To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America, Salem County, NJ is developing a trail with interpretive signage at the County’s most significant Revolutionary-era historic sites. From the first naval action of the Revolution to the Treason Trails held at the Old Salem County Courthouse, learn all about Salem County’s role in the nation’s earliest days.

Organized in 1694, Salem County is older than the United States itself and entered the Revolutionary era as an already established Quaker-founded farming community. Though no major battles were fought there, its fields and marshes became a strategic pantry for both armies, supplying cattle and fodder to Washington’s starving troops at Valley Forge in 1778. British and Loyalist foraging raids triggered fierce local resistance, culminating in skirmishes like the Salem Raid, the Battle of Quinton’s Bridge, and the Hancock’s Bridge massacre that seared the war into county memory.