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This history of the Ringwood plays a vital part in the identity of its residents. If you have lived in the area for many years, the history is a heartfelt reminder of days gone by. If you have just come to call Ringwood home, it is a way to learn more about the community you have joined. I would love nothing more than to be able to share the history of Ringwood with all who reside here. I have compiled a variety of historical information on this page; however, I am sure there is more out there. If you are interested in sharing what you know about Ringwood with the community all you hove to do is click the Add History button. |
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The story of Cupsaw Lake as told through their newsletter.The story of Cupsaw Lake is very much a story of Ringwood. It begins with the activities of Cornelius Board, agent for the British Lord Sterling, who in 1736, was the first to realize the potential of the North Jersey Highlands. Board erected a small furnace for the manufacture of iron from the rich deposits discovered by friendly Indians. Ringwood had it all -- the iron ore, the water power, and the virgin forests which fueled the iron works. Board sold some of his holdings to David Ogden of Newark, who formed the Ringwood Company in 1742.
In 1764, Peter Hasenclever, a German agent for a London-based company, bought the holdings of the Ringwood Company. He imported German iron workers, forgemen, furnacemen, charcoal burners, and masons to work in this new country. The names of some of these craftsmen -- Mann, DeGroat, Van Dunk and De Freese -- remain a part of present-day Ringwood.
Recognizing Ringwood's potential, Hasenclever's ambitions soon outstripped the money supply of his backers. In 1767, he was replaced by Robert Erskine, who was sent by the London company to straighten out the company's tangled affairs in Ringwood, Greenwood Lake, and other locations. Erskine was a Scottish mining engineer and cartographer who cast his lot with the Americans during the Revolution. He became Surveyor-General to General George Washington during that time, and under his direction the iron mines produced products essential to the Continental cause.
After the Revolution, the iron mines lay idle. And then, in 1807, Martin J. Ryerson of Pompton bought the Ringwood mines. Unfortunately, after his death in 1839, his sons, who inherited the ironworks, went into bankruptcy. In 1853, the Ringwood iron mines and furnaces were purchased by Peter Cooper, the New York industrialist who founded Cooper Union. He was the owner of the Trenton Iron Company, managed by Abram S. Hewitt. Together they erected a company town consisting of a general store, a tavern, a church and multifamily clapboard dwellings for the employees. It was this reactivation of the Ringwood iron industry that drew the Ramapo Mountain People and colored pioneers from Hackensack into the Wanaque River Valley. During the Civil War, Cooper, Hewitt & Company supplied gun carriages for the Union army. However, the difficulty of shipping out of the area would prove to be the ultimate downfall of the company's iron business.
In the nineteenth century, while the iron mines were still operating, several wealthy families built large estates in Ringwood. Abram Hewitt built the present Ringwood Manor House near the first manor house built by Peter Hasenclever. Francis Lynn Stetson, a corporate lawyer for JP Morgan, built the current Skylands Manor. These estates and the farms around them attracted more of the Ramapo Mountain people, as they supplied work while the iron mines were declining.
In 1905, the Ringwood Company was officially incorporated to provide for the administration of its large properties, now included in the Erskine Preserve. The Ringwood Company, seeing the transformation of the area from colonial iron plantation to nineteenth-century millionaires* estates to possible suburban development, was concerned that this *only suburban sector* of the New York Metropolitan district remain unexploited and unspoiled, and grow and develop in such a way as to promote its maximum possibilities for recreational and residential use. It began to oversee the development of the area, using as its base its old office in the Ringwood Manor.
In 1927, the Ringwood Company, under the leadership of Ogden Blackfar Hewitt, was a true real estate holding firm, and began to put into operation a plan to capitalize on its tremendous land holdings. A dam was built at the overflow of what was called Tice*s Pond in the vicinity of the Small Community House (now called Little Beach Clubhouse), thus creating Lake Erskine, an enlarged natural lake of about 90 acres.
Cupsaw Lake and Upper Lake came into existence around 1932. Dams were built, creating a 33-acre lake at Upper and a 65-acre lake at Cupsaw. In the late 1920*s and early 1930*s, the Ringwood Company began advertising lakefront lots for vacation cabins. The Ringwood Company*s own sawmill, located on Lake Erskine, supplied the logs, hauled by oxen, which were used in building the first log cabins.
In 1932, metropolitan papers carried the Ringwood Company's advertisement: 'Lakefront lots, $2000 each.' In Greenwood Lake, beautiful lots were going for only $95, but property in Ringwood was special and worth the extra.
Erskine Lake was touted as the sportsman's paradise. Here were small cabins for the man who liked to hunt in the autumn or fish in the spring from the brooks that gushed with water from the winter snows. Cupsaw attracted its share of sportsmen, but it was also noticed by those who were interested in relaxation and comradeship. It was like a private club where there were no fences and no clearly defined boundaries.
The predecessor of Erskine Lakes Property Owners' Association was the Erskine Lakes Country Club. It was formed in 1926 to promote good fellowship and recreation among the residents of the Erskine Lakes. The people who settled here, building and improving their summer homes, were chiefly middle class business and professional people who were able to afford two homes. They were generally well educated and helped to give the lakes a sense of stability and prestige. The Ringwood Company had an agreement with the Country Club that the Company would still own the property called 'Erskine Lakes', but residents were permitted to use it and the facilities upon it, such as the New Community House, the Old Community House, tennis and beaches.
In 1930, Ringwood's total population hovered around 1,000, and at that time there were 13 bungalows in the Erskine area. By 1933, the Country Club boasted of 100 members from Cupsaw and Erskine.
Up to 1935 there was always a gateman present at the Erskine entrance along Ringwood Avenue to ask the destination of travelers coming into the lakes. For several years, a sign bearing the notice 'Restricted Christian Community' stood at the entrance. This was removed in 1939 due to political events in Europe.
