Paulins Kill: Difference between revisions
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==Geography and Geology== |
==Geography and Geology== |
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===The river's course=== |
===The river's course=== |
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The river emanates from two branches, both of which merge in near [[Augusta, New Jersey|Augusta]], in [[Frankford Township, New Jersey]]. One branch, known as the ''Culver Brook'' |
The river emanates from two branches, both of which merge in near [[Augusta, New Jersey|Augusta]], in [[Frankford Township, New Jersey]]. One branch, known as the ''Culver Brook'' (often marked on maps simply as a "''Branch of the Paulins Kill''") begins at [[Culver's Lake, New Jersey|Culver's Lake]], in Frankford Township and flows through [[Branchville, New Jersey|Branchville]], and the other branch, which usually is either an unnamed branch or considered the main course of the Paulins Kill begins in marshes north of [[Newton, New Jersey]] and flows through [[Lafayette Township, New Jersey]] before merging with the Culver Brook in neighboring Frankford Township. |
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The Paulins Kill then flows southwest, through [[Hampton Township, New Jersey|Hampton]] and [[Stillwater Township, New Jersey|Stillwater Township]]s in [[Sussex County, New Jersey|Sussex County]], before flowing through [[Frelinghuysen Township, New Jersey|Frelinghuysen]], [[Hardwick Township, New Jersey|Hardwick]], [[Blairstown, New Jersey|Blairstown]] and [[Knowlton Township, New Jersey|Knowlton Township]]s in [[Warren County, New Jersey|Warren County]] where its waters enter the [[Delaware River]] just south of the [[Delaware Water Gap]] at the hamlet of Columbia. |
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A dam was built in the 1920s across the Paulins Kill in Stillwater Township, to create Paulinskill Lake, a narrow, 3-mile (4.8 km) long body of water that stretches back into Hampton Township to the north. It was constructed in response to the 1914 establishment of [[Swartswood State Park]], to provide seasonal (summer) housing and recreation for vacationers from the New York metropolitan area. Today, it is a year-round residential community managed by a homeowners association. |
A dam was built in the 1920s across the Paulins Kill in Stillwater Township, to create Paulinskill Lake, a narrow, 3-mile (4.8 km) long body of water that stretches back into Hampton Township to the north. It was constructed in response to the 1914 establishment of [[Swartswood State Park]], to provide seasonal (summer) housing and recreation for vacationers from the New York metropolitan area. Today, it is a year-round residential community managed by a homeowners association. |
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Today, several mill dams, and [[Millrace|mill races]] remain from the [[Gristmill|grist]], [[Sawmill|saw]], [[Oil mill|oil]] and [[Fulling mill|fulling mills]] built along the river's banks during the 18th and 19th century, and continue to alter the course and flow of the river. |
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===The Paulins Kill Valley=== |
===The Paulins Kill Valley=== |
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Revision as of 23:20, 24 August 2006
| Paulins Kill | |
|---|---|
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| Physical characteristics | |
| Mouth | Delaware River |
| Length | 28.60 miles (46.027 km)[1] |
The Paulins Kill (also known as Paulinskill or Paulinskill River) is a tributary of the Delaware River in northwestern New Jersey in the United States.
Geography and Geology
The river's course
The river emanates from two branches, both of which merge in near Augusta, in Frankford Township, New Jersey. One branch, known as the Culver Brook (often marked on maps simply as a "Branch of the Paulins Kill") begins at Culver's Lake, in Frankford Township and flows through Branchville, and the other branch, which usually is either an unnamed branch or considered the main course of the Paulins Kill begins in marshes north of Newton, New Jersey and flows through Lafayette Township, New Jersey before merging with the Culver Brook in neighboring Frankford Township.
The Paulins Kill then flows southwest, through Hampton and Stillwater Townships in Sussex County, before flowing through Frelinghuysen, Hardwick, Blairstown and Knowlton Townships in Warren County where its waters enter the Delaware River just south of the Delaware Water Gap at the hamlet of Columbia.
