New Jersey's Hidden History
20 Stops. One Extraordinary Lake.
The Celebrity Piano — Babe Ruth, Ginger Rogers, Jack Dempsey, Groucho Marx, and Frank Capra all signed the same piano at Joe Cook's lakeside estate.
The Dynamite Factory — The American Forcite Powder Company operated 130 buildings on 400 lakeside acres. In 1892, 7 workers were blown to bits. The concrete bunker walls are still in the brush.
Bertrand Island — NJ's first roller coaster (1925). The 1937 Miss America was first crowned Miss Bertrand Island. Woody Allen filmed here in 1983 — the same year the park closed forever.
Sunken Lenape Village — The Nariticong clan lived at the lake for 12,000 years. Their village is now 12 feet underwater — flooded when the Morris Canal raised the lake in 1831.