Website:www.cupsawlake.com -
A Brief History of Ringwood by Elbertus ProlRingwood is located in the heart of the Ramapo Mountians at the eastern end of New Jersey. It is known as the Highlands and contains what geologists consider to be the oldest rock formations in the world.
The origin of the Borough's name is thought to have been selected because the location is 'ringed' with wooded hills, or it might have been taken from our present sister city; Ringwood, Hampshire, England.
Before the Europena settlement of this region, the Leni-Lenape and a sub-tribe, the Minsi Indians, dwelt in the Pompton area. Ringwood was their hunting and fishing area and they would camp here for months at a time. Camp sites have been located in Stonetown and the State Park. The arrival of the Europeans, notably the Dutch, and the English, signaled the end of Indian Life in this area.
Sometime around 1740, Cornelius Board, a Welsh miner who had erected a small furnace in Sterling Pond, New York, and the Ogdens of New York, each purchased land in Ringwood. While the Boards' operation was small, the Ogdens' erected a furnace in 1742 and became the first volume producer of iron in the area. The Ogden's named their enterprise 'The Ringwood Company', which name is still in existence. The Ringwood Company also produced shot for the French and Indian War.
In 1765 Peter Hasenclever bought the Ringwood Company and established Ringwood as the headquarter's for a far-flung industrial empire and conglomerate. He created several iron works in the area, importing over 500 workers from Germany and England along with native whites, both free and slave blacks and an occasional Indian. Hasenclever lived in Ringwood near where the present mansion stands.
1771 saw the arrival of Robert Erskine, F.R.S., a brilliant Scottish engineer who took over the management of the company. Erskine was personally appointed Geographer and Surveyor General by George Washington in 1777, and he produced upwards of 250 maps, which were Ringwood's contribution to the war effort militarily.
Ringwood was not unknown to General Washington, who not only admired it for it's scenic beauty. He visited Ringwood at least four times during the Revolution. On one occasion, in the company of Mrs. Washington, he planted an oak at Erskine's tomb; and later, during his presidency he proposed the Ringwood area as part of a 200,000-acre National Natural Preserve.
Ringwood was never confiscated during the Revolution; it does not appear on the lists of confiscated lands in New Jersey or of the Government. The land remained in American Iron Company hands until 1804. In 1807, Martin J. Ryerson purchased Ringwood and Long Pond. Ryerson produced shot for the US war effort during the War of 1812. His sons, lacking the business acumen of their father, sold the property in1854 to Abram S. Hewitt, agent of the Cooper Hewitt & Company, the principal shareholder being Peter Cooper. They bought RIngwood for it's vast reserves of iron and operated the mine until 1931, providing iron for the Civil War and other large projects like the US Capitol Dome and the Brooklyn Bridge.
The Mines were sold to the US Government for possible use during World War II. After and expeditionary of some $4,000,000.00, the War over, the mines were sold. They operated intermittently until 1957 when they closed. Toward the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the population of Ringwood consisted of the wealthy families located on estates consisting of holdings of a few hundred acres to the 33,000 acre estate named 'The Forge and Manor of Ringwood.' Here homes were provided for mine workers and farmhands in the company owned housing known today as Upper Ringwood. Today, much of this land has passed from the private sector into the public trust, retaining the scenic beauty that is RIngwood.
The Borough of Ringwood was incorporated on February 23, 1918, being taken from a 'portion of the Township of Pompton.' The first organized meeting of the Borough Council took place in the existing Borough Hall which was provided by the Ringwood Company, on May 6, 1918. This parcel was transferred to permanent Borough custody upon the death of Erskine Hewitt in 1936.
In the late 1920's and early 1930's, the Ringwood Company Reorganized to a land company which advertised lake-front lots for vacation cabins. The beautiful location attracted city dwellers for a 'weekend in the country.' This initiated the needs for road, electricity, police and fire protection.
In 1920, construction of a 29 billion gallon capacity reserviour commenced and was completed in 1928. Even though 2/3rds ofthe Wanaque Reserviour lied in Ringwood proper, waters were directed south until recently, when the Borough was permitted to pump water for it's use. In dry season, the Wanaque River Valley and the foundations and roads can be seen.
After WWII, the population of Ringwood grew rapidly as a result of development companies promoting the area as both a summer and year-round community. Today, the opoulation of Ringwood is nearly 14,000; and yet she retains her scenic beauty! - GREAT INFO ON A NEARBY IMPORTANT ARCH. NATIVE AMERICAN SITEMore on The Black Creek Site
(Submitted by Jessica Paladini)
Site history Description and research Significance
SITE HISTORY
The Black Creek Site is a 10,000-year-old Native American site nestled on 40 acres in the Vernon Valley in northwest New Jersey. The site is owned by the Township of Vernon and sits in the heart of a 182-acre tract slated for a recreational complex. Evidence from 15,000 artifact s found at the Black Creek Site proves it was occupied by indigenous peoples from the Early Archaic Period to the Late Woodland Contact Period. The site is one of the most significant cultural resources in New Jersey and the tri-state area. Today, after a year-long intense effort by a team of preservationists, Native Americans and archaeologists, the Black Creek Site is listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places and is under review for the National Register of Historic Places.
