The Vernon Township Historical Society announces the creation of the Western Highlands Scenic Byway, the eighth roadway in the State of New Jersey to have been given the official designation by the state Department of Transportation.

The Western Highlands Scenic Byway runs along Route 515, starting in Hardyston Township at Route 23, through Route 94 to the Warwick, N.Y. border, and also in a loop around Vernon Crossing, Sandhill, McPeek Roads and back onto Route 94 past the Mountain Creek resorts to the intersection with Route 515. The Western Highlands Scenic Byway was created, nominated, and sponsored by the Vernon Township Historical Society.

The Vernon Township Historical Society was the sponsor of the Scenic Byway nomination and took the project to fruition, along with former Vernon Township Environmental Commission Chairman Dennis Miranda. On July 29, 2014 after a presentation by the Historical Society in Trenton to state and federal highway officials, the New Jersey Department of Transportation unanimously designated the Western Highlands Scenic Byway as the state’s eighth official Scenic Byway. The seven other New Jersey Scenic Byways are Bayshore Heritage, Delaware River, Millstone Valley, The Palisades, Pine Barrens, Warren Heritage, and the Upper Freehold Historic Farmland Byway.

A New Jersey Scenic Byway is a transportation corridor that is regionally significant in one or more qualifying areas: scenic, natural, recreational, cultural, historic, or archaeological. The Western Highlands Scenic Byway’s intrinsic qualities are scenic and historic but also possess recreational, archaeological and natural qualities as well.

While the Western Highlands Scenic Byway possesses dozens of scenic and historic sites, some of the sites featured on the official state map are the Hamburg Mountain Wildlife Management Area, Mastodon Lake, the Cider Mill House, the 1800s Sea Captain’s House, St. Thomas Church circa 1847, the 1800s Rutherford Farm, the Hinchman/Rickey Farm circa 1770, the 1800s Price Homestead, the Appalachian Trail and Pinwheel Vista atop the trail on Wawayanda Mountain, Meadowburn National Register Site, the One-Room Schoolhouse at Price’s Switch Road, Kings Highway, the Black Creek National Register of Historic Places Site, the 1881 Railroad Depot at Vernon Crossing, the Sunset View House, the 1770 Simonson Drew House, Vernon Valley Farm, the 1700s Drew Farm, McAfee Bible Church circa 1921, Crystal Spring Resorts, the Hamburg Mountain Resort & Ski Areas, the 1700s Stewart House, the Sammis Farm, and the 1885 Alpine Haus.

Traversing through two communities along county, state, and local roadways, the byway was also approved by the Hardyston Township Council, the Vernon Township Council, and the Sussex County Board of Chosen Freeholders. Once declared a scenic byway, the sponsor – the Vernon Township Historical Society – must create a management plan for the corridor within five years. The management plan must include a scenic inventory, long-term management plan and maintenance recommendations, view shed management (including land use), economic benefits, funding needs and sources, and other relevant information.

A designated state scenic byway that is outstanding may also be submitted for nomination as a National Scenic Byway if it meets the requirements of the national program and may also be eligible for federal discretionary grant funds from the federal government. Scenic byways increase tourism and bolster their economic bases. An officially designated Scenic Byway is also added to the official state map.

INTRODUCTION TO THE

WESTERN HIGHLANDS SCENIC BYWAY

Prepared by Dennis Miranda

The proposed Western Highlands Scenic Byway is a 13-mile long series of rural south to north roads that hugs the spine of Hamburg Mountain along Route 515 and Route 94 in eastern Sussex County. Flowing through two municipalities, Vernon and Hardyston, the Western Highlands Scenic Byway is mostly a two-lane road reminiscent of country roads that were once common in New Jersey but long gone with the onset of suburban sprawl. To find similar roads through bucolic landscapes and mountain terrain, one would have to drive to upstate New York, New England, and the Maine coast.

Located in eastern Sussex County, the Route 515/94 corridor, if approved as the Western Highlands Scenic Byway, would become the first such designation north of Route 80 located in the protected New Jersey Highlands, the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, and a mere hour away from the New York metropolitan area. The proposed Western Highlands Scenic Byway appears to satisfy all the criterion required by the New Jersey Department of Transportation Scenic Byway Program: outstanding scenic, natural, cultural, historical, or archaeological values.

