Ong's Hat, New Jersey

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Ong's Hat, New Jersey is a ghost town founded in the 1800s. It would be largely unremarkable except for it being used as the setting for the Ong's Hat story.

According to legend, Ong's Hat was so named because one of its early residents, named Ong, perhaps in a drunken fit, once threw his dapper top hat into a high branch of a pine tree. The hat remained there for many years before eventually disintegrating.

Ong's Hat was also the name of a diner located in the vicinity of this town. The diner was in operation from the early 1980s to 1994, when it burned down in an accidental fire. The diner was refurbished and eventually reopened under a different name. Visitors to the Ong's Hat Diner may recall that a branch with a top hat perched in one of its boughs adorned its ceiling.