Multidisciplinary Artist | Liminal Fiction | Alternate Reality Games
14. Ong’s Hat (Pine Barrens) The Pine Barrens have a special talent for producing places that feel half real and half rumor, and Ong’s Hat might be the best example. … Continue reading 14 Haunted and Creepy Places in New Jersey That Will Give You Goosebumps
Ong’s Hat© Patrick Tappe/Shutterstock.comTucked into the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, Ong’s Hat may be found on actual maps from the early days of the region. The small town finds … Continue reading 7 famous places that don’t actually exist
Among New Jersey’s most enigmatic vanished settlements, Ong’s Hat blurs the line between documented history and enduring folklore. You’ll find this Burlington County location first documented on a 1778 Hessian … Continue reading Ong’s Hat: Burlington County’s Enigmatic Lost Settlement
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■Incunabula: Ong’s Hat “Ong’s Hat” is considered one of the oldest urban legends originating on the internet, and is akin to a creepypasta or SCP. Ong’s Hat is a real … Continue reading 日常浸食型エンターテイメント：ARGの誕生と変遷【国内にARGが浸透するまで】
Ong’s Hat — Burlington County, Pine Barrens New Jersey’s most mysterious ghost town — little more than a wooded clearing deep in the Pinelands today. The most popular folk legend says … Continue reading My Dad took me on graveyard picnics in the Pine Barrens — and I’ve never gotten over it
From: THE COMMERCIAL VIABILITY OF ALTERNATE REALITY GAMES:A PROPOSED FRAMEWORK FOR PROFITABILITY AND SCALABILITY LINK: https://s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/pstorage-ryerson-5010877717/28138491/Robertson_LeeStahr_G.pdf
While most ghost towns fade quietly into history, Ong’s Hat has carved out a peculiar legacy that blends verifiable abandonment with decades of digital-age mythology. Located deep in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, this settlement vanished … Continue reading Ghost Towns Used As Movie Filming Locations In New Jersey: Ong’s Hat and Other Mysterious Abandoned Settlements
Ong’s Hat in New Jersey is a ghost town with strange legends, including disappearances and a supposed portal to another dimension. According to an urban legend (and a handful of … Continue reading Most People Have Long Forgotten About This Vacant Ghost Town In Rural New Jersey
Joseph Matheny learned the hard way what happens when this kind of thing works too well. His Ong’s Hat project, which started in the late 1980s as a collaborative fiction … Continue reading Nancy Guthrie and the gamification of crime
AUDIO – NON-FICTIONThis Is Not A Game: Season 1, ‘Portal to Utopia’ and ‘Joseph Matheny’ – Marc Fennell with Emma Weatherill Alex Lee and Suren Jayemanne hosted the awards, held … Continue reading AWGIE
The Unseen Internet Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse by Shira Chess In 2003, I had this idea that a book should be written chronicling the influence that psychedelic drugs … Continue reading The Unseen Internet
Some memories of future and past (time is a flat circle) I am including an old LEGO podcast about Galidor because Galidor will be a chapter in Art is War. I want to … Continue reading That damn Galidor and moar
FROM Why Locals Flock To Pine Barrens Towns In New Jersey To Explore Folklore And Legends Article By: Esme Whitman | January 13, 2026 Ong’s Hat is one of the most enigmatic locations … Continue reading Ong’s Hat: The Ghost Town That Became an Internet Legend
Friends over at RAWIllumination.net pointed out the inclusion of The “I” in the Triangle video on Tubi. Tom, the site admin, wrote to me for a comment, so I sloppily … Continue reading Robert Anton Wilson (and Joseph Matheny) on Tubi
The AP Strange Show This week’s show is a journey aboard the virtual Pequod as Joe Matheny and returning guest Leah Prime join AP in a discussion about the Herman … Continue reading Chasing the White Whale with Joe Matheny and Leah Prime
Explore Ong’s Hat, the real Pine Barrens ghost town behind the legendary 1980s–90s interdimensional cult myth and Joseph Matheny’s groundbreaking Incunabula/ARG that blurred fact and fiction, inspired The Blair Witch … Continue reading Ong’s Hat: The NJ Ghost Town That Invented Alternate Reality Games
@jeffreykoval has written a very flattering piece that covers my virtual appearance at the LHFF, which I very much enjoyed, so it’s satisfying to know the attendees got a lot … Continue reading in the footsteps of giants
Hi there, friends! This week, back on the show, is the brilliant, Joseph Matheny! Joseph and I have a granular look into UFO, “the phenomena”, starving for original stories, being … Continue reading Joseph Matheny Starving for Story
Some memories and anticipations and a new Mauve Zone The Mauve Zone #014 – Tucker Carlson’s Satanic Panic, and the Collapse of Counterculture Resistance Full Substack at https://josephmatheny.substack.com/p/visions-of-future-heavens-and-hells ***Begin transmission Joseph … Continue reading Visions of Future Heavens and Hells
It’s that time of the year again! Every Samhain, the Internet lights up (or darkens?) with spooky stories and inevitably, Ong’s Hat gets thrown into the mix. Here’s an entry … Continue reading Tales of perpetual fire, demons and ghosts haunt these creepy US towns
I’ll be making a virtual appearance at the Lambertville Halloween Film Festival on Sunday. October 19th @ 4:30pm Easternwww.acmescreeningroom.org/lhff Slides from the presentation
Where to get it PDF only on Google Reviews Ong’s Hat: COMPLEAT was an Amazon bestseller in two categories in 2025. If you’re looking for a book, this is not for … Continue reading Ong’s Hat: Compleat
I am happy to present my appearance on one of my favorite podcasts. If you like this one, consider joining their Patreon and gaining access to their Discord as a … Continue reading Unfolding Alternate Realities, Ong’s Hat, Synchronicity and more with Joseph Matheny
***Begin transmission Joseph Matheny, Willow Truman and Ken Eakins send you transmissions from the Mauve Zone. ‘AI’ is rotting our brains, are Magickal Orders preservation societies now, and dating is … Continue reading The Mauve Zone #013 – Jesus trapped in an LLM, Evil Dating and Dusty Magickal Orders
*LOUD AUDIBLE SIGH* “Ong’s Hat” might be the most bizarre early internet story that’s ever existed. It’s a mystery named after a ghost town called Ong’s Hat in New Jersey—a … Continue reading LEAKED Portal Experiments in New Jersey?
For a long time, Ong’s Hat, an abandoned ghost town in New Jersey, has been the subject of many urban legends and local folk tales, but it was also the … Continue reading Ong’s Hat: How did the First ARG Spiral out of Control?
Joseph Matheny 