Vacationers from the New York City metropolitan area have relied upon the Route 515/94 corridor as the gateway and main roadway to and from Vernon Valley and the Vernon Township ski resorts for nearly 50 years. Paralleling the growth of the ski industry, a thriving bedroom community whose population stands today at over 27,000 from a low of 2,200 residents in 1960, according to the US. Census, also uses the Route 515/94 to commute daily from the jobs in urbanized counties farther east. Today, the Route 515/94 corridor is a busy thoroughfare during the peak commuting periods of the morning and evening but can be surprisingly quiet and peaceful during the height of the day.

INTRINSIC QUALITIES

Recreation

The proposed Western Highlands Scenic Byway embraces the best of active and passive recreational opportunities for the region if not the State of New Jersey. Golfing and skiing are probably the two most lucrative active sports that the local economy depends upon for revenue. The Crystal Springs Resort, based in Vernon and Hardyston Townships, provides a destination for active outdoor activities. Having acquired Mountain Creek Resort from Intrawest, the “mega” resort now boasts seven golf courses and two major networks of ski runs on Hamburg Mountain, less than a mile from the proposed byway. In fact, the Route 515/94 is the major artery to and from the Crystal Springs Resort where the bulk of tourists rely upon to get to their destination. Skiing, golfing, snowboarding, hiking and spa-related fitness are offered by the Crystal Springs Resort. A smaller ski resort located at Hidden Valley on Breakneck Mountain is merely minutes from the Rt. 515 junction with Breakneck Road.

Hunting, fishing, and trapping remain viable outdoor pursuits in the region. The Byway passes through thousands of acres of protected open space where wilderness conditions prevail. Varied wildlife habitats from pastoral fields to freshwater marsh to large tracts of mature woodlands provide havens for a great diversity of wildlife. Along the western portion of the Rt.515 corridor, the 2,857 acres of the Hamburg Mountain Wildlife Management Area share a border with nearly another 3,000 acres of the Newark Watershed, part of a 35,000-acre holding the City of Newark relies upon as its potable water source. Together, these lands are ideal hunting grounds for ducks, White tailed Deer, Turkey, small game, and even Ruffed Grouse.

Fishing is perhaps less of an avocation, yet there are plenty of pristine streams, lakes, and ponds that provide perfect settings for anglers. Green Swamp, Great Gorge Lake, Danny’s Pond, and Indian Pond are all accessible in the Hamburg Mountain Wildlife Management Area. The State of New Jersey stocks some of the lakes, while local resorts stock others. Pascack Creek, a headwater stream of the Pequannock River, is a little known trout stream that parallels the Route 515 corridor from its source to Route 23.

Hiking is another popular recreational pursuit in the region, with the Appalachian Trail bisecting the Route 515/94 byway in the heart of Vernon Valley. This important highlight of the Western Highlands Scenic Byway makes it part of any destination for day trippers since there is parking available, and a wheelchair accessible portion of the Appalachian Trail is found here, too. Hiking the Appalachian Trail in Vernon Valley can take one to Wawayanda State Park, where there is a well-established series of blazed and mapped trails encompassing over 60 miles throughout the 34,350-acre park; one of the secondary paths on Wawayanda Mountain ends at the Pinwheel Vista. Here on a clear day, one can see the obelisk at High Point State Park in the Kittatinnies to the west, the Shawangunks in New York to the northwest, the great massif of Slide, Cornell, and Wittenberg Mountains; the highest summits in the Catskills, and the knolls of Mount Adam and Eve, rising gently from the onion fields of Pine Island in New York. Ranging from easy to strenuous, all the trails within Wawayanda State Park have well travelled paths to follow and accessible parking areas.

Vernon Township is working on developing the Four Seasons Greenway, a north to south trail for hiking and biking. The goal one day is to bike continuously between Warwick, NY, to Hamburg, NJ, while providing for an alternate route for transportation. The trail is intended to be an easy biking for young and old. For the intrepid biker, Mountain Creek Resort runs the high strung Diablo Freeride Park, where bicyclers experience the wilds of Hamburg Mountain. Vernon Township has many miles of streetscapes dedicated for road bikes especially along the Route 515/94 stretch before the New York border.

The Western Highlands Scenic Byway may well provide the visitor with the best passive outdoor recreational opportunity anywhere in New Jersey. Bird watching, botanizing, searching for butterflies, or any other nature-based study are superior experiences anywhere along the byway. From the thousands of acres of contiguous forest in the mountains to the limestone woods, pastoral fields, and marshes of Vernon Valley, the Western Highlands Scenic Byway takes you to the last best wilderness area within an hour’s drive from New York City.

