Fort Mott - Pennsville, NJ - Historic Forts on Waymarking.com

This is an amazing place to visit. The history is astounding. State employees wear period uniforms and they are extremely helpful and knowledgeable. This is one of the few parks that is both recreational and unbelievably educational. The fort is of course on the National Register of Historic Places.

Visitors can wander through the old batteries following interpretive signs with detailed descriptions of the fort. Just beyond the fortifications is the Delaware River. The shoreline offers good spots for walking and picnicking. The NJ Coastal Heritage Trail Welcome Center accommodates displays defining Fort Mott’s place in history and the environment. (Source: FNJDEP sire)

Troops were regularly stationed at Fort Mott from 1897 to 1922. The federal government maintained a caretaking detachment at the fort from 1922 to 1943. New Jersey acquired the military reservation as a historic site and State park in 1947. The park was opened to the public on June 24, 1951.

I am particularly fond of the American Guide Series and their descriptions of places from long ago. It feels like time traveling when reading the descriptions, imagining being there more than 70 years ago. Here's what they said:

"At 2.8 m. is (R) the entrance to Fort Mott (open daily in summer 8-5, in winter 8-4), one of the defenses placed along the Delaware early in the Civil War. Mines were strung across the river from this point in the Spanish-American War. Today the fort, its masonry walls hidden by the earth, is manned by a skeleton force. The landing pier at Fort Mott marks Finn's Point, the name if the locality for nearly 300 years. Here the Swedes built a fort about 1660, planting a colony believed to have included some of their Finnish subjects." --- New Jersey, a Guide to Its Present and Past, 1939; page 632