A dam was built in the 1920s across the Paulins Kill in Stillwater Township, to create Paulinskill Lake, a narrow, 3-mile (4.8 km) long body of water that stretches back into Hampton Township to the north. It was constructed in response to the 1914 establishment of Swartswood State Park, to provide seasonal (summer) housing and recreation for vacationers from the New York metropolitan area. Today, it is a year-round residential community managed by a homeowners association.
Today, several mill dams, and mill races remain from the grist, saw, oil and fulling mills built along the river's banks during the 18th and 19th century, and continue to alter the course and flow of the river.
The Paulins Kill Valley
The valley of the Paulins Kill is bordered on the West by the Kittatinny Ridge of the Appalachians. Kittatinny Mountain, which is a segment of the Blue Ridge chain of the Appalachians, has been known historically as Schawangunk Mountain (as it is known north of the New York-New Jersey border), or Pahaqualong Mountain.
Beginning at the western boundary of the valley of the Paulinskill and extending westward to the Delaware River (and beyond that to the Allegheny Mountains), is the Ridge and Valley physiographic province, one of four physiographic provinces that cover the land mass of New Jersey. This area, was largely formed through the fold-and-thrust action about 300 million years ago during the Alleghenian orogeny. Largely, the valley floor, and its eastern boundary constitute the northwesternmost reaches of the New York - New Jersey Highlands region—a geological formation composed primarily of precambrian igneous and metamorphic rock—within New Jersey.
The Paulins Kill shares the valley with Papakating Creek which flows to northward to the Wallkill River, and is part of the Hudson River watershed. This valley has often been called, historically, "Mamakating" which derives from the Lenape for "valley of the divided waters"—however, this name has fallen into disuse since the latter half of the 20th century. At their closest, the Papakating Creek and Paulins Kill flow within one mile of each other, in Frankford Township in Sussex County.
Tributaries
The Paulins Kill, itself a tributary of the Delaware River, is fed by several mountain streams—many of which are unnamed. However, several larger streams—with names—contribute their waters to the Paulinskill at various points along its 28.6 mile length, including:
- Blair Creek (Blairstown)
- Culver Brook (Frankford) - this is the western branch of the Paulins Kill.
- Jacksonburg Creek (Stillwater, Hardwick, and Blairstown)
- Trout Brook (Stillwater)
- Yards Creek (Knowlton and Blairstown)
- Walnut Creek (Blairstown)
History
Origins of the name
The Board of Geographic Names decided that the official spelling of the name would be Paulins Kill in 1898.[5] Other spellings (Pawlins Kill or Paulinskill) have remained in common use. The use of Paulinskill River, however—while often used—is redundant as Kill is a geographic designation for a small stream or creek, derived from Dutch.
The Paulins Kill was originally known as the Tockhockonetcong by the local Native Americans who were either Munsee, or Lenni Lenape. The name Tockhockonetcong (or Tockhockonetcunk) roughly translates to "stream that comes from Tok-Hok-Nok"—Tok-hok-nok being an indian village believed to been within the boundaries of present-day Newton, New Jersey,[6] near which one branch of the Paulinskill begins, and the Lenape roots hannek meaning "stream" and the suffix -ong denoting "place."[7][8]
Local tradition says that the Paulins Kill got its name from Pauline, the daughter of a Hessian soldier. During the American Revolution, Hessian soldiers captured at the Battle of Trenton and other skirmishes within New Jersey were held in custody in the Stillwater, New Jersey area. Several of these Hessians are alleged to have deserted the British and taken up residence in the Stillwater area because of the village's predominantly German emigrant population. The assumption is that the name Paulins Kill was derived from "Pauline's Kill."[9][10] However, the fact that the name Paulins Kill is present on maps and surveys dating from the 1740s and 1750s—two and three decades before the Revolution—negates the veracity of this tradition. Further, some local sources go so far as to state that the girl's name was Pauline Snover, however extant genealogical records do not indicate that any person existed by that name.