Natural Resources

When the State of New Jersey passed the Highlands Preservation Act in 2004, it resulted in the protection of the Highlands of New Jersey. For Hardyston and Vernon Townships, the Western Highlands Scenic Byway provides the traveler with an amazing array of natural features and wildlife that is now protected forever. Beginning at Route 23 and heading north, one is embraced by the thousands of acres of forest of the Newark Watershed and Hamburg Mountain Wildlife Management Area. Together with the lands of the Wawayanda State Park, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, and the Four Seasons Greenway, the area is home to the greatest richness of biodiversity in New Jersey; the region boasts 120 species of nesting bird, 45 species of mammal, 50 species of herb, and hundreds of different types of flora.

In Vernon Valley, the Western Highlands Scenic Byway hugs the eastern side against the slopes of Wawayanda Mountain. Formerly a prehistoric lake, Vernon Valley is now a mosaic of pastoral fields, old farms, abundant wetlands, forested groves, and various streams and creeks. A remnant feature of the prehistoric lake is the significant occurrence of limestone formations throughout the valley. The limestone’s alkalinity affects the local geology where seeps, meadows, and pools provide microhabitats for rare and imperiled species of plants and animals, such as the federally endangered Bog Turtle and Showy Lady’s Slipper.

Meanwhile, the region’s abundant wetlands associated with the Black Creek Marshes coupled with the Pochuck Creek bottomlands complex comprises the finest and mostly unspoiled wetlands in New Jersey, just a stone’s throw from the byway. These vast wetland complexes are largely unspoiled and protected due in part to ownership by Wawayanda State Park and the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.

For nature enthusiasts, the Western Highlands Scenic Byway simply acknowledges something that they already knew–the outstanding natural resources and biodiversity values of Vernon Valley are second to none in the State of New Jersey. As a last redoubt in New Jersey for many local populations of extremely rare, threatened, and endangered species, the region has been a destination for decades by those in search of a “wild” part of our Garden State.

Scenic Resources

From the junction with Route 23, the Route 515 corridor meanders through a mosaic of healthy climax deciduous forest, conifer plantations, cold running streams, and scattered wetlands. Some of the conifer plantations were planted from the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

Despite the high speed of daily commuters and other travelers this country road is bucolic and picturesque year round, harkening back to a different time when Sunday afternoon drives in the country were common. Subtle grays of winter give way to lush shades of green with the new growth of spring. In summer, the over story forest can create various degrees of cooling shade over the road while fall typically ushers in a kaleidoscope of color from the maples, oaks, hickories and ash trees. The most panoramic stretch begins at the crest of the Hamburg Mountain with the entrance on the west side of Route 515. Beginning here, Route 515 gently descends towards Vernon Valley where the familiar church steeple of the Vernon Town Center provides a striking appeal reminiscent of New England hamlets. On a clear day one can see the Great Valley in Orange County, New York, with two outlying mountains–Mount Adam and Mount Eve–rising amid the onion fields of Pine Island. Beyond, the Kittatinnies become the Shawagunks, setting a backdrop that runs from northwest to northeast to the horizon. On exceptionally clear days, the horizon extends to the remarkable massif, that of the Mount Wittenberg, Cornell, and Slide, which are the highest peaks in the Catskills at over 4,180 feet.

Arriving at the Vernon town center, one will find a number of historical sites including the Saint Thomas Episcopal Church built in the 17th century and the Cider Mill that dates from the 1800s. Here Route 515 merges with Route 94 where the Western Highlands Scenic Byway proceeds north to the New York State line. Through the farmland and pastoral landscapes of

Route 94/515, shadowed by Wawayanda Mountain to the east and the lower Pochuck Mountain ridge to the distant west, Vernon Valley remains a verdant sweeping viewshed of old time barns, scattered homesteads, grasslands, and corn fields.

Several miles north of the Vernon Town Center, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail crosses the Route 94/515 corridor. From here, the avid hiker, nature lover, curious seeker, or casual tourist can park in a small parking lot and either climb Wawayanda Mountain to the east or explore the groves, fields, wetlands, or overgrown wild areas to the west. Ascending Wawayanda Mountain is a strenuous, heart pumping climb where 700 feet is a mere half mile distance. On summit, one is rewarded by the spectacular 180-degree viewshed from the ledges and precipices of the Pinwheel Vista at 1,300 feet.

