Mount Hope, New Jersey

Mount Hope is a section of Rockaway Township, New Jersey.

It was formerly an unincorporated iron mining village associated with the American Revolutionary War. Mining operations were said to have begun around 1710 and operated continuously through the 1970s. John Jacob Faesch was the first to develop Mount Hope into an iron plantation with the erection of a stone furnace in 1772 and operated the facility until his death in 1799. Various owners and leesee ran the furnace until 1831 when The Mount Hope Mining Company was incorporated in response to the opening of the Morris Canal and its transportation opportunities. Operations ceased from 1893 to 1899 due to financial panics, the opening of the Mesabi Range and cheaper imported iron ore from South America. Empire Steel & Iron Company bought the mine and reopened it in 1900. Additional companies and partnerships continued until its final closure in 1979.

Sources

• The Highlander Magazine "John Jacob Faesch, Ironmaster" by Ernst Kraus, 1974
• The Historical Society of Rockaway Township