The Jonas Cattell Run Yearly Event

Haddonfield to National Park, NJ

Sign at the battlefield in National Park

Another top thing to do in the Philadelphia Area before you die….

The Jonas Cattell run occurs in October of every year. The reason why I have it on my list is because of the interesting story behind the legend.

View at National Park, NJ

So here’s the briefing….

Jonas Cattell 1/2 Lenni-Lenape and only 18 years old. Was taken into custody by the Hessians, in Haddonfield, NJ. October of 1777.

He had to spend the night in jail because he was caught past curfew. He overheard the Hessians and the British soldiers speaking about planning a surprise attack at Fort Mercer (currently National Park, NJ.) to overthrow the American patriots that were there.

The next morning, he was released from prison. Jonas Cattell was familiar with the trails (legend says he even built them) and ran from Haddonfield to National Park to warn our soldiers of the attack.

The American soldiers were outnumbered 3 to 1, but because of this warning from Jonas Cattell. They were able to defeat the British (and they annihilated them).

That’s the gist of it, tons of other stories about this cool dude. He’s pretty badass.

My son trying to crawl at National Park back in March

Another tidbit …

Cattell is also featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not for hand delivering a letter from Woodbury to Cape May and back (160 miles) on foot in only 2 days. That’s incredible!

Told ya, badass.

He is a real revolutionary legend. Not like Johnny Appleseed or Davy Crockett.

Jonas Cattell is the real deal.

Shot of the river walk with Philadelphia across the river

This event is ran every October in commemoration of his honor. It’s about 10 miles. They run from Haddonfield to the Red Bank Battlefield in National Park just like he did back in Oct. 1777.

Jonas Cattell is a true South Jersey hero.