The Western Highlands Scenic Byway provides traveling visitors a scenic ride with historical, natural, recreational, cultural, and archaeological sites to explore.

WESTERN HIGHLANDS SCENIC BYWAY

CULTURAL AND HISTORIC RESOURCES

Prepared by Ronald J. Dupont Jr.

The Western Highlands Scenic Byway passes sites that preserve regional history, including five broad themes.

1) Rural Industry - The byway corridor includes the sites of historic mills, mines, forges, tanneries, and other industries that played an important role in the history of the region.

2) Historic Settlement - The byway corridor passes through four historic communities dating to the 18th century: Stockholm/Snufftown, Williamsville, Vernon Village, and Price’s Switch/DeKays. Many historic structures survive in these locales.

3) Conservation - The southern end of the byway corridor passes through two early and significant open space acquisitions: the City of Newark’s Pequannock Watershed, a 35,000 preserve purchased between the 1890s and the 1920s, and Hamburg Mountain Wildlife Management Area, acquired by the State of New Jersey in 1940.

4) Archaeology/Prehistory - The byway corridor includes sites that preserve important information about our prehistory and history, including Native American sites, and farms, mines, and mills from the 1800s.

5) Agriculture - The history of regional agriculture is told via the sites the byway passes, from 18th century mountain farms that later became forested watershed land, to large, permanently preserved farms in the Vernon Valley that remain commercially important to the present.

I. THE VILLAGE OF SNUFFTOWN/STOCKHOLM

The village of Stockholm (earlier called Snufftown) had its beginnings in the mid-18th century. Waterpower provided locations for various mills, and Snufftown’s position on the busy Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike (est. 1806, later Route 23) made it an important stopping point. At its zenith in the 1870s and 1880s, the hamlet included homes, farms, stores, hotels, mills, a tannery, a church, and a school. The City of Newark’s acquisition of the Pequannock Watershed led to much of the village being purchased and demolished, though many notable historic buildings survive.

Mile 0.0 Where Route 23 intersects Route 515, an original section of Old Route 23 runs parallel to the Pequannock River. Accessed from modern Route 23, this road preserves the scale and setting of the earlier mountain roadway. Notable sites/structures here include the archaeological remains and ruins of Windham Forge (operated c.1790-c.1880), an important local iron forge built by John O. Ford, and the Hiram Strait Homestead and Wheelwright Shop (c.1800), notable early structures.

At the corner of Routes 23 and 515 is “Savannahs”, a restaurant located in a historic complex of buildings that was originally Lewis Hillside Villa (1927), which provided food, refreshment, and recreation to early travelers to the Jersey highlands; for many years it was Jorgensen’s Restaurant.

County Route 515 immediately crosses the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad, originally the New Jersey Midland Railroad (1873), which provided a great economic stimulus to the area when it arrived, allowing iron ore, farm products, and other goods to be shipped out. It also provided greatly improved access to the region for vacationers.

Route 515, traditionally known as the Vernon-Stockholm Road, was first surveyed as a public highway in 1768, by which time settlement of the area was already underway. It was improved at various times over the years, most notably by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1935, when the road assumed its present form. Concrete bridges along the route bear the date “1935.”

Mile 0.3 One of the most notable historic structures here is the Stockholm United Methodist Church (1826), which was listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places in 1976 as an outstandingly well-preserved example of an early 19th century church. Across the street, at the location of the former Stockholm School (later Hardyston Municipal Building) is a commemorative marker placed by the County of Sussex:

“SNUFFTOWN-STOCKHOLM"

Settled c.1750. Named from early inhabitants' fondness of snuff tobacco, or perhaps because "snuff" was euphemism for liquor. Windham, Stockholm, and other important forges produced iron goods. Paterson & Hamburg Turnpike (organized here 1806) brought trade and hotels. New Jersey Midland Railroad (1873) took “Stockholm” (originally a hamlet one mile eastward) for its station name, which gradually replaced “Snufftown.” Much of village razed following establishment of Newark's Pequannock Watershed c.1900. Stockholm Methodist Church (1826) is listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. Stockholm School, later Municipal Building (1882) is another landmark.”

