Sixteen historic sites will participate in the 2025 Explore Warren History Trail, November 1 and 2. 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.
In this bicentennial year, 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 sixteen 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.
Participating Sites
Each site will open 10am-4pm on one of the two days as follows:
The re-created community of the 1800s, where aspects of pioneer life are exhibited and occasionally demonstrated by skilled and dedicated docents throughout the village, is located in the heart of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.
The restored two-story cut stone house and barn, which date to 1812, are set in the enchanting scenery of the crystal-clear White Lake, which is enjoyed immensely by fishermen and outdoor enthusiasts.
Highlighted by the stone grist mill, built in 1825, almost half of the primary buildings within the District were built during John Insley Blair’s lifetime, and the boom period following the construction of the Blairstown Railway in 1877.
Johnsonburg, Historic District, 210 Main Street, Johnsonburg.
In 1753, Johnsonburg became the first county seat of then newly formed Sussex County and county jail which was named Logg Gaol which became a focal point of settlements in area, having tavern, forge, wheel wright and mission house.
Winthrop Rutherfurd built the eighteen-thousand square foot Tudor county house in Allamuchy, with thirty-eight rooms between 1903-1905, now a venue for public art classes, lectures, concerts, fairs and festivals as well as private events.
Founded in 1769, the Moravians left behind the unique architecture that enchants visitors when they come to town, buildings that have been restored and named to the national Registers of Historic Places in 1976.
The buildings that you see at this twelve-acre historical park along the Delaware River in Knowlton Township represent the activity that occurred at the homestead founded by Irish immigrants in 1795. Visitors can enjoy the annual Riverside Fall Festival on Saturday as well.
Housed in an 18th-century home, the museum features a restored general store, 1800s artifacts, vintage photos, railroad memorabilia, and Native American relics.
Located on a terraced hill overlooking the village, Shippen Manor was built as the iron master’s residence in c. 1754 at Oxford Furnace, the third furnace in Colonial New Jersey (1741) and the first where iron ore was mined.
Heritage Museum at Meadow Breeze, 54 Meadow Breeze Lane, Washington
The Harmony farmstead reflects three centuries of agricultural practices and rural architecture, exemplifying properties that clearly expressed the success of their owners.
Constructed between 1765 and 1783, the the oldest building in Phillipsburg employed a five-bay, two-story plan that became representative of an emerging prosperity in the Colonies.
The park features a full scale model of a Morris Canal boat and a canal-related story walk at the site of Morris Canal Lock 7 West known as the Bread Lock.
The Historic District includes the Asbury Mill, the nearby Asbury United Methodist Church—where the first American bishop, Francis Asbury, set the cornerstone in 1796—and a number of extravagant homes from the 19th century. The Mill used water power to grind grain and later process graphite, underwent significant structural rehabilitation in 2019, and is currently undergoing interior restoration with plans to open as an Interpretive Center with exhibits.
Printed trail maps will be available at all locations to start the tour-goers off on their history adventure or download your trail map here.
The Friends of Ramsaysburg coordinate the 2025 Explore Warren History Trail with an operating support 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, and from the Warren County Department of Information tourism program, ExploreWarren.org.
Millbrook Village, part of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, is a re-created community of the 1800s where aspects of pioneer life are exhibited and occasionally demonstrated by skilled and dedicated docents throughout the village
