Editing Boonton, New Jersey (section)

===Ironworks===
{{Main|Boonton Iron Works}}
The [[Boonton Iron Works]] were founded about 1770 by [[Samuel Ogden]] of Newark, New Jersey. Together with brothers, he purchased a {{convert|6|acre|m2|adj=on}} tract along the Rockaway River. Throughout the [[American Revolutionary War]], the Booneton Iron Works was busily engaged in supplying numerous miscellaneous iron products for the military. After the war, operations at Boonton were continued under [[John Jacob Faesch]] and his two sons, and, later, by William Scott. He tried to revive the declining business. In 1824, Scott's interest in rejuvenating the antiquated ironworks faded when he learned that the [[Morris Canal]] was soon to be constructed, and that it would bypass the community of Booneton {{convert|1|mi|km|adj=on}} or more away.

But the proximity of the canal to Booneton Falls made that site ideal for a large factory. In 1830, a group of businessmen in New York City incorporated as the New Jersey Iron Company, with a capitalization of $283,000. Machinery and ironworkers were imported from England, and with the erection of the mills, a new community, called Booneton Falls, began to be developed on the rugged hillside overlooking the river.

The community Main Street is unique in that it is pitched against a cliff overlooking the 'Hollow' of the Rockaway River. This was said to follow an old Native American trail, developed from a deer path along the hillside.

The new Iron Company flourished for nearly 50 years. The settlement of Booneton Falls—like the older Booneton downstream—was essentially a one-industry town. After the Company closed down its operations in 1876, the town was on the verge of collapse. Although several attempts—one by Joseph Wharton—were made to re-establish iron works on a smaller scale, none endured for any great length of time. In the 21st century, only vestiges of foundations and structures remain in the "Hollow" between Plane Street and the river, to remind Boonton of its own Iron Age.