Early Bass River

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Early Bass River consisted mainly of large farms owned by the Mathis, Cranmer, and Allen families. There was no town as we know it today. The first area to be called Bass River was the present Pilgrim Lake Campground-Fir Bridge area. A sawmill and the old Bass River Hotel were built here before the Revolutionary War. The hotel housed a post office, tavern, and stagecoach stop on the much traveled stage road from Tuckerton to Philadelphia and was an important landmark in the area for many years. It closed in 1855 as a result of the town center shifting two miles down Allentown Road, now North Maple Avenue, to New Gretna.
[above passage quoted with author Pete Stemmer's permission from the Bass River Gazette, October 1998}]
Location: Bass River, NJ, USA

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