Today, the Sourland Mountain Preserve encompasses over 3000 acres in Hillsborough and Montgomery Townships. Some of the highest points of the entire Sourland region are located within this rock strewn preserve, and can be accessed by the many well maintained trails. There are especially good views along the path of the Texas Eastern Pipeline, which is kept free of trees and brush.
I find that the park has a different character depending on the season. In the spring, when the streams are running strong, there are spots along the trails where you are literally hopping from rock to rock to stay dry. The summer is a lot drier, and a lot greener - a great time for bird (and bug) watching.
In Autumn, with the leaves showing their brilliant reds and oranges, and the crisp cool air, it's easy to imagine that instead of walking through second-growth forest in 21st century suburban New Jersey, you are scouting the primeval forests of 17th century New England.
For me, the best thing about hiking up at the preserve is the chance to spend a day with my daughter, doing something we both enjoy. Something that requires no special skills or equipment, something we can do at our own pace.
And something we can enjoy long after her shadow is as long as mine. That's easy to imagine.
Hi Greg:
ReplyDeleteI hate to write a sad story onto an uplifting blog entry but I’d like to share with everyone my family’s story about the Sourland Mountains. My grandfather, Frank Kondracki once had a chicken and dairy farm (Sunway Farms) on East Mountain Road. He and my grandmother raised nine children on this farm with my mother being the second oldest. Sometime in the early 1970s the Somerset County Park Commision came to my grandfather and said he would have to sell his land to them. They said this is the best land that leads into the Sourland Mountains and want to build a park there. As you can imagine the family was quite upset. My grandfather soon found out that he would not be able to afford any other property nearby with the money he was forced to take from Somerset County and he started to look out of state. With nine children spread apart over two decades the family split up. Some were old enough to start families of their own and others being only children moved to Kentucky with their parents.
Almost every summer of my childhood we packed up the car and drove to Kentucky to see my grandparents and other family members all while my grandfather’s land sat there with a “do not enter” sign at the entrance off of East Mountain. It took the Somerset County Park Commission years and years before they built the parking lot and trails that you see there today.
My grandfather has only been back to New Jersey a couple times since the 1970s. About 3 years ago he visited his old farm and was quite happy to see how pretty it looks today. He looked over at the pond that he built and was glad it was still there instead of condos or houses. He could still see the concrete foundation where the chicken coops were and some of the trees that he planted himself. The old farmhouse where he raised his family was torn down and green grass has long replaced it. It’s amazing how time heals all wounds and I’m sure he would say that it all worked out for the better but to be honest I still wish that my entire family was here in New Jersey just down the road. My daughter is too young for this sort of hike but a year or so ago when my mother was visiting (she now lives in Kentucky too!) we all went to the old farm for a visit and once she starts talking about where this was and that stood a few tears form in her eyes but she gets through it for our sake so that the memories are past on to the next generation. But she too is thankful that she has the opportunity to see wide open spaces where she grew up.
Mike B.
ReplyDeleteThank-you so much for those comments. It really rings home for me a comment I saw posted on the Hillsborough Board. “The government can give us nothing, unless it takes it from us first.”
So sorry your family was on the taken from side
But that post conveniently left out the important second half: "But it could have been worse. Without the government, it likely would have been taken over by a private party. Then the public NEVER would have received any benefits."
DeleteRegarding the Letter to the Editor by Mr. Charles Devine which appeared in the November 13, 2007 Courier News:
ReplyDeleteMy blog entry titled "Sourland Mountain Preserve" certainly implies that there were no public parks in Somerset County prior to the formation of the Park Commission, which was created by voters on November 7, 1956.
Obviously that is not true - there were some municipal parks and ball fields, of course - and the Duke Estate was open to the public as a park for many years until vandalism forced J.B. Duke to close public access in 1906.
So, why did I write that first sentence? My research came from a New York Times article dated June 14, 1958. The article was titled "Somereset Seeks its First Five Parks". And the first sentence reads "Somerset County, without a park at present , may get some play areas, if plans of the County Park Commission are realized."
This is not to say that the first sentence of the blog was not misleading, only to say that it wasn't any more misleading than the first sentence of the story that appeared in the New York Times!