Green Acres funds provided the rest. Vanishing Ironworks of the Ramapos. The Wawayanda Plateau, perched on the NJ Highlands, is part of the Reading Prong, a finger of very ancient mountains formed long before the Appalachians. Wawayanda is one of the few places along the highlands where the granite bedrock is visible. This rock is about 1 billion years old, the oldest rock you will see in this entire region.
Granite is igneous rock, formed by the melting and cooling of a variety of minerals.
It is dense and impermeable. Thus, especially on such a flat plateau as this, water collects in small depressions and forms swamps, making the whole area generally moister than land to the east or west. This is the souther part consisting of 1,325 acres. Oak hardwood forest. Timber rattlesnake and bog turtle here.