Posted in New Jersey Attractions February 23, 2022 by

We Bet You Didn’t Know That New Jersey Is Home To The Only Martian Landing Site In North America

Talk about Halloween gone wrong! The War of the Worlds broadcast caused panic nationwide as the radio reported on a Martian invasion in New Jersey.

Grovers Mill is a small hamlet in West Windsor Township. It's a community that's tucked away in the heart of New Jersey, and it's world famous for being home to the only Martian invasion -- that we know about!
Wikimedia Commons
On Sunday, October 30, 1938, radio host Orson Welles and a small cast performed a re-telling of the science fiction tale The War of the Worlds. He changed around some of the story, so he was telling the tale of a Martian landing in Grovers Mill, leading to an invasion and the fall of New York City.

What Welles did not anticipate is that viewers took the work of fiction and entertainment as truth, and panic was stirred up across the country.
The broadcast took place as part of a Halloween special. Orson Welles had assembled a cast of voice actors, and the "news" of the alien invasion came in snippets, much like breaking news would.
Flickr / Jazz Guy
Many listeners missed the disclaimer at the beginning of the show explaining the premise, and so thousands panicked, believing it to be either a true Martian invasion, or perhaps an invasion from Germany, as the beginning of World War II was on the horizon.
Over six million listeners tuned into the program, and many truly believed that they were listening to the downfall of New Jersey, and thus, the United States.
Flickr / Jazz Guy
The backlash stunned Welles, who was 23 at the time. Thousands of newspapers reported the event in their headlines the next morning, claiming that the panic caused by the broadcast was wild and widespread.
Wikimedia Commons
Today, a monument to the moment that made Grovers Mill famous sits in Van Nest Park.
Wikimedia Commons
While the true impact of the broadcast is hard to measure, this spot is certainly special to anyone who grew up in the area.
After all, where else can you walk along the water and wonder just what it would actually be like if extraterrestrial creatures landed right here in our own backyard?
Flickr / Jazz Guy
The War of the Worlds Broadcast is easy to find online, and it's only about an hour long. Grab your headphones and head to Van Nest Park, and you can listen to it right in this famous Martian landing site.
Flickr / Jazz Guy

You can listen to the War of the Worlds broadcast on YouTube, if you’re interested in hearing what caused all of the hysteria.

Address: Martian Landing Site Marker, West Windsor Township, NJ 08550, USA