Club Chaos Eye Candy - Weymouth Furnance Park, NJ

You might think it’s all scrub pines and sand here at the Jersey Shore. But this area has played an important role in our nation’s history, and the evidence everywhere!

Just a short 30 minute drive from Manahawkin, NJ, you can find the Weymouth Furnace Park.

This 19^th Century south Jersey iron furnace produced iron from 'Bog Ore'. The Bog Ore was mined in the swamps surrounding the Great Egg Harbor River and brought to the furnace by small barges, poled along canals.

The Weymouth Furnace cast cannons and cannon balls for the War of 1812 and the first iron pipe for the City of Philadelphia. Stoves, pots and pans were also forged.

The site originally had a furnace, forge, gristmill, Methodist Church, sawmill, large owner's mansion, store, 20 workers' houses, a blacksmith shop, and a wheelwright.

In the 1860s, the forge had become obsolete as iron production methods improved and moved to areas where hard coal was plentiful.

A paper mill was then erected on the site, after the iron furnace closed in 1862. All operations at the Atlantic County site ceased in 1887.

Pack a lunch, bring your canoe or kayak or just walk the trails. Enjoy a few hours in the cool shade of the 11 acre Weymouth Furnace Park, Weymouth Road (Route 599), just off of the Black Horse Pike (Route 322) in northwestern Atlantic County.