Overview of Black Creek Site
For 10 years, Vernon archaeologist Rick Patterson walked the cornfields, row by row, looking at every speck, every piece of chert that protruded from the plowed fields on Maple Grange Road. First one, then two, then twenty artifacts surfaced. Stone tools, arrowheads, spear points, pottery sherds-and the celebrated effigy stone that would ten years later sit on a table in a courtroom and play a prominent role in preserving the site-emerged. As the years went by, nearly 5,000 artifacts were found in the corn rows of the north and south fields and surface-collected. They were carefully documented in ledgers, telling a story-the story of prehistory and the people who occupied the Black Creek site. During the same time, the state replaced the Maple Grange Road Bridge at the northern end of the Black Creek Site. There, during a cultural resource study, an additional 10,000 artifacts were found, including rare glass trade beads and Vinette One pottery. During the course of Patterson's intense site study, he found artifacts from virtually every single culture from the Early Archaic Period to the Contact Period when Native Americans met with Europeans. On a balmy spring morning in 1998, however, the course of history was about to change. Patterson invited his friend Jessica Paladini to visit the Black Creek site. Paladini, an educator and former newspaper editor, knew the site was significant from all he had told her, but after only one visit seeing was believing. In the few hours spent there, she herself found a Lackawaxen spearpoint and a stone tool.
Avocational archaeologist Rick Patterson
On that day, Patterson and Paladini knew the time would come when they would wage a battle to protect the site from destruction. That day came in May 2001 when the Township of Vernon, which had purchased the 182-acre tract for a recreation complex and municipal park, dispatched a bulldozer to the heart of the site to destroy it for ball field construction. Having heard the bulldozer was sent to the site, Patterson and Paladini, with the help of Native Americans, drafted a lawsuit. The plaintiffs, Rick Patterson and the Nanticoke Lenni Lenape of New Jersey, filed the pro se lawsuit the next morning with the Superior Court of New Jersey, seeking an injunction to stop the destruction of the site. New Jersey Superior Court Judge Kenneth MacKenzie recognized the historical and cultural significance of the site and granted immediate relief, ordering the township to shut down the bulldozer. MacKenzie stopped all work on the site until the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office made a determination on listing the site on the Register of Historic Places.
What transpired from the filing of the lawsuit to the day New Jersey Department of Environmental Commissioner Bradley Campbell sealed the preservation of the Black Creek Native American site has itself been monumental and will take a page in history. The site is now listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places and has been forwarded to the keeper of the National Register of Historic Places for listing. The forty-acre parcel of land where more than 15,000 Native American artifacts, pottery, and stone tools representing 10,000 years of history and culture of native peoples were discovered has been saved from destruction, honoring New Jersey's indigenous people. The Black Creek site is considered one of the most important archaeological and cultural sites in the tri-state area. Archaeologists confirm the site was inhabited continuously by the Lenape and other Native Americans for more than 10,000 years before European settlers forced them from the area in the 1600-1700s. Artifacts found at the site date back to the Early Archaic Period, around 8,000 BC, to the Late Woodland Period of the 1600-1700s, the time of contact with Europeans.
When the governing body of Vernon Township repeatedly refused the pleas of Paladini to save the site, she began an intensive search for Native American people who might assist in the preservation effort. Searching the Internet and the libraries for weeks, she finally found the Nanticoke Lenni Lenape Indians of Bridgeton, N.J. The Lenape came to Vernon and toured the site. Instantly, they knew it was an important cultural resource and had to be protected. Through the good fortune of Fred Werkheiser, a Pennsylvania historian who discovered stone cairns and mounds throughout his state, they were led to his nephew Gregory Werkheiser, an attorney with the prestigious law firm of Piper Rudnick. Piper Rudnick agreed to give pro bono representation to the Lenape to save the site. Just out of law school, Gregory Werkheiser successfully led the preservation team.
His hours of dedication and perseverance led to the December 5, 2001, decision of the New Jersey Historic Review Board to list the site on the state's Register of Historic Places. In a room filled with more than 100 Native Americans from New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania and the preservation team from Vernon, N.J., the review board agreed unanimously that the site was significant. The historic review board made the recommendation to then NJDEP Commissioner Robert Shinn to list the site. Forty-five days later, at the end of his tenure, Commissioner Shinn listed only half of the site and remanded a hotly contested portion of it back to the review board for further consideration. In February 2002, Bradley Campbell was appointed to the position of NJDEP Commissioner.
In April 2002, Campbell listed the remainder of the site to the New Jersey Register of Historic Places. In listing the site, Commissioner Campbell said, 'This is one of very few sites that recognize the presence and historic significance of New Jersey's original indigenous people. The department [NJDEP] felt strongly that we ought to protect those resources.' Mark Gould, chief of the Nanticoke Lenni Lenape Indians of New Jersey, said, 'Native people from New Jersey to California celebrate this great victory for the preservation of our human heritage.' The Black Creek Site is one of only four Native American sites on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places. More than 1,600 sites on the register represent European and colonial influence.
DESCRIPTION AND RESEARCH
Artifacts from Black Creek Site
The Black Creek site occupies a 40-acre peninsular landform within the Vernon Valley. The landform extends into a former postglacial lakebed, and it was recurrently utilized by Native Americans during the past 10,000 years. The site is within a relict landscape near extensive chert outcrops within the Vernon Valley at the edge of the Jersey highlands. Since the initial habitation of the site by Native Americans, the geography of the area has changed little. However, the ecology has changed considerably from periglacial tundra and spruce forest to the climax deciduous and evergreen forest of about. A.D. 1700. The evolving cultural phases of regional Native American populations from about 8000 B.C. to A.D. 1700 that are represented by artifacts recovered from the site are listed below. Controlled surface collection, controlled hand excavation and studies of artifacts recovered from the Black Creek site have yielded important information regarding past Native American use of the Vernon Valley and beyond. Excavated portions of the site have encountered deeply stratified artifact deposits going back at least to early in the Middle Archaic period. These studies also indicate considerable potential for this site to yield additional important information as outlined in the Statement of Significance.
The Black Creek site is a 40-acre Native American archaeological site situated on a peninsular landform within a small, isolated valley in northwestern New Jersey. The physiographic features of the valley made this peninsular landform, which in the past was at the edge of a postglacial lake, an attractive location for settlement throughout most of the Holocene period. Cultural cross-dating of artifact styles represented by artifacts recovered from the site indicate it was occupied time and again during the past 10,000 years.
