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Boonton Township recently pointed out something most of us drive past without noticing: it is the only one of Morris County’s 39 municipalities without a single traffic signal. That got us digging. Morris County is older than the country, it hosted the first message ever sent by telegraph, and it holds a string of statewide and even national firsts. Here are 13 fun facts about Morris County, NJ, all checked against official and primary sources.
1. Boonton Township Has No Traffic Lights
According to the Township of Boonton, it is the only municipality of the 39 in Morris County that does not have a traffic signal. The township covers roughly 8 square miles of mostly wooded, residential land, and it has held onto its rural character even as the towns around it grew.
2. The Smallest Town Still Has a Stoplight
Victory Gardens is the smallest municipality in Morris County by both area and population, at just 0.15 square miles and 1,582 residents in the 2020 census. Even so, Boonton Township notes that Victory Gardens has a signalized intersection at South Salem Street and Franklin Road. The borough is also the most densely populated place in the county.
3. Victory Gardens Is Named for World War II Gardens
The Borough of Victory Gardens takes its name from the victory gardens families planted at homes and parks during World War II to grow extra fruits and vegetables. It broke off from Randolph Township and was incorporated as its own borough on September 18, 1951.
4. Rockaway Township Is More Than 300 Times Bigger
At the other end of the map, Rockaway Township is the largest municipality in Morris County by area, covering about 45.55 square miles. That is more than 300 times the size of Victory Gardens.
5. About One in Nine Residents Lives in Parsippany
Parsippany-Troy Hills is the most populous town in the county, with 56,162 residents in the 2020 census. Morris County as a whole counted 509,285 people that year, which means roughly one in every nine county residents calls Parsippany home.
6. Morris County Is Older Than the United States
Morris County was created on March 15, 1739, split off from Hunterdon County, more than 37 years before the Declaration of Independence. It was named for Colonel Lewis Morris, who was the governor of the Province of New Jersey at the time.
7. Washington’s Army Wintered Here Twice
The Continental Army made its winter camp in Morris County twice, first in 1777 and again in 1779 to 1780. That second stay is remembered as the “hard winter,” and it is often cited as the coldest on record in New Jersey. George Washington spent it headquartered at the Ford Mansion in Morristown, which you can still tour today at Washington’s Headquarters in Morristown.
8. It Is Home to America’s First National Historical Park
Morristown National Historical Park was established on March 2, 1933, in the final days of President Herbert Hoover’s term, making it the first national historical park in the country. It includes the Ford Mansion, Jockey Hollow, Fort Nonsense and the Washington’s Headquarters Museum. For more places like it, see our guide to the best historic sites in Morris County.
9. The Telegraph Made Its Debut in Morristown
On January 6, 1838, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail demonstrated their telegraph at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, sending a message over two miles of wire looped through the factory building. Alfred’s father, Judge Stephen Vail, wrote the message: “A patient waiter is no loser.” The site is preserved today as Historic Speedwell.
10. The Great Swamp Was Nearly a Jetport
In 1959, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey considered the Great Swamp as a site for a new commercial jet airport. Local residents fought back, raised $1 million and bought nearly 3,000 acres to donate to the federal government. The Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1960, and the Great Swamp Wilderness Act of 1968 made it the first wilderness area designated within the Department of the Interior. Today the refuge covers 7,768 acres.
11. We Share the Largest Lake in New Jersey
Lake Hopatcong is the largest freshwater lake in the state, with about 4 square miles of water and more than 50 miles of shoreline. It straddles Morris and Sussex counties and touches Mount Arlington, Jefferson Township and Roxbury Township on the Morris County side. It got this big because of the Morris Canal, which built a dam in 1831 that raised the water about 12 feet and merged two ponds into one lake. Our guide to the best lakes in Morris County covers where you can actually get on the water.
12. We Have the Largest County Park System in New Jersey
The Morris County Park Commission is the largest county park system in New Jersey by acreage, caring for more than 20,500 acres and over 250 miles of trails. It runs 39 facilities, the same number as there are towns in the county. Voters created the commission by referendum in 1956, and the highest ground in the county sits in the hills of western Jefferson Township near its Mahlon Dickerson Reservation, at roughly 1,395 feet above sea level.
13. The Modern Santa Claus Was Drawn in Morristown
Cartoonist Thomas Nast moved to Morristown in 1872 and lived at his home, Villa Fontana. Nast is credited with shaping the look of Santa Claus, taking him from a small, elfish figure in a brown fur suit toward the jolly, red-suited Santa we know today. He drew Christmas illustrations for Harper’s Weekly every year until 1886, and according to the Morristown and Morris Township Library, he often worked Morristown’s church spires into the backgrounds.
Know a Morris County fact we missed? Send it our way, and it might make the next list.
Featured photo: The Ford Mansion at Morristown National Historical Park. Photo by Shinya Suzuki, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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