 1732, Abraham Van Campen built a mill in what became the tiny village of Calno in Pahaquarry, the southernmost settlement in a chain of Dutch villages extending down the Minisink Valley from Esopus (now Kingston), New York. Warren County’s agricultural heritage, in combination with eighteenth and nineteenth century innovations in transportation and industry, are important chapters in the rural American tradition.
All fifteen sites on the History Trail are listed on the New Jersey State Historic Register and the majority are also on the National Register of Historic Places. The landmarks span over one hundred and sixty years of Warren County heritage. The earliest landmark on the trail is at Oxford, NJ. Oxford Furnace was installed in 1741 with the iron master’s residence, Shippen Manor, being built in 1754. The most recent landmark is Allamuchy’s Rutherfurd Hall, which was built in 1902.
The Warren County History Trail received an operating support grant from the Warren County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs with funds from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State. Additional funding was provided by the Warren County Department of Information’s tourism program, ExploreWarren.org
Contact Information
For questions and additional information contact Tom Drake at 973-879-4887 or
info@warrenhistorytrail.org