Mile 0.4 An ornate stone wall along Route 515 is all that marks the location of the Kincaid House Hotel (c.1811/rebuilt 1884), an elaborate Victorian resort hotel that catered to summer visitors, particularly in the years after the railroad came to Stockholm. Other nearby Stockholm resorts included Edsall’s Pequannock House Hotel and the Utter Hotel. All were demolished after being sold between c.1900 and c.1920 to the City of Newark, acquiring watershed land in the area.

Mile 0.5 At the north corner Route 515 and Snufftown Road is the George Walther House, also called the New Walther House, built c.1857, a well-preserved example of a mid-19th century home. It is so called to distinguish it from another historic structure due north of it, Walther’s prior dwelling the Old Walther House (pre-1800). Walther’s trade was tanning; opposite the New Walther House is the Old Tannery, the last surviving structure of Walther’s operations.

II. PEQUANNOCK WATERSHED & FORMER SETTLEMENT OF WILLIAMSVILLE

The hamlet of Williamsville, a scattered settlement of farms, was located along Route 515 from the late 18th century through the first decades of the 20th century. At that time, most of the land was acquired by the City of Newark for its watershed, the farms and homes scrapped, moved, or demolished, and the fields allowed to revert to forest.

Mile 0.6 Leaving Stockholm, the byway enters the Pequannock Watershed. The City of Newark began acquiring a watershed for a series of reservoirs along the upper Pequannock River in the late 1880s. The area was chosen for the quality of its water and generally sparse settlement. Purchases continued through the 1920s, which ultimately created at 35,000-acre watershed protecting four man-made reservoirs (Clinton, Oak Ridge, Canistear, and Charlotteburg) providing drinking water for New Jersey’s largest city.

While the establishment of the watershed was for the practical purpose of protecting their drinking water supply, the City also realized (as noted in one 1913 history) that they were “creating in the Pequannock Watershed one of the most beautiful parks in the whole Eastern United States, a park in which the natural beauties of this rugged country will be maintained.” The byway crosses six miles of almost uninterrupted forest through the watershed and does indeed preserve the rugged beauty of the area. The Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation now manages the land.

Mile 2.2 The Hamburg Pike, an early 19th century mountain turnpike, turns off to the left (northwest). Originally a cross-mountain thoroughfare with a tollgate midway between here and Hardystonville, it has now reverted to a woods road.

Mile 2.4 Cross a branch of Pequannock River. In the 18th century, it was called the “Pompton River,” as Pompton Township at that time extended all the way to the nearby Passaic County line. It was later called the Pequannock River after Pequannock Township, near Pompton Plains in Morris County, whence it flows. The name “Pequannock” is said to derive from the Lenape word “Paquettahhnuake,” meaning “cleared land,” and originally applied to the area of Pequannock Township.

Mile 2.6 The Colonel John Seward Homestead stood on the west side of the road near here. Seward was a prominent 18th century settler and a vigorous patriot during the American Revolution (See “Tory Hill” below). In 1827 the family sold their 1,088-acre tract to Stephen F. Margarum and moved north to nearby Florida, New York, where Colonel Seward’s grandson William Henry Seward (New York governor, Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln, and primary force behind the U.S. purchase of Alaska) was born. The original Seward Homestead was replaced c.1875 by the Noah H. Margarum house, which itself was torn down when the property was acquired by the City of Newark.

Mile 2.8 The road to Canistear Reservoir (originally the village of Canistear) goes off to the northeast.

Mile 2.9 The David F. Margarum Farm on the left side of the byway here is the only surviving 19th century farmstead along Route 515 in the Pequannock Watershed. Located on a branch of the Pequannock called Seward’s Creek, a large stone dam (breached) on the other side of Route 515 testifies to early industry here, which included a gristmill, sawmill, and forge. The Margarum family refused to sell their property to the City of Newark; the house and barn are now privately owned, and the remainder of the property became High Breeze Estates. Some 19th century maps call this area “Smithville.”

Mile 3.9 The byway enters Vernon Township, established 1792.

Mile 4.1 The byway here passes over a rise of ground historically known as Tory Hill, which originally included a 15-foot high crag called Tory Rock. During the American Revolution, this remote spot was the rendezvous for local Loyalists plotting guerilla actions, hence its name. Colonel John Seward, famed for his bravery, undertook numerous successful efforts to squash Tory actions in the area. Many of these incidents became part of the region’s folklore, and Colonel Seward became known as “The Terror of Tories.” Tory Rock itself was lost to a road widening project c.1960.

