Howell Living History Farm

Photo by Jeff Johnson Jr.

Hayrides are a staple of events that take place at the Howell Living History Farm in Mercer County, N.J. After the death of her husband, Charles Howell, the farm's last private owner, Inez Howell, donated the land to Mercer County in 1974 with the request that it be used as 'a Living History Farm, where the way of living in its early days could not only be seen but actually tried by the public .'

By Jeff Johnson Jr.

The first photo in New Jersey Monthly's July 2008 historical pictorial shows us a different time in the Garden State, with a 1950s family taking a cruise in their convertible through rural Sussex County. The photo's heading, "From Y'all to Sprawl," describes well what we know has happened to New Jersey in the past 60 years.

Perhaps Inez Howell saw what was happening to the state when, in 1974, she donated her farm to Mercer County with the request that it be developed not into a subdivision, but a living history farm.

Today, visitors to the Howell Living History Farm can see that the farm reflects the wishes Mrs. Howell expressed in her letter offering the farm to the county.

The farm has been in use since the 1730s. The last private owners, Inez Howell and the late Charles Howell, who had represented New Jersey in its 4th U.S. Congressional District, leased it out to a tenant farmer, and the property is said to have been in bad condition when the county took it over in 1974.

The living history farm's theme is intended to reflect a typical central New Jersey farm around the year 1900. Staff members dress in costumes from around this time period and show the public how farming took place around that time.

Photo by Jeff Johnson

At its ice cream socials held each summer, the Howell Farm serves up home made ice cream churned with the power of an antique two-horsepower single-piston Stover gasoline motor.

Liberty State Park

Photo by Ulrike Johnson

Liberty State Park in New Jersey is the best place to view the Statue of Liberty without actually taking a ferry to the statue. Fifty years ago, the park was nothing more than an abandoned and decaying industrial wasteland.

by Jeff Johnson Jr.

Short of actually taking a ferry to Liberty Island, the best place to see the Statue of Liberty isn't in New York. It's in New Jersey.

Visiting Liberty State Park, it's hard to believe that what is now, according to the New York Times, New Jersey's most visited state park was once a wasteland of obsolete and rusting industrial infrastructure. The park now offers pristine waterfront walkways, plenty of open space, and views of both Lady Liberty and the Manhattan skyline.

In its New Jersey section on June 22, The New York Times ran this feature on the late Jersey City city council member Morris Pesin, who campaigned for the creation of the park.

The Delaware and Raritan Canal

Photo by Ulrike Johnson

Through much of Mercer County, the Delaware and Raritan Canal forms the border between West Windsor and Princeton townships. The canal's former towpaths are popular with walkers, runners, and bicyclists during much of the year.

by Jeff Johnson Jr.

The Delaware and Raritan Canal's lifespan as a functioning part of the U.S. industrial infrastructure was relatively short.

Much like Betamax videocassettes and eight-track tapes, the canal enjoyed some limited early success, but was quickly replaced by something more efficient and practical, if not necessarily better: The railroad.

Though it may have been surpassed as a mode of transport for goods and people, the canal's success as a recreation spot remains.

The canal was transformed into a state park in 1974. Today the former towpaths, where horses and mules once served as the engines that pulled cargo and passengers along the waterway, have found renewed use as bike and foot paths. The canal is still used for boating—but by recreational canoes, not by cargo barges.

Except for a small segment of the original canal in the city of Trenton, most of the original waterway remains intact. This includes the former main canal, which runs through the heart of the Garden State from Trenton to New Brunswick, as well as the former feeder canal, which parallels the Delaware River from near Milford, N.J., south to Trenton.

More information is available from the D&R Canal Commission.

Hacklebarney State Park

Photo by Jeff Johnson Jr.

The Black River and its two tributaries, Rinehart and Trout brooks, flow through Hacklebarney State Park in New Jersey.


By Jeff Johnson Jr.

Hacklebarney State Park is one of those places the uninformed would assume couldn't possibly exist in New Jersey.

In Summer 2006, when we visited Hackelbarney, just off of U.S. Route 206 near Long Valley, NJ, we were actually only looking to salvage what had been a disappointing Sunday outing.

