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BACK IN THE DAY - 08/10/2008
(by Bryan La Placa - Webmaster and Argus Managing Editor - August 13, 2008)
Cross Castle, the Information Age, Lake County and an underwater village
NORTH JERSEY – Here’s a look at what was published in Suburban Trends around the beginning of August over the years.
Aug. 7, 1988 – Cross Castle razed
We wrote an obituary for Cross Castle, a castle in the woods off Clinton Road in West Milford that was a popular destination for those hiking or partying.
In the early 1900s, a man named Richard Cross built a castle on high land near Clinton Reservoir. Decades later, it was heavily damaged in a fire, and its ruins offered a spooky haven for nature-lovers and ne’er-do-wells.
Like most everything else in that area, it’s supposedly haunted.
The City of Newark that owns the land up there razed the castle in 1988 after it could no longer ignore reports of hooliganism up there, but there are still remnants of Cross Castle in the woods.
According to the Suburban Trends obituary, the castle was built in 1907 (other sources say 1905), and had 40 bedrooms and a massive courtyard. It was situated on 365 acres of land and the grounds included a 78-acre pond called Hank’s Pond.
Richard Cross died in 1917 and left the castle to his family. They remained there for only two years and then sold the estate to the City of Newark for $150,000. Newark just left the castle alone. The castle stood quietly up in the woods until the 1950s when it got attention again after people started removing pieces of it.
Reportedly, the castle employed “many” during its construction. It had a tennis court, a guest house, an ice house, a carriage house, and a farmhouse and a barn.
Aug. 8, 1963 – Information Age
It was a novel concept to be able to instantly access information. “Signs of the Times: Instant Information” ran the headline in an article about the Emanuel Einstein Memorial Library in Pompton Lakes.
“Today’s complex world demands more from a library than the current best sellers,” commented Robert K. Pearce, the library director.
Pointing to an island of books and book cases alongside the circulation desk, he said, “That’s why we’re setting up this central reference area — to better answer questions from both students and adults.”
In the central reference area, they kept several reference books for anticipated queries, but the library staff knew that books alone have limitations.
“Many times, questions require information too new for a book,” the article points out.
A man had called the library asking details about the latest expedition to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Librarian Anne McCarter found out the information for the man quickly.
Pearce explained how she did it: “She used an index to current magazine literature, which told her the issue of Newsweek to check. Magazine files are invaluable for ‘right today’ information.”
A man had moved out of town and gave his collection of five years of “Scientific American” to the library. The library subscribed to about 70 magazines at the time.
“To be really complete we should be getting 200 different titles,” said Pearce. “This isn’t very much when one considers that there are over 8,000 currently being published.”
The library also kept hundreds of pamphlets about anything from jobs to Social Security in two large wooden cabinets.
Sometimes the library couldn’t answer its patrons’ questions. One girl wanted to know if there is a Whattley Street is in London. The library staff didn’t have the answer but were able to point the girl in the direction of a book that would.
(Thanks to the glorious Internet, I just found out in a second that there is no Whattley Street in London, but there is a Whatley Avenue).
A mother called in, saying that her daughter was writing a play and asked if the library could provide her with a completely original plot.
Pearce said, “As I told the staff, someone could walk in at any time and make us look like idiots. Our aim is not to let this happen too often.”
Aug. 5, 1973 — Lake County
An editorial talked about the idea of making our coverage area of northern Morris and Passaic counties its own county because our area wasn’t getting much attention from its respective county seats, in our opinion.
“For many years now, we have heard talk of several of the local communities forming a new county. The towns are located in Morris and Passaic counties, and there is the feeling that they are the step-children of the counties to which they now belong. We think there is merit in the idea of a new county and we think the matter should come up for some serious investigation and discussion,” we said.
“In the case of the Morris County communities, a ridge of mountains cuts the county, and it seems the officials in Morristown infrequently cross this barrier. There have been numerous complaints that Pequannock, Lincoln Park, Butler, Riverdale, Kinnelon and Jefferson get little but lip service from Morristown while the communities shell out considerable sums in county taxes yearly,” we said.
“Likewise, Pompton Lakes, Wanaque, Ringwood, West Milford, Bloomingdale, and to a certain extent, Wayne, have suffered the same fate in Passaic County. The cities are able to control the board of freeholders, and the cities get the lion’s share of county services. As a matter of reality, the communities we are talking about share many common problems, and frequently these problems are not related to the county in which they exist,” we said. We advocated for sharing many municipal services in our area.
We said the borders between the counties had become arbitrary and “cause more harm than good.”
“You really can’t mention Butler without thinking about Bloomingdale because the two share so many common problems, yet they are artificially separated by a county border that is sometimes a dry river bed,” we said.
There was a spirit of cooperation between towns in our area, and there was more and more talk about uniting into a single suburban county.
“Lake County might be a good idea after all. West Milford has been talking about joining Sussex County for several years now, but a new county might fill the bill much better,” we said. “Something must be done to get us more and better representation. We submit the idea of a new county for all to consider. It may be one way to get things done.”
