Morristown is a pleasant New Jersey town about 30 miles west of Manhattan, best known for Morristown National Historical Park — the sites where George Washington and the Continental Army spent two brutal winters during the Revolutionary War.
The Jacob Ford Mansion served as Washington's headquarters during the winter of 1779–1780 and is the centrepiece of the park. The Jockey Hollow unit, a few miles south, preserves the encampment area where some 10,000 soldiers endured a winter worse than Valley Forge. Today it has over 27 miles of hiking trails through wooded hills — popular with locals and largely empty on weekdays.
Beyond the Revolutionary War history, Morristown has a walkable downtown green, good restaurants, and an easy train connection to New York Penn Station. The Morris Museum houses one of the world's finest collections of mechanical musical instruments. The Thomas Nast Home on MacCulloch Avenue is where the cartoonist invented Santa Claus, the Republican elephant, the Democratic donkey, and helped bring down Boss Tweed.