Two other possibilities for the naming of the Paulins Kill are more likely. One, stating that the wife of Stillwater, New Jersey's first settler, Johan Peter Bernhardt (died 1748), was named Maria Paulina and died prior to the settlement at Stillwater in 1742. However, very few records are extant detailing Bernhardt's family. The likely etymological origin is that the Native American name given to the mountain on the valley's western flank, Pahaqualong (also spelled Pahaqualin, Pohoqualin and Pahaquarra) may have been corrupted and anglicized to a spelling such as "Paulins" by early white settlers or surveyors. Pahaqualong is roughly translated as “end of two mountains with stream between” as a combination of the words pe’uck meaning “water hole,” qua meaning “boundary,” and the suffix -onk meaning “place.”[11][12][13]
Local tradition does place an Indian village named Pahaquarra near the mouth of the Paulinskill. Pahaquarry Township in Warren County derives its name from this origin. [14]
A village named Paulina located a short distance east of Blairstown, New Jersey on Route 94, is said to have been named "from the stream upon which it is located." William Armstrong, a local settler, built the first grist mill there along the river in 1768.[15]
Early settlement
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Industry
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Today
Today, the Paulins Kill continues to maintain its rural character through both local concern and government policy. It is an excellent area for hunting and fishing, and is considered to be one of the best trout streams in New Jersey.
New Jersey's Green Acres program has targeted the Paulins Kill and its surrounding valley as an excellent natural resources for open space and farmland preservation and recreational opportunities. The state, working together with agricultural development boards in Sussex and Warren County, and with the Ridge and Valley Conservancy, a local nonprofit land trust, share land acquisition costs to enter tracts of real estate into the program.[16]
The Paulinskill Valley Trail—a network of trails along abandoned railroad beds of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad—have been transformed and maintained for hiking, horseback riding, and other recreational uses, stretches for 27 miles from Sparta Junction in Sussex County to Columbia in Warren County, roughly following the entire length of the river. After the New York, Susquehanna and Western decomissioned the route in 1962, the right-of-way along this corridor was purchased by the City of Newark in the following year. Newark hoped to use the bed for a water pipeline connecting to the proposed dam and reservoir project on the Delaware River. However, this project—controversial from the start because of environmental concerns and the federal government's abuse of eminent domain—was cancelled during the 1970s. Newark sold their claim to the corridor in 1992 to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for $600,000, and the Paulinskill Valley Trail was created.[17]
See also
Resources and external links
Notes and citations
- ^ http://pubs.usgs.gov/wri/wri934076/stations/01443500.html accessed 24 August 2006.
- ^ http://pubs.usgs.gov/wri/wri934076/stations/01443500.html accessed 24 August 2006.
- ^ http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nj/nwis/current/?type=flow accessed 24 August 2006.
- ^ http://www.state.nj.us/drbc/Flood_Website/floodclaims_reference.htm accessed 24 August 2006.
- ^ Geographic Names Information System Feature Detail Report accessed 24 August 2006.
- ^ Snell, James P. (1881) History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey, With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. (Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1881), 23.
- ^ Thieme, Christopher D., On Crossroads and Signposts: An Etymology of Place Names in Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey. (New York: Newcastle Press, 2006 - release forthcoming) advance copies prior to release (scheduled October 2006) available, contact [1]
- ^ Anthony, A. S., Rev. and Brinton, Daniel G. Lenape-English Dictionary. (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1883).
- ^ Northwestern New Jersey--A History of Somerset, Morris, Hunterdon, Warren, and Sussex Counties, Vol. 1. (A. Van Doren Honeyman, ed. in chief, Lewis Historical Publishing Co., New York, 1927), 499.
- ^ Snell, op. cit., 379.
- ^ Thieme, op. cit.
- ^ Decker, Amelia Stickney, That Ancient Trail (Trenton, New Jersey: Privately printed, 1942), 151
- ^ Anthony and Brinton, op. cit.
- ^ Snell, op cit., 23; Thieme, op. cit.
- ^ Snell, op. cit., 688.
- ^ State Acquisitions Current Projects, Green Acres Program, NJ Department of Environmental Protection accessed 24 August 2006.
- ^ Paulinskill Valley Trail at Rails-to-Trail Conservancy accessed 24 August 2006.
External links
- Paulinskill Valley Trail Committee
- Map of The Paulinskill
- U.S. Geological Survey: NJ stream gaging stations
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