If you want to find Ong’s Hat, you’ll have to find an old survey map because this deserted Pinelands town on the edge of Brendan T. Byrne State Forest doesn’t even rate a dot on new ones. But if you can find it, you’ll find lots of mystery.

There are a few theories about how the town got its name. Some think that Ong was a Chinese cook whose hat flew off when he was riding along in a stagecoach with a merchant. When they went to retrieve it, the merchant decided it was the perfect spot to build an inn.

Another theory is that Ong was an Indian who disappeared in the Pinelands wilderness and all that was left was his bloody hat.

But the two most popular theories focus on a local gent named Ong. In one version, Ong was a local ladies man who was fed up with his comments and she tossed his fine, silken top hat into a tree where it remained, untouched and unreachable. A twist on that story is that during an alcohol-infused evening, he tossed the hat himself thus giving the town its name.

Whatever its initial origins, the mystery of Ong’s Hat did not dissipate. Today, the ghost town is a subject of discussion amongst conspiracy theorists and others who believe it is a portal to interdimensional time travel. You figure it out.