RonnieAdventure #0099 - New Jersey, 2014 Part II

Traveling north along the Delaware River from the New Jersey Battleship, it is about 45 miles to Washington Crossing State Park. This is the site where George Washington and the Continental Army crossed the Delaware River on Christmas evening  in 1776 and then marched to Trenton, where they defeated the Hessian troops. During the battle, the Hessian commander was mortally wounded, but not a single American soldier was killed. The Americans captured or killed over 900 Hessians in a little over an hour.

Then, during the next ten days, Washington's troops marched on to Princeton and drove the British and their Hessian soldiers out of New Jersey and helped secure Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley.  Historians now tell us that these were the 10 most crucial days of the Revolutionary War and this time period changed the course of history.

After touring the Visitor Center, things seemed to look a little different than the last time that I visited the facility. When I found a Ranger, I explained that I had been there a few years ago and I remembered a large painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware River, but it was now missing. The Ranger chuckled and said that I may have a few memory lapses because the Washington Crossing the Delaware painting had been on display across the river in the Pennsylvania Visitor’s Center, but it was moved to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City about 35 years ago! Wow! Time flies when you’re having fun! Since we couldn’t see the painting, we settled for a nice movie about Washington crossing the Delaware and the battles that ensued for the next ten days.

While we were in the Park, we also drove down to the Johnson Ferry House, which is the only original building that is still standing in the area where Washington and his troops crossed into New Jersey.

In Trenton we visited the Old Barracks, which was constructed in 1758 and is the only French and Indian War barracks still standing in the United States. The Barracks was also used by Washington after he defeated the Hessians in the First Battle of Trenton. Docents dressed in period clothing now give tours of the Old Barracks and explain what the living conditions were like for the soldiers during that time period. (You definitely wanted to be an officer!)

InfoAge is a National Historic Landmark located at Historic Camp Evans in Wall Township, New Jersey. Their slogan, “History Was Made Here,” caught my attention; so I decided to make a side trip to Infoage. Unfortunately, most of the exhibits are only open on weekends; but since the door to the main building was unlocked, we decided to give ourselves a self-guided tour of the rooms that were opened. Apparently, during WWII this facility was used as a Marconi Station and radar research laboratory. They also feature other types of WWII communications, military electronics, radio technology, electronic welfare; and they even have a fully stocked fallout shelter, so you know where to go in case of war. 

In the same general area is the Allaire Village, a 19^th century industrial community that produced pig and cast iron. You can walk around the Village to view all of the old structures and if you are visiting during the summer months they have people dressed in period clothing demonstrating cooking, carpentry, blacksmithing, etc.

Tuckerton Seaport in Tuckerton is advertised as a “working maritime village,” featuring 17 historic and recreated buildings. However, almost everything was closed the day we visited the facility. Apparently, they try to appeal to families, so maybe there is more activity on weekends and during the summer months.

Apparently , a lot of schools do field trips to the facility because this is also the educational training center for the 115,000 acre Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve. The Reserve was established in this area to protect estuaries along the coast and the free educational center is open to the public.

We arrived at Historic Batsto Village only to find everything closed due to a forest fire in the area, and the fire fighters were using Historic Batsto Village parking lot as the command post! There were about 5 or 6 white news trucks, numerous other emergency vehicles, and lots of news people running all over the place, so they did not even notice when I parked my white SUV at the far end of the parking lot and started walking around taking pictures. One of the Park Rangers even walked up to me at one point and asked if he could help me; but when I told him that I was taking pictures for a story, he walked away. He didn’t ask what type of story that I was writing, so I guess he thought I was a news reporter.

The last stop of the day was the Towne of Historic Smithville & Village Greene, which is primarily a tourist facility for shopping and entertainment. It was raining and getting late in the evening, so we didn’t stay too long.