The supporting bedrock is sedimentary dolomite which is exposed in places along the eastern side of the site where it serves as a bedrock buffer to the Black Creek, which forms the eastern boundary of the site. The site soils derive from this dolomite bedrock as well as from glaciolacustrine sediments, which cap the bedrock. Portions of the site extend from the peninsular landform eastward and northward into the Black Creek flood plain. There, former glacial lake bed and marsh soils form a black muck with anaerobic properties that allow for the preservation of organic materials such as bone. The variation in on-site soils, slopes, exposures, and moisture content would have allowed a wide variety of tree species and herbaceous plants to thrive throughout the Holocene before the land was cleared for farming. During early postglacial times that witnessed the first known Native American use of northern New Jersey, ecological succession in the Black Creek valley evolved from tundra to spruce forest to pine-dominant forest. More recently, black walnut, butternut, white oak, sycamore, yellow poplar, and red cedars became established. The extensive wetland perimeter of the site is ideal habitat for red (swamp) maples, black (swamp) ash, river birch, ironwood, and associated marsh plants, including cattails and sedges. Surrounding the Black Creek site are the granite peaks of the Jersey Highlands rising a thousand feet above the valley floor. The extensive dry-mesic mountain slopes support a vast forest of oaks, hickories, and (until the early 20th century) American Chestnut. The mountaintops are covered in pines and hemlocks. A vast suite of floral and faunal resources was available within a two-hour foraging radius. Rapid sedimentation filling of the postglacial lake beginning around 1500 B.C. changed the area surrounding the site to one of swamp forest. Sedimentation and slope wash movement of soils on the site has covered and preserved archaeological deposits in places and contributed to minor filling of a small calcareous fen (wetland bog). Soil mining (for glacial sand and gravels) has altered the land surface southwest of the site in modern times; however, the flood plain characteristics of the land surrounding the site has prevented modern construction, such as subdivisions, from encroaching on the site and its physical setting.
Archaeological investigations at nearby sites indicate Paleo-Indian groups were the first to enter the valley of the Black Creek and utilize the extensive resources. Use of the Black Creek site during the Early Archaic period (ca. 8000 - 5000 B.C.) is evidenced by in-situ and surface finds of distinctive, bifurcated base, chipped stone dart points. Occupation of the site continued, probably intermittently, from that time onward to the Contact period (ca. A.D. 1675). Following the last known Native American use of the site by a Contact period group of the Lenni Lenapes, the entire mountain and valley region was transferred to a group of English land speculators. On March 5, 1703, seven sachems of the Lenape more or less unwittingly 'sold' 250,000 acres of land in southern Orange County, New York, and northern Sussex County, New Jersey. Much of the Black Creek site eventually came under cultivation and a 19th century wagon lane (now Maple Grange Road) crossed the end of a field and angled down to the flood plain east of the Black Creek site. The remains of this lane are only visible within the southeastern end of the site where the slope was cut away to grade the lane. Maple Grange Road was subsequently relocated at the sharp bend and crossed Black Creek over an iron truss bridge at the tip of the peninsula. A single house was constructed (ca. 1962) next to and south of the bridge over Black Creek, impacting a small portion of the Black Creek site.
In 1999, the New Jersey Department of Transportation built a replacement bridge across the creek. This construction was preceded by a cultural resource investigation of the project site, which resulted in the identification of the portion of the site within the road right-of-way as eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. An archaeological data recovery excavation was conducted within the bridge impact area by Louis Berger and Associates Cultural Resource Group (LBA). None of the buildings or structures associated with the historic period, Euro-American farms that tilled portions of the site, appear to have been constructed within the boundaries of the site. At present, the Black Creek site mainly contains wooded areas, fallow fields, and wetlands. The fields, located at the southern half of the site, have been periodically cultivated in the past.
Plowing, planting, and cultivating agricultural fields affects horizontal and vertical distributions of near-surface artifact deposits to some degree. These effects, like effects from natural soil disturbances processes, vary in relation to the depth and density of artifact and feature deposits. In many cases, tillage effects can be factored into artifact distribution analyses so that sampled plow zone artifact deposits (e.g., controlled surface observations and collections) can yield important information. Farming of the two cultivated fields within the site was discontinued in 1998. The bulk of the site was purchased in 2000 by the Township of Vernon as part of a 180-acre acquisition. Avocational archaeologist Rick Patterson's controlled surface collections in the southern portion of the site and LBA's excavation at the northern end of the site provided the basis for the nomination of the Black Creek site to the state and national Registers of Historic Places. Patterson recognized the Black Creek site as an excellent candidate for an artifact field mapping project because of the large volume of artifacts distributed over a very wide area of cultivated land. The site was assessed as having potential to provide important information in a nonintrusive manner.
The field mapping project was confined to two adjacent agricultural fields (one, the north field, was not plowed during several years of the study) and was comprehensive from the outset. Not just complete projectile points, but all recognized stone tools, tool fragments, and potsherds were bagged and their locations mapped. Each time an artifact was collected, its location within each field was estimated by pacing and triangulation with reference to prominent trees along the field margins. Then that location was plotted on the field map. Many artifacts were collected that were passed over by others who were surface collecting the site at the time. To achieve as complete an inventory as possible, the first few years also included a sampling of chipped stone flaking debris. Feedback from the study suggested additional items to be field mapped when they were located, notably chipped stone flaking debris of jasper, and green and red cherts which became recognized as rare, and small pebble hammerstones. The study became increasingly labor-intensive, reaching the stage where every item except very small pieces of chipped stone flaking debris and fire-cracked rock were hand held and examined with the unaided eye for evidence of use. Each collected artifact was placed in a plastic bag with its identification number. The approximate location of recovery was marked on a field map along with the artifact number. Each field had its own field map, and several maps were used each year as they became crowded with numbers. The field mapping study potential of the site also rested on the large volume of artifacts exposed on the surface. Minor errors in a large data set are not likely to result in critically flawed inferences as they can with a small data set. After an initial combined collection, artifacts where registered on separate BIFACE and OTHER TOOL master maps with new maps for each plowing year. Assembly of the map series into a composite map locating hundreds of artifacts in their proper concentrations in each field was the achieved goal.
