Facts about the Black Creek Site
The Black Creek Site in Vernon Township is listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. The site is one of only three Native American sites in New Jersey listed on the historic registers.
Artifacts found at the site date back 10,000 years. These artifacts represent the Early Archaic to the Late Woodland Periods
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 than 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.