Christmas along The Old Mine Road

[Ben Ruset]

Hey all -

My family does all of our Christmas gift giving and eating on Christmas eve which leaves me with Christmas Day to myself every year. It's a great exploring day since almost nobody is out and it's just great to have some space to yourself.

I've been thinking about exploring the Old Mine Road for a long time now. MarkBNJ wrote me up a really great itenerary back in July and I finally decided to take the hour and forty-five minute drive to see what I could find.

I find that the mountain areas of New Jersey to be really interesting. Probably like many other people, I always have a hard time remembering that we have mountains in New Jersey, and yesterday I was constantly wondering if somehow I had crossed over to Pennsylvania inadvertently. It's obviously much different than the pines - in a way I think it's much more dangerous. At one point in time yesterday I was photographing an abandoned house and I heard the rush of water from across the road. I crossed and followed a path down to a deep gorge where some water was swiftly flowing over some rocks. It was a pretty scary, steep way down and I kept thinking that if I fell I'd probably land in the river, break a few bones, and quite literally die. Then, when I managed to get down I looked back up at the nearly vertical climb I'd have to take to get out and wondered how I was going to do it. I figured that I'd take my pictures and worry about that later. Anticlimactically I walked up the river a little bit and found a spot where I was able to climb back up without a lot of hassle - there were enough roots to grab on to and trees to brace myself that the climb out wasn't so bad.

Around 1955 the Government wanted to build a dam at Tock Island to control the flooding of the Delaware River. The construction of the dam would have flooded most of the area that I explored. The government forced many people out of their homes and farms, some of which had been in their family for generations. Public pressure put a halt to the construction of the dam -- though there are rumblings that it will still be built -- and the whole area was turned into the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.


IMGP1951 by benruset, on Flickr
This is the longest traffic light in New Jersey. It lasts three minutes, and controls where the Old Mine Road is a one lane road just as you enter the park.


IMGP1966 by benruset, on Flickr
Barn ruins.


IMGP1974 by benruset, on Flickr
A ruined farmhouse.


IMGP1985 by benruset, on Flickr
This must have once been a fine home.


IMGP1982 by benruset, on Flickr
The one room schoolhouse at Calno, NJ


IMGP2000 by benruset, on Flickr


IMGP2023 by benruset, on Flickr
The replica mill (gristmill, I think) at Millbrook Village.


IMGP2010 by benruset, on Flickr
Some broken wheels and axles from a bygone day.


IMGP2056 by benruset, on Flickr
It's hard to believe some of these barns have not been used in over 50 years.

You can find all of the pictures from the day in my Flickr set.

 

[dogg57]

Great shots Ben! Thanks as always for sharing your travels

 

[Boyd]

Great photos Ben, glad you finally got up there! Now that you've been, you will enjoy Chapter I, "Land of Waiting" in Beck's The Roads of Home (if you haven't already read it).

Here is a land which many who live in New Jersey have never seen and in which as many more do not believe. It is a land of brooding purple mountains or flowering hills, according to the season. It is a land of crags and crowding precipices of the Kittatinny Ridge, of winding roads that were the paths of the Indians, of quiet and seldom-seen mountain lakes, of noisy brooks and flashing waterfalls, of hundred-year and even older houses at every turn.

 

[Gibby]

Very nice Ben! It is to bad that the weather has been mild so far. The ice formations along the many falls in this area are beautiful.

 

[Ben Ruset]

It was cold enough for me yesterday. I'm glad I bought a hat.

 

[MarkBNJ]

Awesome, Ben. There's my answer to the question I asked you in my PM . You'll have to come up again when I can take a day and I'll guide you around some of the less accessible, out of the way spots.

 

[joc]

Great shots , Ben !!

 

[Ben Ruset]

Great shots , Ben !!

Thanks!!

 

[Mts83]

Great shots, Ben! The whole Old Mine Road "corridor" has a ton of interesting stuff to explore, some hidden, some not so. Take for instance your pic of the 3 Minute light, directly behind that sign starts the Karamac Trail which follows the old RR bed down below Old Mine Rd and eventually leads to the former Delaware River crossing. Going the other way the railroad continued under present-day I-80 and through the former former town of Dunnfield, now only left in a few ruins. I was there in the fall and found the trail needing work, but now that it's winter it should be passable (Old Mine Rd was closed, and the 3Min light was inoperable). Maybe 50' past the gate you can find an old RR marker almost completely hidden from view on Old Mine Road labeled "JC 96", Jersey City 96 miles. Just up the road is the Rock Cores trail which leads up to giant rock cores which were drilled for the Tocks Island Dam project, follow the trail up the mountain a bit more and you'll pass many cellar holes, eventually reaching Sunfish pond at the top; another very nice spot! Other highlights up the road include Van Campen Glen, Van Campen Inn (and nearby historic graves), Walpack, Buttermilk falls, the Coppermine area, and Blue Mountain and Crater Lakes etc. Its a great area to explore with enough to provide something new just about every time you visit as the area is filled with ruins, cellar holes. Its an easy day-trip from anywhere in the pines or especially Central NJ too.