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Late Woodland projectile points from Black Creek Site
Initial recognition of the potential for a large volume of artifacts to yield meaningful results also brought recognition of the shear volume of objects to be catalogued. Each artifact from the field was gently washed in clean water. Artifact labeling followed a four-step procedure. A swipe of clear nail polish was applied to one side of the artifact. Then after drying, a swipe of white liquid paper was applied. The site number and artifact number were then written with permanent ink, and then after dry, another coat of clear nail polish was used to seal the number. Wherever possible, each artifact received the complete Smithsonian Trinomial System designation for the site and its unique artifact number. A multiple column accounting ledger was used to record catalog numbers and artifact descriptions with emphasis on description of the artifacts, material, use-wear, and damage over typological classification. The study focused on collection and control of data from the site with the expectation that laboratory review and analysis would begin when the controlled surface collection concluded. That stage began with point typological classification at the Sheffield Archaeological Laboratory in September 2000, and is expected to include computerized spatial analyses of temporally and functionally diagnostic artifacts for portions of the site where controlled surface collections were carried out.
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
The Black Creek site represents an important interchange of human behavior and technology over a long span of time within a culturally little understood region of New Jersey. The Black Creek site, together with the surrounding chert quarries and abundant biotic resources, bears exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition that has virtually disappeared. The cultural landscape surrounding and including the Black Creek site 'represents the combined works of nature and man . . . illustrative of the evolution of human society and settlement over time, under the influence of the physical constraints and/or opportunities presented by the natural environment and of successive social, economic, and cultural forces, both external and internal.' It is this value that evinces the site's eligibility under National Register Criteria A and D. Archaeological data recovery at the northern end of the Black Creek has yielded important information regarding various facets of evolving Native American lifeways during a 10,000 year span of time.
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It is posited that the Black Creek site, by virtue of its location, evolved into a hub of prehistoric human activity within the valley of the Black Creek. Bifurcated base, chipped stone dart points recovered from a buried topsoil zone at the northern end of the site, and from the surface toward the southern end of the site, indicate Native Americans began using the site by early in the Middle Archaic period. Analysis of distributions and densities of temporally diagnostic artifacts recovered from two tilled fields in the southern half of the site indicate continued use of the site with generally increasing intensity through the Late Woodland period. The Black Creek site occupation extends into the Contact period, providing an archaeological window into this little understood period within the Jersey Highlands region. It is further proposed that as the central habitation complex within the valley, the Black Creek site served as a focal point of Native American subsistence pursuits, settlement behavior, and social activities. Nearby bedrock outcrops of chert less than one mile distant were surface mined to provide abundant material with which the inhabitants of the site fashioned projectile points and many other sorts of stone tools. The material remains of the manufacturing processes employed by Native American cultures at the Black Creek site can be used to gain a better understanding of the lithic reduction strategies employed by different cultures to produce a wide variety of point styles and tool types. The classifiable, locally available chert resources in combination with evidence from the site for lithic preference shifts through time indicate a capacity to provide important new information regarding Native American lithic material reduction and manufacturing strategies. From the Black Creek site, people walked or canoed into the adjacent valley and mountain areas to exploit a wide variety of resources.
The authors have registered 12 other Native American sites within the valley with the New Jersey State Museum, several more have been registered by others, and another 20 or so are known but have not yet been registered. It appears, based on our observations of surface artifact distributions and temporally diagnostic artifacts on these others sites, that by the middle of the Late Archaic period, use of the valley had reached its most intensive level, and the centrally located Black Creek Site was the largest of the sites. It is proposed that an extensive web of campsites was established in a variety of habitats at that time, and it became a web of traditional outlying camps used for several thousand years, forming an integral extension of the core settlement at the Black Creek site. This proposition can be tested through comparative analyses of data collected from artifacts recovered from the Black Creek site and the hypothesized associated campsites. The information potential of the outlier sites in this context is thus enhanced. The Black Creek site, if it proves to be the heart of this complex web of related sites, would be eligible under Criterion A because it was a socio-religious center of the Native American population of this region. It clearly is eligible per Criterion D because it has yielded and has additional potential to yield important new information about pre-contact and Contact period Native American use of the Black Creek valley and surrounding portions of the Highlands of northern New Jersey and southern New York. Facets of the site significance are explored below. They have been separated for ease of review; however, they are all interrelated and dependent on the evolving geophysical, population density, and ecological conditions in the valley of the Black Creek during the past 12,000 years.
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Time Periods, Named Archaeological Units, and Temporally Diagnostic Artifact Types Represented by Artifacts Recovered from the Black Creek site
Contact period (ca. 1600 to 1750):
Minisink phase
Late Woodland period (ca. A.D. 700 to 1600):
Pahaquarra (Owasco) phase
Middle Woodland period (ca. 200 B.C. to A.D. 700):
Jacks Reef/Point Peninsula
Fox Creek
Rossville
Early Woodland period (ca. 1000 to 200 B.C.):
Meadowood
Late Archaic period (ca. 3500 to 1000 B.C.):
Lackawaxen
Orient/Dry Brook
Poplar Island
Bare Island
Perkiomen
Susquehanna
Normanskill
Genesee
Lamoka
Middle Archaic period (ca. 5500 to 3500 B.C.):
Brewerton
Vosburg
Kittatinny
Stanly/Bifurcate - Erskine Lakes: A Fifty-Year History1927 was a momentous year! In sports, Babe Ruth hit his sixtieth home run. In aviation, Charles Lindbergh soloed the Atlantic. Locally, the dam was built that impounded the water of the Wanaque Reservoir, changing forever a way of life for those who lived in that beautiful six-mile valley. Here in the Erskine Lakes area, the Ringwood Company, a real estate holding firm headed by Ogden Blackfar Hewitt, put into operation an ambitious plan to capitalize on its tremendous land holding. A dam was built at the overflow of that was then called Tice’s Pond in the vicinity of the Small Community House (now called Little Beach Clubhouse). This created Lake Erskine, an enlarged natural lake of approximately 90 acres.