Mile 4.2 A clearing on the east side of the road is all that remains of the Farber Homestead. German immigrant Paul Farber settled here c.1785; the original homestead burned a century ago, around the time the property was acquired by Newark. It was replaced by a structure relocated from elsewhere in the watershed, which was demolished c.2000.

Mile 4.4 A road to the east goes to the Farber Cemetery, a small burying ground containing the graves of Elizabeth Farber (died 1842 aged 81) and her husband Paul Farber (1765-1848).

Mile 5.0 Crossing a bridge over the Pequannock, the byway passes near the foundations of the Williamsville School, on the west side of the road, that operated here from c.1850 until 1920. This small local schoolhouse was sold for scrap after Newark acquired the property. Upstream is “The Falls,” a small natural waterfall above which lies the remains of an old dam. The WPA-built Bridge here bears the date “1935.”

Mile 5.3 Stands of evergreens planted in orderly rows here testify to reforestation efforts by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s; they replanted a number of abandoned fields in the watershed along this road in white pine, tamarack, and other species.

Mile 5.6 An old woods road exits to the east; on the corner here was the Williamsville Store (c.1850-c.1910). The road continues east to the Williams Mine (c.1815), an iron mine that operated through the 1880s and was economically important to the community. Mine shafts and the ruins of stone buildings and ore roasters survive, along with the foundations of four company-owned workers houses.

Mile 6.0 Reach the entrance to Hamburg Mountain Wildlife Management Area, a nearly 3,000-acre preserve established in 1940 to provide land for public hunting. Bethlehem Steel, who also owned limestone quarries near McAfee, previously owned the vast forest tract. Among the documented historic sites located in the area are a 19th century limekiln and the sites of several early homesteads.

III. CONWAY’S CORNERS & SISCO HILL

The region of Route 515 north of the Pequannock Watershed includes several locales. The area around Route 515 and Highland Lakes Road (Route 638) was part of the Conway farm; the family operated a general store here, and the spot was called Conway’s Corners. Further north, where the road becomes steep, was the Grant Sisco farm, which led this spot to be called Sisco Hill.

Mile 6.7 Highland Lakes Road (Route 638) turns east. This area was historically called Conway’s Corners, and earlier, Wildcat Corners. The Conway Store (c.1939), now a private residence (with a large billboard on its southern side), still stands at the intersection; just north is the Webb Homestead, a c.1900 replacement of a c.1800 farmhouse built by David Webb that was destroyed by fire. It is now the Cerratto residence, and an antiques store. Charles and Agnes Conway acquired the Webb farm here in the early 20th century.

Just up Route 638 is Mastodon Lake. In 1954, owner Gus Ohberg was dredging a pond on the property when he uncovered the skull of a mastodon dating to 8,000 B.C. The skeleton was excavated by the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, where it is currently on display. The property is a Vernon Township landmark.

Further up Route 638, near a sharp bend, is the Williamsville Cemetery, a local burying ground in use from the 1820s until 1895. The cemetery sits off an old woods road, with roughly sixty marked graves.

Mile 7.3 The John Garlinghouse Home, a mid-19th century farmhouse with 20th century additions to front and rear, stands here, along with its adjacent barn.

Mile 7.4 The Stehli Farm, growing Christmas trees, represents one of the last agriculturally active tracts in the area. It was purchased by Edgar Stehli, a noted actor on the Broadway stage (“Arsenic and Old Lace”), on television (“Twilight Zone”), in radio (“Buck Rogers”) and on film (“The Brothers Karamazov”), in 1929, and remains in the family. Historically, it represents the notable trend of city people acquiring small rural farms as vacation properties in the early 20th century.

Mile 7.7 The steep hill here is traditionally called Sisco Hill. The vista across the Vernon Valley into Warwick, New York, from Wawayanda Mountain west to Pochuck Mountain, has been noted since the 19th century. It was the subject of an engraving in the 1856 Geological Survey of New Jersey. In 1932, the same view was depicted in one of Robert L. Dickinson’s famous pen-and-ink sketches for the first edition of The New York Walk Book. It has remained the subject of color postcards from the 1950s to the present day.

