Barnegat Lighthouse ("Old Barney")

Locally nicknamed "Old Barney," this historic lighthouse at the northern tip of Long Beach Island has guided mariners since 1859. The 172-foot tower replaced an earlier lighthouse that fell into the sea as the shoreline eroded.

Barnegat Lighthouse, locally known as "Old Barney," stands sentinel over some of the most treacherous waters on the Atlantic coast. Designed by Lieutenant George Meade—who would later defeat Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg—the 163-foot tower was commissioned on January 1, 1859, to warn mariners away from the deadly shifting sandbars and powerful currents of Barnegat Inlet. The waters here earned the grim nickname "Graveyard of the Atlantic," and the three families who inhabited the keeper's dwelling grew grimly accustomed to bodies washing ashore from shipwrecks at sea.

The most horrific tragedy associated with this coastline occurred on October 25, 1782, during the final months of the Revolutionary War. Captain John Bacon, the notorious leader of the Pine Robbers—Loyalist guerrillas who terrorized New Jersey from their hideouts in the Pine Barrens—received word that the Patriot privateer Alligator had discovered a grounded merchant ship carrying valuable hyson tea on the Barnegat Shoals. Under cover of darkness, Bacon led nine men in his whaleboat Hero's Revenge to the northern end of Long Beach Island, where Captain Andrew Steelman and approximately twenty-one sailors slept on the beach beside their salvage. What followed became known as the Long Beach Island Massacre: Bacon's men crept among the sleeping sailors and attacked with knives and bayonets, slitting throats and stabbing men in their bedrolls. Captain Steelman and most of his crew were butchered; only five survived the attack. To this day, visitors report tortured moaning and wailing rising from the dunes on quiet nights, while others have witnessed blurry apparitions of men in eighteenth-century sailor's clothing wandering the beach in the fog.

The ghostly couple who haunt the lighthouse itself met their end during a violent storm sometime in the late 1800s. According to local legend, they were aboard a ship caught in a nor'easter just offshore. As the vessel was evacuated, the husband—motivated by financial interest in the cargo—chose to stay aboard, and his wife refused to leave his side. They entrusted their infant daughter to a crew member who made it safely to shore. Though the ship survived the storm, both husband and wife froze to death during the bitter night. Their spirits now appear on clear, cold days in January and February. Young couples pushing baby strollers along the lighthouse grounds have encountered a man and woman dressed in period clothing from the late eighteenth century who approach to admire the child. After complimenting the baby's beauty and peering closely at its face, the couple's expressions turn to sorrow as they realize this is not their daughter—and they vanish into thin air.

The lighthouse's own history includes tragedy among its keepers. In 1928, Head Keeper Andrew E. Applegate drowned while fishing with his seventeen-year-old son Robert near the lighthouse. Applegate became entangled in a weighted fishing net and was pulled overboard; despite frantic rescue efforts by his son and three other men, he could not be revived. The keeper's ghost is said to still climb the 217 steps of the spiral staircase, maintaining his eternal vigil over the light.

Other paranormal claims include a 1905 report when a lighthouse keeper allegedly witnessed the infamous Jersey Devil perched atop the tower. According to the account, the keeper grabbed his shotgun and fired at the winged creature before it flew off into the nearby Pine Barrens.

Visitors can climb Old Barney today and take in the sweeping views of Long Beach Island and the inlet where so many perished. On clear winter days, those with strollers may want to pay attention to any strangers who approach to admire their baby—especially if they're dressed in clothing from another century.