Aug. 4, 1963 – Wanaque Reservoir heartaches
We marked the 35th anniversary year of the completion of the Wanaque Reservoir not with a celebration, but by remembering that the reservoir represented “progress via heartaches.”
The big reservoir provided water for Paterson, Newark, Kearny, Passaic, Clifton, Montclair, Bloomfield and Glen Ridge, but not for Wanaque or Ringwood.
We called the reservoir’s history “torturous.” We wanted to remember the story of the homes inundated and destroyed, and of the people whose farms and fields were flooded, and of little country roads and hiking trails that were washed out.
“History tells us that as far back as 1879, the valley of the ‘Wyanockie’ was looked upon covetously as a possible source of water for the thirsty down-state cities,” according to the old article.
By 1911, the State Water Supply Commission formulated a project to create the Wanaque Reservoir with a dam to be located in Midvale and costing about $6 million to construct. That’s about $125 million in today’s money.
Officials balked at the price until 1918 when the City of Newark and the Water Supply Commission signed a contract for the construction of the reservoir for almost $10 million – or about $160 million in today’s money.
In 1920 construction started on the main dam. On March 23, 1928, the gates were closed and the reservoir started filling. It took a year for the reservoir to fill up, and another year before the reservoir’s water could be consumed by the city folk downstream.
This massive project included relocating roads and railroad tracks, moving bodies from four family cemeteries, and purchasing lands from individual farmers and landholders.
“The Ringwood Company, owners of the major part of the acreage in Ringwood desired by the Water Commission, fought the development in the courts but ultimately lost its appeals. Individual landholders, like Joseph E. Board, Lulu M. Colfax, Irving Stone, the Hewitt family, Joseph L. Monks and many others who loved their peaceful home valley, had no choice but to sell their lands to the commission. Even though they were paid what the commission called a fair price for their properties, heartache and bitterness must have taken their toll,” said the old article.
“The commission moved with tact and delicacy in the matter of the four small cemeteries in the valley. Whenever possible, families or descendants or next of kin were asked their choice of a new location. Within reasonable distances, the commission re-interred the remains with members of the families asked to attend the brief ceremonies. New headstones were purchased by the commission whenever the old ones were too worn or broken for removal,” it was reported.
Digging up the dead
The cemeteries of the Brown, Ryerson and Erskine families were moved. The Monks family cemetery remained at the time this article was published, but was later moved when the Monksville Reservoir was created in the 1980s.
Six miles of Erie Railroad line also had to be relocated. A spur of the Greenwood Lake line – known as the Ringwood branch that forked off near the middle of the present reservoir and had its terminus in the middle of Ringwood proper – was completely wiped out by the advance of the water.
Highways and roads that had to be relocated included the Greenwood Lake Highway, Valley Road, and West Brook Road, which connects the Stonetown section with the rest of Ringwood Borough.
According to a commission report dated 1925, “West Brook Road is an unimportant borough road leading from the Greenwood Lake Highway westerly across the Wanaque Valley to Stonetown, a small settlement in the hills to the westward and also to West Milford. Traffic counts on this road show that it is used very little, but as it provides the only practicable access from the south to Stonetown and a few other scattered residents of the vicinity, it was necessary to plan some means of access for this area.”
According to the book “Winbeam” by Minnie May Monks, an old deed showed that George Ryerson acquired the valley from the Indians in 1748 for 44 shillings, and its boundary was the Wemberries Brook.
The valley’s name was spelled many different ways, like “Windbeamus,” “Wimbeamus,” “Wiembeamius,” or “Wienbemus.” That’s why Minnie Monks didn’t stick with the comfortable “Windbeam” as the title for her history book.
“Winbeam” is the name of the highest mountain on the banks of the reservoir, as well as a path and a brook that don’t exist anymore, according to the old article. Winbeam Mountain was also called “Sleeping Elephant Mountain” because it looked just like a snoozing elephant if the light fell on it just right, according to the old article.
The best picture of the valley before the reservoir was created was in the words of Minnie Monks.
She said, “We, who know our valley, love its streams, its rocks, its hills, its old landmarks and old roads. To reach our valley, you turn off the turnpike in the village by the old Blacksmith shop and follow the dirt road up over the little hill ahead. The best way is to walk. When you have turned your back on the village, the road dips down and out to a crossroads. Take a few steps to the left here, and look at the old Ryerson furnace with the cedar trees growing on the top of it – one of the best preserved furnaces in the state, built in the year 1838 for the smelting of iron ore. Now take the road, to the right and walk straight, ahead. To your left, you look down upon the Wanaque River and you will see cattle grazing in a valley of wide green fields. Beyond, you will see wooded hills; then the mountains — pinecrowned Wyanockie High Point standing out above all. After a good rest, you travel a few steps farther and cross a small bridge over West Brook, just before it enters Wanaque. To your left is a good swimming hole. Now straight ahead along West Brook, the road winds its pleasant way, with the music of the water babbling over stones, and the coolness of a dark, hemlock forest reaching down to the tall buttonwood trees at its edge.”
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