Batsto, Burlington County, NJ
February 2, 2004
Click on an image for a larger picture
It was a dreary Monday when I set out to Kirby's to buy my rabbit some food for his rabbit tummy. Once I got out there, I figured that I had some time to kill, why not go out in my extremely unsturdy Toyota on icy backroads in the woods? And so I did, venturing down to Chatsworth and eventually coming to Batsto. Since I was already out there, why not take a walk around?
For those that are unaware, Batsto has a long, industrious history, and was an early iron town of South Jersey. It was there that munitions were turning out for General Washington's army. Later on, the town was purchased by the Richards family, who operated the iron works sucessfully for many years, as well as a glass house and a paper mill, among other enterprises. Later still, the iron trade moved West into Western Pennsylvania, and other enterprises at Batsto failed, leaving the town all but abandoned. It was at this time that Joseph Wharton purchased the entire town as part of his plan to transport water from the pinelands to Philadelphia, a plan blocked by the legislature. He remodeled the mansion in a Victorian style, and made many alterations at Batsto.
Today, Batsto is the property of the State of New Jersey, and operates as a sort of Williamsburg of South Jersey, where people may see how people lived in the past...
Batsto Mansion
Ore boat excavated from Batsto Lake.
Bog Ore, it's there somewhere. Seriously.
The Mansion, again
Animals were kept here, or perhaps small children when they had been bad. Or maybe half-animal-half-children, like a Pig Boy or something...
Batsto Lake
Across the bridge to the sawmill...
The front of the sawmill, don't gears make everything better?
Blade city, population: me
A nice engine, some nice piles of wood...
'nother view of the inside
The back side of the sawmill
The bridge spanning the Batsto River, and the dam that creates Batsto Lake. To the right is a picture of a nice chunk of ice that had formed at the waterfall
More views of the Batsto River
To move ahead to Page 2, click here
To move waaay ahead to Page 3, click here