Mile 7.9 Going down Sisco Hill here the byway passes a c.1790 white clapboard farmhouse on the left, formerly called Cedar Crest Farm. The Wood, Hunt, and Parker families owned it over the years. William D. Parker was Vernon Township clerk in the early 1900s; the house passed to his son-in-law Grant Sisco, who held the same position from the 1930s through the 1950s. Anyone needing to conduct business with the Township Clerk during those years came here, as both men ran the office out of their house. The NJDOT determined in 2008 that the “Hunt-Wood-Parker Farmstead” is eligible for the State and National Register of Historic Places. Its large, historic barn also survives.

Mile 8.0 Breakneck Road comes down from the right. The ominous name is a reflection of its steepness; “Breakneck” has been applied to the road and the mountain here since at least 1860.

IV. VERNON VILLAGE

Located at the junction of the Vernon-Stockholm Road and Route 94 (originally a King’s Highway, dating to the 1730s), Vernon Village had become a notable location by the time of the Revolutionary War. It remained an important regional center, although the arrival of the railroad in 1881 did little to boost its fortunes. Many structures from the 18th to the early 20th century survive, preserving the village’s heritage.

Mile 8.1 Just before entering Vernon Village, the byway passes The Cider Mill House, originally the William Crampton House. The structure on the right is a c.1770 homestead (one of Vernon’s oldest and best-preserved), while that on the left is a c.1900 steam-powered cider mill with a c.1960 addition. In 2008 the NJDOT declared the structure eligible for the State and National Register of Historic Places.

In Vernon Village proper, historic structures include the Vernon Board of Education Building/originally the Vernon School (1903) (declared a Township Landmark); the Vibbert Outkitchen (c.1790), now Weichert Realty; the Vibbert House, a.k.a. The Sea Captain’s House (c.1775/1810), declared eligible for the State and National Registers in 1988; the Denton-Wallace Homestead (c.1835), a Township Landmark with historic marker; St. Thomas Episcopal Church (1847), Vernon’s oldest church and a fine example of Carpenter Gothic; the adjacent Vernon Churchyard, burial ground for the Methodist and Episcopal churches; the Old Vernon Library (c.1850); the Old Methodist Parsonage (c.1840); the Edsall Homestead (c.1780); the Vernon Grange Store/ later Cardinal Art Gallery (c.1880); the Yanzer Homestead (c.1780); the Vernon Hotel / a.k.a. Vernon Inn (c.1830); the Shaw Homestead (c.1770); the Vernon United Methodist Church (1873); and the Denton Store a.k.a. The Mixing Bowl Restaurant (1883, relocated 1966).

V. MAPLE GRANGE, PRICE’S SWITCH & DE KAYS

Three locations along the northern end of the byway took their name from stops on the Lehigh & Hudson River Railroad—Maple Grange, the name originally applied to the Rutherfurd family estate near here, Price’s Switch, so called because of the railroad switch and siding built near the Price family property, and DeKay’s, located near the historic DeKay farm (a.k.a. the Wawayanda Homestead Farm) on DeKay Road.

Mile 9.6 The Van Dokkenburg Farm (c.1820) marks the beginning of a corridor of permanently preserved farmland stretching from here to the New York State line. It was originally a roughly 900-acre farm owned by the wealthy Rutherfurd family from the mid-1800s through the 1940s. It was then sold to the family of Wilbur Van Dokkenburg, a Dutch émigré. It is now preserved farmland (part of Wawayanda State Park), while the main house and barn (on right) remain private.

Mile 9.7 The Rutherfurd House (c.1872), on the left, formerly a tenant farmhouse, was originally built during the Rutherfurd family era, probably for use by the family soon after their nearby mansion, “Maple Grange,” burned in 1871.

Mile 10.0 Here the byway passes Burnt House Hill on the left, originally the site of the Rutherfurd mansion, “Maple Grange.” It was said to date to the Colonial era, when it was owned by the Hinchman family, who slaughtered thirteen oxen to feed the Continental Army when it camped here during the Revolutionary War. The foundations of the old mansion survive, along with the original Hinchman Cemetery as well as an adjacent Slave Cemetery. On the right is the historic Shingle Barn, a dairy barn that may have been the original carriage barn for “Maple Grange.”

Mile 10.1 Up Maple Grange Road is the Black Creek Site, an important Native American site containing archaeological remains from c.8,000 B.C. to the Contact Period. Now part of Wawayanda State Park, it was listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Mile 10.6 The Rickey Farm has been in the same family for nearly 200 years. The main farmhouse on the left dates to c.1850, while the large barn on the right is a good example of a “Wisconsin” style dairy barn of the 1930s.

