Biohazard Cleanup Near Royce Run Hammonton, NJ

Hammonton is a town in Atlantic County famous as the self-proclaimed 'Blueberry Capital of the World.'

Hammonton was first settled by Europeans in 1812, when William Coffin built a home and ran a sawmill by Hammonton Lake; he bought the land and the mill in 1814.

The town is named for John Hammond Coffin, William Coffin's son, and the 'd' in the original spelling 'Hammondton' gradually disappeared over time.

The Camden and Atlantic Railroad arrived in 1854 and a Hammonton station was established in 1858, after which developers Charles K. Landis and Richard Byrnes promoted the town to new settlers.

Hammonton was incorporated as a town on March 5, 1866, from portions of Hamilton Township and Mullica Township, when its population was 1,422.

A wave of Italian immigration after incorporation made Italian-Americans a substantial share of Hammonton's population and shaped the town's enduring Italian-American heritage.

The entire town lies within the Pinelands National Reserve, the 1.1-million-acre reserve created by Congress in 1978 as the nation's first National Reserve, and the Pinelands' sandy soil is ideal for growing blueberries.

More than 50 farms in the Hammonton area produce over 80% of New Jersey's entire blueberry crop, upwards of 50 million pounds a year, and a single 1,300-acre farm in town is the largest blueberry grower in the Northeast.

Hammonton's first Blueberry Festival was held in 1953, and its successor, the Red, White and Blueberry Festival, has been held since 1987.

The 2020 United States census counted 14,711 people in 5,456 households in Hammonton, spread across 41.32 square miles of Pinelands.