Located in rustic Warren County, New Jersey, situated alongside the Paulins Kill River, nestled at the foothill of Mount Tammany, we find our storybook-of-a-township. With a resident count of just under 6,000. This quaint Warren County community, aptly named for its good son, John. Blairstown.
John, the 19th Century industrialist. John, the railroad man. John, the philanthropist. This township, nationally reknowned for its bad son, Jason, was built upon successes attained by its good son, John.
Jason, the other son. The bad son. The very bad son.
Jason, a famous Hollywood creation. The star of a slasher series. Jason Voorhees. Circa the original 1980 film, Friday the 13th. This, the very bad son of Blairstown. The bad son of Blairstown who demonstrated oh-so-horrific tendencies.
This town, where, on any given Friday, when that Friday falls on the 13th of the month, you can get your very own painted-on horror face. You can get your very own painted-on machete wounds. Your horror face and your machete wounds, compliments of Zella Bella’s Gaggle of Giggles. At the museum. A Blairstown gala, inspired by the bad son.
In this town, you can even have your own Friday the 13th-themed wedding. A wedding, held on the 13th of a month when that 13th of the month lands on a Friday. A Friday the 13th wedding. A ceremony, inspired by the bad son.
The local brews here? Try Slasher Stout and Camp Crystal Lake Water. Adult beverages, again, inspired by that very bad son. Beverages poured at Buck Hill Brewery and Restaurant. On Route 94. In Blairstown.
On a Friday in Blairstown, when that Friday lands on the 13th of the month, you’ll find costume contests. Costume contests held at the township museum. On Main Street. In Blairstown.
Or, maybe catch a screening of the original Friday the 13th movie at Roy’s Hall on Main Street.
In the original Friday the 13th movie, you will see our Camp Crystal Lake counselor and cook – this character being, Annie – walking down Main Street in Blairstown. Walking right by Roy’s Hall. Annie is the first Friday the 13th victim. Killed by Mrs. Voorhees. That awful mother of the bad son.
And when you are visiting Blairstown, you just have to grab a bite to eat at the diner you see in the opening scenes of the original Friday the 13th – the Blairstown Diner.
When visiting Blairstown Diner, I strongly recommend adding their famous Death By Jason hot sauce on top of your eggs over easy!
Blairstown, New Jersey…
While Blairstown has indeed become every horror movie fan’s must-visit scene…its vibe-of-horror inspired by terrible behavior espoused, first, by a vengeful mother, then later, by her relentlessly evil son, Jadon, this charming town’s most important character isn’t Mrs. Voorhees. Nor is this town’s most important character Mrs. Voorhees’ son, Jason.
Rather, whereas Blairstown’s infamous son – I.e.: the bad son – is indeed Jason, Blairstown’s good son, would be John.
The good son…
The good son of Blairstown was an industrialist. Not a Hollywood killing machine. The good son of Blairstown was a railroad man. Not a slasher.
John Insley Blair. The good son of Blairstown. Our namesake for the township.
Blairstown, once Gravel Hill, once Smith’s Mill was incorporated in 1845. Renamed for its good son six years prior to the township’s incorporation. Named for John Insley Blair. In 1839. A township renaming undertaken to pay homage to the good son of Blairstown, John Insley Blair.
Johm Insley Blair, a very wealthy man. In fact, correlating late-19th century net worth, in relative terms, to 2025 dollars, to this day, John Insley Blair still ranks as the wealthiest New Jerseyan. The wealthiest New Jerseyan, all time.
At the core of Blairstown’s good son’s immense wealth you’ll find railroads. You will also find a tale of the good son’s acquisition of property from the United States government.
This good son, John Insley Blair, acquired nearly two million acres of land from the United States government. Acreage, on which, the good son proceeded to lay tracks for his Blairstown Railway.
And John Insley Blair’s railroad holdings did not begin and end with his regional home-based Blairstown Railway.
John Insley Blair, together with his partners, owned Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. As well as Union Pacific Railroad.
Atop the railroads he owned, John Insley Blair also held executive positions in numerous additional railroads. At one time, serving as president for sixteen railroads. While personally owning the most rail mileage in the world.
Blair, Wisconsin is named after the good son, John Insley Blair. The township naming of Blair, Wisconsin, attributed to John Insley Blair’s holdings of Green Bay and Minnesota Railroad stock.
