A butterfly lands on a wild Columbine plant at the
Black Creek Site.
A field view of the Black Creek Site in the Vernon Valley
Rick Patterson, above, discovered the Black Creek Site.
The Spirit Stone that Rick Patterson found at the
Black Creek Site is a Late Woodland Period effigy face.
Early Archaic Bifurcate Points found at the Black Creek Site
Some of the artifacts found at the Black Creek Site
Hammer stones, primitive tools, arrowheads, and spear points found at the Black Creek Site
More artifacts from the site
After the Black Creek Site was nominated for the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places, and despite specific advice from the State Historic Preservation Office and numerous archaeologists not to dig up the site, geologist Philip LaPorta, contracted and paid by the Township of Vernon, forged ahead using an invasive and destructive backhoe.
Native Americans from South Jersey and Pennsylvania gathered at the site while LaPorta did his backhoe dig.
On the ill-fated September 11, 2001, a group including Rick Patterson, Jessi Paladini, and Rita Pentenreider of Highland Lakes; archaeologist Cara Blume of Delaware; Chief Mark Gould, Tribal Council Leader Urie Ridgeway and Pat Rossello of the Bridgeton Lenape; Earl Evans of the Haliwa-Suponi Tribe of South Carolina; and Attorney Greg Werkheiser of Washington, D.C. (taking the photograph) went to Trenton for the hearing on the nomination of the Black Creek site for the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. Little did they know that another historic but sad event would take place on that day, postponing the hearing on the nomination until December of that same year.
Society President Jessi Paladini, Rick Patterson, Deb Israel, Greg Werkheiser, Rick Affleck, Barbara Maneri, and Earl Evans of the Black Creek Site preservation team accept the 2002 Historic Preservation Award for preserving and listing the Black Creek Site onto the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. Presenting the award at the New Jersey Statehouse in Trenton are state officials on the left and right.
Many Native Americans such as Steve King, an Oglala Sioux from Pine Ridge, SD, visit the Black Creek Site annually as a homage to the lost home of the Lenni Lenape, New Jersey’s first people. Lenape from all over the United States and Canada have visited the Black Creek Site as home.
Black Creek Site
Facts about the
Black Creek Site
The Black Creek Site is listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places.
Archaeologist Rick Patterson of Highland Lakes discovered the Black Creek Site in 1989. Patterson is an honorary life member of the Vernon Township Historical Society.
Patterson found more than 6,000 artifacts dating back 10,000 years at the Black Creek Site. These artifacts represent the Early Archaic to the Late Woodland Periods.
The site is one of only three Native American sites n New Jersey listed on the historic registers.
The Nanticoke Lenni Lenape Indians of New Jersey joined efforts with local residents to nominate and preserve the Black Creek Site.
Native Americans from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Canada have visited the Black Creek Site, making the Black Creek Site the unifying force for Lenape people throughout the United States and Canada.
Pro bono attorneys from the prestigious Washington D.C. law firm of Piper Rudnick donated more than $600,000 in legal services for the preservation of the Black Creek Site.
It took more 25 legal and legislative hearings before the Black Creek Site was listed on the historic registers and preserved.
The Black Creek Site preservation team won an award from the Sate of New Jersey in 2002.
The Vernon Township Historical Society thanks Dorothy Guzzo, director of the NJ Historic Preservation Office, and her staff for their dedication and effort in making the Black Creek Site a New Jersey and National Register listed site.
Highland Lakes archaeologist
Rick Patterson
Washington, D.C. attorney
Greg Werkheiser
Greg represented us pro bono. It was his first year as an attorney, just out of law school. For his work, he received the Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award. Greg gave us more than $650,000 in legal representation.
He was invaluable to us.
Thank you, Greg!
Chief Mark Gould of the Nanticoke Lenni Lenape Indians of New Jersey, which helped in the preservation effort of the Black Creek Site
Chief Mark Gould
Urie Ridgeway, a member of the Nanticoke Lenni Lenape Tribal Council, was the first of the Lenape tribe to visit Vernon Township to see the Black Creek Site and see a slide presentation hosted by Rick Patterson and Jessi Paladini that moved him to support the preservation effort and get his tribe behind the effort.
© J. Paladini
This is the Black Creek Site logo designed by Rick Patterson and Jessi Paladini. Here is what the logo represents:
a. The background is a photo of an actual Early Archaic point from the Black Creek site, the artifactual evidence left by the first people at the site (8,000 B.C.). The point is made of a rare, green Wallkill Valley flint. The point represents the hunting and stone tool making aspects of the site.
b. The foreground is the Late Woodland Period spirit stone recovered from the Black Creek Site. It is a Len’ape representation of God. The Late Woodland Period ends in the 1600s when contact with Europeans began. The stone represents the domestic and spiritual aspects of the site and is one of the last artifacts left at the site nearly 10,000 years after the Early Archaic Point in the background.
The logo is the symbol of five hundred generations of human history at the Black Creek Site.
LINKS ABOUT THE
BLACK CREEK SITE:
  1. •The Archaeology Channel
  2. •National Public Radio Interview
  3. •N.J. Historic Preservation Award
  4. •Nanticoke Lenni Lenape Indians of New Jersey