Background
The area has an interesting history, beginning with the activities of Cornelius Board, an agent for the British Lord Sterling, who in 1736 was the first to realized the potential of these lands. Board erected a small furnace for the manufacture of iron from rich deposits discovered by friendly Indians. Ringwood had it all—the iron ore, the water power and the virgin forests which fueled the iron works. Board sold some of his holdings to David Ogden of Newark, who had formed the Ringwood Company in 1742. Ogden, in turn, took a partner named Nicholas Gouverneur. Two local mountains are named for Board and Gouverneur.
In 1764, Peter Hasenclever, German agent for the London based American Company, brought the holdings of the Ringwood Company. He imported a German craftsmen (iron workers, forge men, furnace men, charcoal burners, craftsmen, such as De Groat, Mann, Van Dunk and De Freese, remain a part of present day Ringwood. The English had never dared permit emigration of artisans here for operation of the mines because that would have constituted a threat of competition by the Colonies; rather, they brought over indentured employees, most of whom eventually returned to England.
Entrepreneur Baron Peter Hasenclever was a man before his time. Recognizing Ringwood’s potential, his ambitions outstripped the money supply of his backers. He was overzealous in his importation of German workers, who staged what might be called the first American “industrial strike” for higher wages.
In 1769 he was replaced by Robert Erskine who was sent by the American Company to straighten out the company’s tangled affairs in Ringwood, Greenwood Lake and other locations. Erskine was a Scottish mining engineer and cartographer who cast his lot with the Americans during the American Revolution. He became Surveyor-General to General George Washington during that time, in addition to his iron works supervision. Under his direction, the mines produced iron products essential to the Continental cause. While Erskine is known to many of us as “The Forgotten General”, in truth he was never a general. It was only because his work for General Washington was of such a highly secretive nature that Erskine’s accomplishments in that direction were destined not to appear in the annals of history.
During that time, Erskine was instrumental in promoting the use of what has become Ringwood’s bicentennial symbol, the “cheveaux de fries” now standing on the lawn of Ringwood’s Borough Hall. As part of ELPOA’s participation in the 1976 bicentennial celebration, the Association contribution toward the construction of a replica of this menacing looking, 12-pointed wooden device (weight 5 tons). The original device was to have been placed in the Hudson River to put a halt to British warships traveling unhampered up to West Point.
The Ringwood Company honored Robert Erskine by naming our lake after him, not so poor a choice when one considers that it could have been named Hasenclever Lake! Erskine was again honored almost two centuries later when a Ringwood school was named for him in 1962.
The Early Years
Cupsaw and Upper Lakes came into being around 1932. At Upper, a concrete dam was built with earthen embankments, creating a 33-acre lake. Cupsaw Lake measured approximately 65 acres. Reassuring news about our Erskine dams is that a dam of similar construction, built at Tuxedo Pond two hundred years ago by the Ringwood Company’s Hasenclever, is still in existence. It is 860 feet long and varies from 12 to 22 feet high.
The first meeting of ELPOA’s predecessor, the Erskine Lake County Club, was held in June 1928 with the stated purpose of promoting good fellowship and recreation among the residents of Erskine Lakes. The Ringwood Company still owned the property called “Erskine Lakes” but residents were permitted to use it and the facilities upon it such as the New Community House, the Old Community House, tennis courts and beaches. Ringwood’s total population hovered around 1,000 in 1930 and at that time there were all of thirteen bungalows in the Erskine area; by 1933, there were 100 members from Cupsaw and Erskine. The Erskine Lakes Country Club was incorporated in 1931.
The twenties were happy years at Erskine, most residents building and improving summer homes until the slowdown during World War II. When development first began, the Ringwood Company owned a sawmill on Lake Erskine and oxen hauled logs from there which were used in building the first log cabins here. Erskine, Upper Cupsaw and Awosting were settled chiefly by middleclass business and professional people who were able to afford two homes. They were generally well educated and helped to give the lakes a sense of stability and prestige, yes, even an air of exclusiveness as attested to by some of our older residents. Up to 1935 there was always a gateman present at the Erskine entrance to ask the destination to traveler coming into the lakes. For several years, a sign bearing the notice “Restricted Christian Community” stood at the entrance. This was removed in 1939 due to the European situation and so as to not offend visitors of members. Pride in the new community was obvious. Much time and effort went into maintaining the attractive appearances of the summer homes, many of which were the fashionable log cabins. Today there is a large real estate demand for these cozy looking cottages scattered about the area.
This was a summer oriented community, from school closing in June to Labor Day. Sports and social activities prevailed: swimming, diving, interlake baseball, trapshooting, boxing, fishing, regattas, tennis, ping-pong tournaments and horseshoe contests; dances, card parties, song fest, bingo and square dances. Then, as now, the summer grand finale on Labor Day week end took the form of swimming events and a gala regatta. Parker Fredericks, proprietor of the Main Beach sore, was instrumental in bringing here World Horseshoe Champ Ted Allen and boxing’s Joe Louis, who then trained at Pompton Lakes and occasionally appeared at the New Community House. Other celebrities spent vacations at our lakes: comedian Lou Costello, actors James Dunne, Mae West, Ethel Merman, Ozzie and Harriet and the boys, Sonya Heine, violinist Rubinoff and the Landt Trio. Television had not as yet made its appearance.
