South Mountain Reservation
South Mountain Reservation
New York City, of course, has Central Park . What about the people who live on the (New) Jersey side in very close quarters in cities like Newark, Irvington, the Oranges, Hoboken, Weehawken, Union City and the rest? Where do they go to picnic, fish, hike, or run their dogs?
Well, the obvious answer is the South Mountain Reservation, comprised of 2000 plus acres of wilderness between the first and second ridges of the Watchung Mountains. There are several overlooks along Crest Drive that offer dramatic vistas of New York’s financial towers in the distance. A mostly industrialized plain (including Newark’s Liberty Airport) lies directly below. Often, from these vantage points, the big city appears hazy and indistinct. This is the result of carbon emissions in combination with seasonal atmospheric conditions and tells of the frantic human activity that has defined this particular spot on the globe as the center of the universe for our species. Sometimes though, usually in mid-winter, when the air is cold and dry, New York looks so close, one feels one can almost touch it. It is then that the nexus between raw nature and man’s uncompromising geometric footprint seems most precarious and one is compelled to consider how both can co-exist; indeed, necessitating some workable peace between them if any semblance of balance between us and the natural world is to be maintained.
In 1896, John Durand, described South Mountain as “a wilderness, as it probably existed at the time of Hendrick Hudson, a primitive forest abounding with deer and other wild animals, and traversed by streams alive with trout. Game is plentiful – partridges, quail, woodcock, rabbits, squirrels of every species, raccoons and foxes – while occasionally a hungry bear that had trespassed on the farmyards in the vicinity would be tracked to its den and shot.”
The Reservation has changed precious little since then. Live timber abounds; a variety of hardwoods, towering tall above streams, creeks and ponds. The west branch of the Rahway River flows through the valley. A reservoir and watershed, annually stocked with fish, lies in the north-eastern quadrant.
We usually parked the car on the Millburn side. Then, we’d cross the river and head on up the mountain. My father enjoyed walking along the paths of the reservation for as long back as I can remember. He worked in a pharmaceutical laboratory all week and looked forward to hitting the trails on weekends with his sons. Summer, winter, it hardly mattered. Excepting rain, any day was a good day to breathe the fresh air and teach us boys about all the plants he had come to know. Occasionally, we’d spot a deer in the wild. Of course, in those days a whole pack of them was corralled inside a fenced-in area at the top of the mountain, pressing their noses hard up against the wire, begging for anything they could force down their ravenous gullets. Last time I was up there the area had been converted to a dog park.
From the (former) deer paddock on, most of Crest Drive has been closed to vehicular traffic so as to allow for a leisurely walk down to Washington Rock. This is the Park’s only genuine Revolutionary War historic site, dating back to the late 1700′s. General George Washington commissioned Signal Station 9 to be built there (one of 23 such beacons) for the purpose of monitoring British troop movements on the plain below.
It was from this outlook that, on June 23, 1780, Essex County and Newark Militia first warned that the British were advancing westward toward (what is now called) “Hobart Gap”. Their goal was believed to be Washington’s encamped at Jockey Hollow near Morristown. Colonial troops intervened, stopping the British advance in a bitter fight at the base of the mountain. Forced to abandon their effort, British troops would then go on to torch the town of Springfield before retreating, never to set foot on New Jersey soil again. Washington Rock would serve again as a lookout for the Army when reactivated during the War of 1812.
For additional information, including directions and “Hike of the Week” go to: http://www.nynjtc.org/trails/record/20040226.html
Peter Koelliker pkoelliker8@yahoo.com
South Mountain Reservation photo attachment # 1:
1. South Mountain Reservation
2. Distant Thunder (Turtle Back Zoo)
3. Dog Run
4. A River Runs Through It
5. Overlook
South Mountain Reservation photo attachment# 2:
1. Broken Bridge
2. Life and Death
3. near Washington Rock
4. Fishing Hole
5. “Lest We Forget”