Boonton Township () is a township in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 4,380,
Boonton Township was incorporated by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 11, 1867, from portions of Pequannock Township. The borough of Mountain Lakes was formed from portions of the township on March 3, 1924. The settlement was originally called "Boone-Towne" in 1761 in honor of the Colonial Governor Thomas Boone.
New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Boonton Township as the 4th best place to live in the state in its rankings of the "New Jersey's Top Towns 2011–2012.
History
Boonton Township's recorded history began about 1710 when William Penn, the Quaker land speculator, located in the northern valley his Lot No. 48, which contained of fields and woodlands. James Bollen, whose bordering "plantation" stretching south toward the Tourne was described as "situate on the fork of Rockaway with an Indian plantation in it," mapped his <span style="white-space:nowrap">1,507 acres (6 km<sup>2</sup>)</span> in 1715. In 1765 David Ogden purchased from Burnet and Skinner the Great Boonton Tract. When the Township of Boonton was created as of April 11, 1867 by "An Act to Divide the Township of Pequannoc in the County of Morris" most of Penn's Lot No. 48 and parts of the Bollen and Great Boonton Tracts fell within Boonton's boundary.
The first settler of proper record was Frederick DeMouth of French Huguenot extraction. By 1758, his Rockaway Valley plantation within the Penn Lot covered , and it was on this land that the large Stickle, Bott and Kincaid farms were to prosper in the far distant future. Frederick Miller of German Palatine birth bought extensive land (later day Dixon acres) within the Bollen piece at 13 shillings per acre. These founding families were closely followed by the Hoplers, Van Winkles, Cooks, Scotts, Peers, Stickles and Kanouses.
McCaffrey Lane, the oldest recorded thoroughfare in the area, was built in 1767 by Samuel Ogden of the Great Boonton Tract. In 1822, North Main Street was "cut" along the proposed Morris Canal route. In 1824, the Morris Canal and Banking Company was chartered with John Scott of Powerville, an important commissioner. Locks number 9, 10 and 11 were constructed in newly named Powerville.
The Powerville Hotel, still standing, was built near Lock Number 11 to accommodate both canal and transient trade. The hotel, owned by Nathan Hopkins, gained fame as a station on the pre-American Civil War Underground Railroad.
Geography
thumb|Dixon Homestead in Winter
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 8.50 square miles (22.01 km<sup>2</sup>), including 8.12 square miles (21.04 km<sup>2</sup>) of land and 0.38 square miles (0.97 km<sup>2</sup>) of water (4.41%).
The township borders the Morris County municipalities of Boonton, Denville Township, Kinnelon, Montville, Mountain Lakes and Rockaway Township.