Mile 10.8 The Appalachian Trail, 2,200 miles between Maine and Georgia, has passed through this area since 1925. The originally route crossed Route 94 near Maple Grange Road; the original/current route is from the early 1990s.

Mile 10.9 At the corner of Route 94 and Route 515 (a.k.a. Price’s Switch Road) stands the Price Homestead, a Mansard-roof Victorian home, and its nearby barns along Price’s Switch Road. Three generations of the Price family (Zachariah, Lewis, and Grant Price) lived here and gave their last name to the neighborhood. Price’s Switch and Meadowburn Road include a number of historic resources (see below).

Mile 11.6 The byway here passes the Hynard Farm, dating to c.1810, now the Theobald farm.

Mile 12.0 At DeKay Road the byway passes the Wawayanda Homestead Farm, the original DeKay family homestead, dating to 1827.

Mile 12.8 The New Jersey-New York State Line here was initially delineated in the 1600s, when the provinces were first established. However, it remained unsurveyed until 1774. The confusion and competing claims in the ensuing years caused considerable turmoil, including the 1750s “Border Wars,” which led to violence and lawsuits between New York and New Jersey claimants.

Price’s Switch and Meadowburn Roads Section of Byway

Mile 11.1 The byway crosses Lehigh & Hudson River Railroad (1880), which has since been absorbed into the New York, Susquehanna, & Western system.

Mile 11.2 On the north side of the road is the former Creamery Superintendent’s House (c.1893), which served the adjacent Price’s Switch Creamery (since demolished), at one time owned by Borden’s Dairy.

Mile 11.4 The byway crosses over Wawayanda Creek, which flows south out of New York state, through Vernon Valley, and joins Black and Pochuck Creeks before flowing north. The creek’s sinuous curves may be one explanation for the Native American origin of the name, said to mean “winding, winding stream.”

Mile 11.7 The byway Price’s Switch Schoolhouse (c.1840), at the intersection of Price’s Switch and Meadowburn Roads, was the last one-room school to operate in Sussex County. Originally operating near the Price Homestead, it was moved here c.1881 and operated until 1958. It contains all its original furnishings, outdoor privies, and coal shed. It has been designated an official Vernon Township Landmark.

Meadowburn Road north of here passes two significant historic sites. The Old Wawayanda Creek Site is a Native American archaeological site registered with the New Jersey State Museum. Near the State Line is Meadowburn Farm, notable as the home of gardening author Helena Rutherfurd Ely, who played an important role in popularizing perennial gardening in the early 20th century. It is listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places.

Mile 11.9 The Gilbert Drew III House (c.1850), on the right side of the byway, is an architecturally notable Victorian farmhouse in the Italianate style. The Drews were one of the most prominent early families in Vernon Township.

Mile 12.1 Canal Road was surveyed as a public highway in 1847, a decade or so after the Wawayanda Drainage Canal (which it crosses) was built. Most of the road was closed to public traffic after the surrounding land became Appalachian Trail parkland, c.1990. This has preserved the scale of earlier rural roadways here.

To the west is the Ring Quarry, a prehistoric chert quarry in a ridge of limestone cliffs that was utilized by Native Americans to obtain the special stone they used for projectile points, knife blades, scrapers, and other utensil.

Mile 12.5 The William Drew Homestead, a white clapboard farmhouse, stands on the left. It dates to c.1800.

Mile 12.9 The Edsall-Kadish Farm dates to the mid-18th century, when the Edsall family settled here. The original c.1750 dwelling was added to during the mid and late 19th century. In the 1940s Reuben Kadish, a noted New York artist of the Abstract Expressionist School and a friend of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko purchased it. His studio still stands at the rear of the property.

REFERENCES

A History of the City of Newark, 1666-1913. New York, NY: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1913.

Dupont, Ronald J., Jr. Vernon 200: A Bicentennial History of the Township of Vernon, NJ, 1792-1992. McAfee, NJ: Friends of the Dorothy E. Henry Library, 1992.

Wurst, Helen H. Hardyston Heritage in the Bicentennial Year, 1762-1976. Hardyston, NJ: Hardyston Township Bicentennial Committee, 1976.

Truran, William R. Images of America: Franklin, Hamburg, Ogdensburg, and Hardyston. Portsmouth, NH: Arcadia Publishing, 2004.

SCENIC BYWAY POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

Scenic Byway Presentation.pdf