We had originally set out that day for High Point, New Jersey's very creatively named highest peak near the Delaware Water Gap in the northwestern part of the state. Upon arriving, we discovered that, first of all, we had forgotten the bag containing our lunch and diapers for the then-toddler pictured, and worst off all, a gypsy moth infestation had eaten away most of the foliage that provided shade on the hiking trails. (Apparently, we weren't the only ones who experienced this that summer.)

After finding some sandwiches and store-brand diapers at a nearby grocery, we returned to High Point State Park and attempted one unpleasant hike under a stinging sun and the skeletons of decimated trees. After just 15 minutes of that, we headed back down U.S. 206 and stopped spontaneously at Hacklebarney. We were not disappointed.

Hacklebarney provided the refreshing breeze, shade trees, and relaxing hike that we had hoped to find that day. The soundtrack of the Black River, rushing through water falls in some places, trickling under bridges in others, was something we would have expected to hear in the remote heart of the Appalachian Mountains—not in the nation's most metropolitan state.

I took no notes that day. These images have stayed in memory more than two years. The family joke since then has been that "High Point was the low point of the day." (Sorry, High Point.)

Photo by Jeff Johnson Jr.

According to the state of New Jersey's Division of Parks and Forestry, the Black River gorge was once a major iron ore mining site.

Mercer County Park Northwest

Photo by Ulrike Johnson

Mercer County Park Northwest was once the site of AT&T's Overseas Transmission Facility. Area residents called it the pole farm.

by Jeff Johnson Jr.

Here's a Jersey factoid that is becoming less well-known with each generation: For a good part of the 20th century, Lawrence Township was a critical—at times crucial—part of the U.S. telecommunications infrastructure.

From an 812-acre plot of land that is now part of Mercer County Park Northwest, AT&T routed all outbound transatlantic telephone communications through its Overseas Transmission Facility, just off of Cold Soil Road in the northern part of the township.

Today, wildflowers grow and deer graze where once so many telephone transmission masts stood that local residents called it "The Pole Farm."

Mercer County Park Northwest now comprises more than 1,600 acres of what the county park commission bills as "Passive Recreation Space." I'm guessing that means they largely anticipate allowing the land to return to nature, as it has since AT&T dismantled all of its equipment and demolished the associated structures there in 1975.

But from the photographs above and below in this entry, I'm sure you'll agree: It's a concept that has a lot of merit.

The park is open to the public and free, and, as its website indicates, the land is perfect for hiking, biking, horseback riding, photography, and even cross-country skiing.

The county reports that an engineering and landscape architecture firm has been hired to help design the park, but that nature will remain the focus.

Directions and contact information are available from the Mercer County Parks Commission.

Photo by Ulrike Johnson

The Mercer County Park Commission plans to reserve the park for what it calls passive recreation opportunities. Don't expect to see any ball fields or 80's-style fitness equipment there anytime soon.

Off the Beaten Parkway

Photo by Jeff Johnson Jr.

Cape May Lighthouse and the historic city of Cape May are just a short drive from Exit 0 off of the Garden State Parkway.

by Jeff Johnson Jr.

The answer—for those of you from the Northeast who know the question—is "zero."

The question—for those of you who are not from the Northeast, as I'm not originally—is "New Jersey, eh? Which exit?" Zero is the exit for Cape May, the southernmost exit on the Garden State Parkway. The photo here is of Cape May Lighthouse.

The question implies, of course, that New Jersey is one big mess of highways, the sprawl to end all sprawls, and the imagery is one of strip malls, decaying concrete and rusting steel, belching smokestacks, and a landscape pocked with old landfills and toxic waste sites.

To be fair, anyone who's ever landed at Newark Liberty Airport or passed through the Garden State by car or train in transit from New York to points south knows that this is one stereotype that definitely has more than a grain of truth. (Why else would they call concrete center dividers "Jersey barriers"?)

But in looking back at five years' worth of digital photos that my wife and I have taken since becoming accidental Jerseyans (accidental because, like most Garden State residents who weren't born and raised here, we never imagined living here until we did), it's clear to me that it would also be very wrong to say there's no beauty and nothing worth seeing here.

Each entry of this blog will look at a different Jersey Spot—a place of interest in the Garden State. The point isn't to change anyone's mind about New Jersey. Rather, I hope to share a few tips for people who might be looking for a daytrip, an idea for a weekend getaway, or just a story to tell.