A humorous comment on the settlement of Erskine Lakes is to be found on a map at the Ringwood Library. Among other dates of historical significance, it pinpoints Erskine Lakes with the caption: “1927: City slickers discover Ringwood and make Lake Erskine.”!
In 1935, Erskine Road, Lakeview Avenue and Cupsaw Drive were taken over by the Borough as “public thoroughfares” so that the roads could be paved. Other Erskine roads were slowly taken over by the Borough, the last in 1947, as they became free of encroachments met Ringwood standards.
Up to 1937, the Ringwood Company had maintained the beaches, clubhouses and other facilities in return for half of the annual receipts collected by the ELCC. That year, the Club approached the Ringwood Company regarding the possibility of its taking over certain properties through lease or deed. The Ringwood Company agreed in June 1937 to deed all existing ELCC property to ELCC with the exception of the New Community House and Cupsaw tennis courts, which could be leased for ten years. In return, the property owners association was to maintain all facilities and to bear the cost of upkeep including taxes, insurance, lifeguards, police protection and utilities. The membership of the Erskine Lakes Country Club voted unanimously to accept the provisions of the agreement, and negotiations were culminated on May 12, 1938. The Erskine Lakes Property Owner’s Association (“ELPOA”) was formed and by-laws were adopted in July 1938. Members who had jointed by that date were considered “original members” of the Association.
Bargain? By this time, the Ringwood Company had sold most of its choice properties around the lakes and the Depression of the ‘30’s was a fact of life. Labor and maintenance were a steady financial drain, to say nothing of taxes, insurance, lifeguards and other costs necessary to the upkeep and improvement of these large holdings. At this point, there was more outgoing than incoming. We in ELPOA had become, collectively, big landowners. We had responsibilities which led to the emergence of new leaders on our Board of Directors. The Board at that time was comprised of seven directors from Erskine, seven from Cupsaw and two from Upper. These dedicated individuals, elected by the membership, became the agents who ran the business and programs of the Association. Men already active in the Ringwood government itself served as ELPOA Board members; other Board members were later to become Ringwood mayors and councilmen. To replace the subsidy of the Ringwood Company, we had to increase our dues. These had not been very taxing at first, but with growth in every direction, dues had no way to go but up from the original $3, then $5, assessed each cottage in the early 1930’s.
The Middle Years
The World War II years signified a change. Altered family situation, shortages and rationing affected everyone. Many served from the Erskine area, some families with three or four dependents in service. There were six ELPOA war casualties. Many people did not return to the lakes after the war but retired to other parts of the country, giving sons and daughters opportunities to occupy the homes at Erskine. The Civilian Observation Tower, the cost shared by the Ringwood Company and ELPOA, was constructed on the roof of the New Community House and was manned by Chief Observer Floyed Conklin of the New York Air Defense Wing, Ground Observer Corps, and volunteers from the area. The post was relocated to Wanaque during 1943 due to the difficulty in driving to the Community House on the hill. P.S. No one ever saw a Messerschmidt!
Though the war years limited some progress, some of the most significant maintenance and improvement projects were somehow accomplished during the 1940’s. Concrete docks replaced the wood frame docks at the beaches in the mid 1940’s. The cost ran about $5,100 and was borne by an assessment on each member over and above his annual dues. There were major modifications to the Old Community House, although it was not until 1952 that the building traded its log exterior for that of brick, received a septic system (much to the delight of beach goers) and was winterized. Members, however, had been using the Community House during the winter season since 1946. Sometime in the 1960’s, the building acquired the name “Little Beach Clubhouse”.
The 1940’s were productive years in other ways. The First Annual Country Dinner was held July 27, 1940, and featured dancing and a sing-along for $1.10 per person. Although a recreation counselor had been hired in 1940, an increasing membership indicated the need for more organized activity. It was at his point that some of ELPOA’s important sub organizations came into being. Although there was a lull during the war years in swimming completion, the present Aquatic Club has its roots in the Erskine Lakes Swim Team of the late 1940’s. The Erskine Beach Club in 1943 planned the first systemized recreation and sports program for children at Erskine; the Upper Lake Beach Club followed in 1946 with a similar counselor program.
Year 1941 also marked the end of motor boats on the lakes. A fatal accident in 1938 had precipitated a greater concern for safety, which had increased as more and more incidents of careless operation were reported.
At ELPOA’s request, the Ringwood Company in 1943 changed the contract to give ELPOA the power to decide who could or could not use the Association faculties. The first ELPOA Membership Committee was formed at that time.
Our now familiar ELPOA seal, the circle enclosing the letters ”ELPOA”, was designed in 1945. The logo will be especially prominent during this anniversary year.
In April 1945, a momentous decision was made by the Cupsaw, Upper and Erskine members of ELPOA, who numbered 543 families at that time. Cupsaw Lake residents concluded that it would be to their advantage to form their own association. Voting took place on the “Resolution of Separation” and of a total of 345 votes cast, 317 were in favor, 25 against and 3 voided. In mutual agreement with Erskine members, therefore, Cupsaw members proceeded favor, 25 against and 3 voided. In mutual agreement with Erskine member proceeded to form the Cupsaw Lake Improvement Association (“CLIA”). ELPOA property in the Cupsaw area was reconveyed to the Ringwood Company which then conveyed the are generally known as “Cupsaw”, the lake, the dam, recreation field and tennis courts, to CLIA. ELPOA’s supervision reorganized to include five officers and eighteen elected directors, and by-laws were revised to accommodate the new situation. In 1948, the Association, in accordance with a request made by the Ringwood Company, agreed to accept a certain number of members from the Carletondale section of Ringwood.
