Estell Manor

Located in the vast Pine Barrens, this Atlantic County park contains abandoned buildings, ruins, and multiple cemeteries from the 19th century. The manor was once a thriving community before industry declined and residents departed.

Estell Manor Park encompasses 1,700 acres of New Jersey's Pine Barrens, a vast wilderness that has accumulated centuries of tragedy, industry, and supernatural lore. The land was first settled in 1687 by the Estell family, French Huguenots who fled religious persecution. By the 1820s, the Estellville Glassworks employed eighty men and boys, its furnaces roaring as skilled craftsmen blew molten glass into window panes shipped to cities along the East Coast. The factory closed in 1877, and the workers vanished into history—but many believe their spirits remained.

The park's darkest chapter came during World War I when the Bethlehem Loading Company constructed a massive ammunition plant here in 1918. Within months, the remote Pine Barrens were transformed into an industrial complex with factories, rail lines, and a company town called Belcoville housing thousands of workers. The plant produced 155mm artillery shells, but when the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, operations ceased almost overnight. By July 1919, the town and its 206 dwellings and 84 factory buildings were abandoned. The ghosts of this wartime industry—workers who died in accidents, soldiers who guarded the plant—are said to linger among the concrete ruins.

Paranormal investigators have documented extensive activity throughout the park. Atlantic County Paranormal Director Dave Larcombe, along with Paranormal Underground Project Director James Maitland and medium Stephen Edwards, have conducted multiple investigations of the area. Near the Estellville Methodist Church, built in 1834, they recorded "orb activity like crazy" and EVPs capturing screams and disembodied conversations. All three investigators reported encountering shadow people along Maple Avenue and near the park's lake. "That whole area, Estell Manor, has all kinds of activity," Larcombe stated. "If you can get them to let you into Atlantic County Park at night—you're going to see some stuff."

The Smith-Ireland Cemetery, hidden deep in the woods, contains graves dating to 1810, including Revolutionary War soldier Japhet Ireland. Visitors report an oppressive atmosphere among the worn headstones, many now sinking into the spongy ground. One hiker near the Estellville Glassworks ruins described feeling an invisible hand slide down their shoulder blade during a daytime visit—despite being completely alone. Another witness driving Route 50 at 2 AM watched a black figure emerge from the woods and walk into the road, only to vanish as their vehicle passed through the spot.

The Pine Barrens surrounding Estell Manor are also the legendary home of the Jersey Devil, a creature said to have been born in 1735 when a woman named Leeds cursed her thirteenth child, which transformed into a winged, hooved beast and flew up the chimney into the pines. Sightings of the creature have been reported in this area for nearly three centuries.

Not far from the park boundaries lies the Captain Emilio Carranza Memorial, honoring the 22-year-old Mexican aviator who crashed during an electrical storm on July 12, 1928. Searchers found him the next morning still clutching a flashlight, driven into his palm by the impact—he had been desperately seeking a place to land. Local legend claims that parking at the memorial gate, turning off your headlights, and calling out "Emilio" three times will summon the phantom lights of his aircraft. Witnesses have reported seeing lights "too high to be car lights and too low to be a plane" hovering above the trees, while others have captured photographs showing unexplained fog surrounding visitors at the monument.

The park remains open during daylight hours, but closes at dusk—though many say that is precisely when the spirits of Estell Manor emerge from the ruins, cemeteries, and the dark depths of the Pine Barrens.