Blair, Nebraska is also named after John Insley Blair. With Blair, Nebraska, once again, we find a link to the railroad.
John Insley Blair acquired 1,000 acres of land in Nebraska. John Insley Blair’s Nebraska acreage having been located in a section of the Cornhusker State that would go on to become Blair, Nebraska.
John Insley Blair’s Nebraska land acquisition took place once Sioux City and Pacific Railroad announced an extension of their rail line into Nebraska. The location of Sioux City and Pacific Railroad’s expansion over the Missouri River and into Nebraska? That 1,000-acre Nebraska land purchase by John Insley Blair.
Yet a railroad magnate, John Insley Blair had not only been.
Blairstown’s good son’s vision had also been cast upon cultivating new towns which could one day come to be alongside those train tracks Blair had laid. John Insley Blair’s railroad, in time leading to the development of nearly 100 trackside towns.
One of those trackside towns being, John Insley Blair’s hometown of Blairstown. This, the hometown of the good son, John. And this too, the hometown of the not-so-good son, Jason.
The very bad son…
The story of Friday the 13th – I.e.: the entrance of Blairstown’s very bad son into American culture – was written by Victor Miller. The original 1980 Friday the 13th film was produced by Sean Cunningham.
Miller’s original horror story was not titled Friday the 13th. Miller’s original title for his story-of-terror, a story which went on to feature the bad son Jason, had been titled, A Long Night At Camp Blood. It was the movie’s producer Sean Cunningham, who, during production, went with the changed, now-iconic title, Friday the 13th.
Interestingly, the appearance of bad son Jason in the 1980 film was not written into the original story by Miller. This idea for a villain who would go on to become the bad son of the series…this idea, for Jason to make his short cameo in the 1980 film, came about by way of a suggestion made to Cunningham by a makeup artist.
Jason, ascending from his aquatic slumber at the bottom of Crystal Lake, rising to vanquish the movie’s main character, Alice, during Alice’s dream. This sequence was actually an unplanned, late-phase movie add-on. Jason’s cameo in the 1980 film, never having been written into the original story by Miller.
The good son, and the bad son…
We know John Insley Blair to be Blairstown’s good son. And we know Jason Voorhees to be Blairstown’s bad son. Yet, by following Miller’s original storyline, Jason Voorhees would never have ended up becoming Blairstown’s bad son.
Inspired by the shock value thrill moviegoers witnessed in theatres while watching the 1976 film Carrie – as the hand rose up from the grave at the end of Carrie – it was a makeup artist’s ad-hoc, onset idea to create a parallel Carrie-like shocker for Friday the 13th. Culminating in, Jason rising up from the depths of Crystal Lake.
This scene, directly inspired by Carrie’s mother’s hand rising from that grave in Carrie. And with this added scene to Friday the 13th, what Miller had written into his original work – Jason, as a boy who drowned – was forever altered.
Jason, the boy who originally falls victim to a sad tragedy – his drowning in Crystal Lake – becomes the series killer. The series killer for the next 40-plus years.
In Victor Miller’s A Long Night At Camp Blood, Jason Voorhees is a victim. Never a killer.
Victor Miller never wrote Jason into his story – his story, which in turn, spawned the series – as a killer of any sorts. Victor Miller never created his Jason character to be evil.
So, while Blairstown is famous for the township’s good son, John, and for the township’s bad son, Jason, by following the original storyline in that which started it all for Friday the 13th – A Long Night At Camp Blood – there would have never been the existence of this bad son of Blairstown, Jason.
By following Miller’s original storyline, we would have the good son, John, and an unfortunate son, Jason. A tragedy.
Be it not for a creative, off-script, last minute idea introduced to Friday the 13th’s producer by a makeup artist, America would then not have had Blairstown’s hockey goalie-looking slasher. Then, if so, Blairstown would have had its good son, John, and its tragic son, Jason.
No hockey mask. Just the sad drowning of a young boy at a campground during the summer months. This drowning, then spurring on the subsequent killing spree enacted by the boy’s mother.
The original Friday the 13th killer – and, according to the story’s writer, the ONLY A Long Night At Camp Blood – Friday the 13th killer – Mrs. Voorhees.
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