Ghost towns in NJ are a reminder of the state’s rich history and offer a glimpse into the past.
County and Current Town: Burlington County, Pemberton Township
ARTICLE LINK: https://jerseydigs.com/ghost-towns-in-nj/
Speaking of ghost stories…
Ong’s Hat is one of New Jersey’s most notorious locations. It’s the basis of a popular early “secret history” Internet conspiracy theory. Weird NJ promotes the theory it is a gateway to another dimension. Still others believe Ong’s Hat is a popular haunting ground of the Jersey Devil.
The legend of the Jersey Devil shouldn’t scare you from visiting this fascinating ghost town in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
The Ong family moved to Burlington County in the late 1600s. They found the area conducive for farming and harvesting cedars, and a town sprung up around them. The town remained in relative anonymity until a series of deaths and murders brought with them public intrigue — and future Pine Barrens legends.
The town was deserted by the 1920s, but some remnants of the former hamlet remain. Visit Ong’s Hat, and decide what is fact and fiction for yourself.
Ong’s Hat, or The Incunabula Papers, is a conspiracy theory that arose on the early internet. Combining cutting-edge science, mysticism, and obvious hokum, it intrigued thousands of people who tried to find out what it all meant. Today we uncover the secrets of Ong’s Hat, the man behind it, and the new art form it inadvertently birthed.
In this video, we explore the fascinating story of the Ong’s Hat deception and what it can teach us about the intersection of AI and urban myths. From its origins as a mysterious online forum to its enduring legacy as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked technological progress, the Ong’s Hat story is a gripping and thought-provoking case study in the power of storytelling and the perils of misinformation.
https://audio3.redcircle.com/episodes/371b280b-3467-4771-8d57-a776e96e6be7/stream.mp3?_=1
Ever start telling a story as a joke and it gets out of hand? People believe it no matter how much you swear you made it up and try to destroy your life? No, just Joseph Matheny? This week we tackle Ong’s Hat, the internets first honest to goodness hoax that took on a life of its own and to this day has people believing it is all true. They also believe the man claiming responsibility is just a government shill planted to throw us off the truth. And the story has everything: Weird religious cults, quantum physics, dimensional travel, hidden laboratories, luxurious silk top hats, carpet salesmen… We are banging on all cylinders! All that and more this week on the podcast that knows a thing or two about other dimensions… at least the Lower 4th Dimension… Hysteria 51!
LINK TO SHOW
In the 1980s, a writer and transmedia artist called Joseph Wayne Matheny, who was born on Christmas Eve in the early sixties, wrote The Incunabula Papers, a tale that follows a series of narratives about time travel, and tells the story of a gateway to a parallel dimension at Ong’s Hat. When Matheny stated that the books were mere fiction, many saw these denials as evidence of government intervention and suppression, and they continue to this day to accept the gateway as fact, despite the improbability of a door to another world.
The truth of Ong’s Hat will probably never be known, and its rise and fall – if it ever rose and fell – is lost to the decades that have wiped the town from today’s maps.
