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9 Historic Smithville Park Trails

County

Burlington

Endpoints

Historic Smithville Park visitor center at Meade Lane and Smithville Road to E. Railroad Ave., just west of Fir Lane (Eastampton Township)

Mileage

3.9

Roughness Index

2–3

Type

Rail-Trail/Greenway

Surfaces

Boardwalk, Dirt, Gravel, Sand, Wood Chips

The village of Smithville, upon which the Historic Smithville Park (open 8 a.m.–30 minutes after sunset) sits, has a long and colorful past—and some important connections to the history of bicycles in America. Originally settled by the Lenni-Lenape tribe, the land was taken over by a Colonial settler in 1676. A dam, sawmill, and gristmill were built during the Colonial period, making it ideal for the Shreve brothers to establish a textile factory and workers’ village when they bought the land in 1831. The factory eventually went bankrupt; in 1865, Hezekiah Bradley Smith bought the property and turned it into a modern industrial village to produce his woodworking machinery technology.