A milestone in Erskin’s history is the formation of the Erskine Lakes Volunteer Fire Department No. 1 in 1946. This meant a much needed reduction in the fire insurance rates for ELPOA residents. The Fire Department became famous for its two seasonal dances at the New Community House and talk still circulates about the overflow crowds the dance attracted.
The Hilltop Clubhouse, sitting on the mountain top at the intersection of Club Road and High Point Lane between the Erskine and Cupsaw areas, has a dramatic history all its own. In 1940, there was a move by the Board of Director to rename the building the Erskine Hewitt Community House in honor of the Ringwood Company’s president who had died in 1939. Over the generations, however, the Community House has come to be best known as the ELPOA Hilltop Clubhouse. In 1947, the Ringwood Company conveyed it by deed to ELPOA. Weekly teenage dances began there during in the 1948 season; there are many fond memories of the annual end-of-summer teen Farewell Dances.
In 1950, however, disaster struck! The hilltop was destroyed by a raging fire the night of January 20th. The flames were reported seen as far as Route 17, and the news made headlines in many area newspapers. The fire was fought by four fire companies, the local plus Wanaque, Midvale and Haskell, but all that could be saved was the wood water tank adjacent to clubhouse which supplied water to many nearby residents. The fire was believed to have stared inside the building. Plans were made at a meeting on January 29, 1950, to rebuild the clubhouse on the same site. Lester N. Troast, architect, designed the new building and the Hilltop Clubhouse was dedicated on June 30, 1951. The cost was $37,000 plus the necessary volunteer labor. The long struggle to repay loans began. Here, the magnificent spirit of cooperation that has buoyed the ELPOA organization through fifty years came through in the way of loans, bonds, donations and proceeds from benefits run by sub-organizations. In addition, a $9,000 mortgage was obtained from the Ringwood Company.
The 1950 decade began with a fitting tribute to the veterans of World War II. The stone War Memorial Tower at Main Beach was erected in place of the old wooden diving tower through a cooperative effort under the direction of architect Warren C. Pattison. 1953 saw the construction of the stone amphitheater over what had been a steep, grassy hill leading up from the Main Beach area, a vast improvement for viewing the annual aquatic events. That same year, still another joint effort, this between the Upper Lake men and women, resulted in the building of the Upper Lake Pavilion. 1953 also saw the disappearance of the old landmark T-docks which, along with tennis courts which had been torn down several years earlier, had graced the northeast cove of the lake. At Main Beach, a second dock was built to parallel the one leading to the diving tower. Dues took a sharp rise due to a tax re-evaluation and spiraling assessments on ELPOA properties.
The Later Years
The Sailing Club sailed into the sixties by officially organizing (1962) for competition, although this group had been active for many years before. The Upper Lakers banded together to form the Upper Lake Men’s Club in 1966. The following year saw the Main Beach open pavilion replaced by a more functional enclosed building plus the paving of parking lots and basketball courts at the beaches. Another major project, the dredging of the island cove, was a cooperative effort between ELPOA and the members in that area.
Developments through the past eight years of the seventies are a continuing reflection of the ongoing desire to improve ELOPA and preserve the precious heritage and advantages we share. A major by-laws revision took place in 1974. In 1975, professional water consultants were first employed for the purpose of establishing existing water quality for comparison through future years and for recommending treatment for specific conditions. The sandy section of Little Beach was expanded to accommodate the increasing numbers of mother and children flocking to that beach. Major rebuilding of the cement dock and spillway wall at Little Beach was accomplished, as well as a complete furbishing of the clubhouse there. Roads to the lake were pave for fire access.
There had been many unsuccessful attempts to organize another Tennis Club after the old courts were removed. The 1971 effort resulted in the formation of the new Erskine Lakes Tennis Club with two courts on Lakeview Avenue. Still another plan reached fruition with the building of the official swim lanes at Upper Lake by members of the Aquatic Club.
There has been constant effort through the years to keep members informed, first through the ERSKINE LAKES NEWS FROM 1935 TO 1943, then through news published in the Pompton Lakes BULLETIN, the ELPOA BULLETIN in the early 1950’s, and since then, the familiar ELPOA COURIER, published weekly during the summer with extra editions as needed the remainder of the year.
History in ELPOA has repeated itself over and over again. Still, as in the earlier days, much time is given by interested persons in the ELOPA community to make Erskine Lakes a better place in which to live. The problems and expenses of maintenance and improvement are perennial, changing only slightly over the years. There is no time for laxity in dealing with repairs, water quality, security, fire precautions, drainage and silt complications, boat and badge problems, utilities, the approach of sewers and a myriad of other related (and sometimes unrelated!) situations. We have developed a stronger interaction with Ringwood government and have become involved in civic matters as the progress of Ringwood itself increasing affects our ELPOA community. Communication among members has been and must be kept open for we are all concerned with the future of our lakes and community.
The social affairs that bring people together are still happening. The traditional Saturday night dances at our beautiful and spacious Hilltop, occasional winter dances at Little Beach Clubhouse, pot luck suppers, children’s dance lessons, weekly teen nights and a variety of swimming and other recreational facilities are at our fingertips. Always, there are both the joy and the work involved in maintaining attractive homes, each home in the Erskine area unique in style and family history. Erskinites have planted solid roots and there is a strong desire on the part of many residents to remain in Erskine Lakes.
Ringwood’s population has grown to just over 15,000 and ELOPA’s membership, with its accompanying responsibilities, has grown proportionately to just short of 600 families. One fact stands out clearly; no matter what the cost, it is necessary for every family living here at the lake to give ELPOA its utmost backing--in membership, in being community and history. There is not a parent who has move to the lakes who has not had the welfare of his children in mind. For this, and for them, the Association exists; that is what ELPOA is all about. We feel sure that as long as we have a strong Erskine Lakes Property Owner’s Association we can look to the future with confidence.
