Fewer Than 15 People Live In This Deserted NJ Town: Here's Why

NEW JERSEY — Jim Heigis moved to Walpack Township from Bergen County at 12 years old and was hit with culture shock when his parents enrolled him in a school with only 40 children, all in a one-room schoolhouse.

But now, 73 years later, Heigis has a profound love for the little town along the Delaware River.

"I love the land," Heigis said. "I don't need a city or that type of activity at all. I love the country."

Heigis's parents bought The Walpack Inn — a local rustic country restaurant — in 1949 when the family first moved there. They later passed the ownership to Heigis himself after he graduated from a hotel and restaurant school at the age of 23.

This was shortly before all of Walpack's residents were kicked out of their homes, forcing them to relocate because of a proposal that would essentially put the town under water.

The History Of Walpack Township

New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the U.S., so it may come as a shock that the Sussex County town now has only about 10 to 12 people living in it, according to Heigis.

Given the township's history, it's no wonder people often refer to it as "abandoned" or "spooky."

In 1955, the Army Corps of Engineers proposed building a dam on the Delaware River near Walpack Township, called the Tocks Island Dam, to control flooding in the area and to provide clean water to New York City and Philadelphia.

Back-to-back hurricanes in August 1955 brought record floods to the Delaware Valley, killing 100 people, according to NorthJersey.com.

The proposed Tocks Island Dam would create a 37-mile-long lake between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with a depth of up to 140 feet. It would have put most of the homes in Walpack Township under water.

The lake and land surrounding it would have been named the Tocks Island National Recreation Area.

But the dam was never built.

About 72,000 acres of land were acquired by condemnation and under eminent domain, which is when the government takes ownership of private property and converts it to public use. The Army Corps of Engineers and National Park Service ended up spending $100 million to buy homes, stores and churches on either side of the river.

Congress appropriated $400 million to build the dam and allocated $56 million to buy up the surrounding land.

As a result, about 8,000 people were evicted from their homes.

But when the time came to build the dam, engineers found that the rock underneath was unstable and not deep enough to construct a dam. That killed the Tocks Island Dam.

But the town's population has been declining ever since.

Walpack's population in 2020 was seven people, according to Cubit. In 1990 census data, the township had only 67 people.

Heigis said he was one of the people in the 1960s who fought against the dam's construction and was lucky the government did not buy his business. He believed a lot of older people were taken advantage of by the government, and his restaurant was spared because he was young at the time, and the inn was a growing business.

What's Walpack Like Now?

Few people still live in Walpack today, but Heigis said the National Park Service has done a lot to preserve the homes as much as possible because of their historical significance.

Still, there are some homes that are "beyond repair," he said.

"Every once in a while, the park service comes through and knocks [the homes] down and plants grass," Heigis said. "After a few years, old trees are growing up, and you'd never know a house was there."

The township has 65,000 acres of public land, and Heigis said he took up hunting, fishing and horseback riding, which were activities he had never taken up in Bergen County.

At the age of 85, Heigis still owns The Walpack Inn, but his daughter, Lara Darco, runs it. He said people from all over the state still come to the restaurant, which is slightly outside of Walpack.

"Your average person probably drives an hour, an hour and a half, to get here," Heigis said.

The inn offers a wide variety of food — from Friday oyster specials to soups, sandwiches, pastas, custom cocktails and more. Not to mention, it's surrounded by fantastic views of nature.

Stokes State Forest borders Walpack and contains many natural sites to explore. Visitors can enjoy rafting, canoeing, hiking, camping and more in the area.

A detailed history of the Walpack Inn and photos throughout the years can be found on its website.

Heigis said he once had a person come to the restaurant from Mahwah, about an hour and a half from Walpack, who said a lot of people often speak about Walpack as if it's a myth. Heigis found that funny.

Just because the town is secluded doesn't mean it isn't real, he said: "We're real. Come see us."