The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1890-05-11
JUST LIKE PUNCHBOVLS
How the Great Pequannock
Reservoirs Appear to
Newark Eyes.

NEWARK, May 10, 1s90.-A great punch
bowl, with sloping sides of grassy green,
a bowl from which all the people of New
ark might drink repeatedly without it's
being refilled-that is the thought sug-
gested by a glance at the deep valley at
Oak Ridge which is being converted into
a reservoir for the new water supply for
this city. The reporter first viewed the
scene from the road leading from Oak
Ridge Station, on the New YORK and
Susquehanna Railroad. a little further
down the road winds around the foot of q
low, steep hill, and the view changes
almost instantly The valley is entirely
hidden from view and the hill rises so
abruptly that the mountai ms in the dis
tance cannot be seen. A big derrick that
at first sight, partly hidden by a hill,
looked like hitching post, loofiied up in
it's real proportions. two steam engines
could be seen on top of the hill in log
houses. and a steam drill could be heard
putting and humping not far off.
The East Jersey Water Company,
which has the contract for the So, 00O, 600
water supply for this city, is at present
doing more work at this point than else
where. A farmhouse at the side of the
road has been converted into O business
office, and the barns and two or three
dwelling houses in the neighborhood are
occupied by Italian and Hungarian
laborers. About one hundred and
twenty-five are at present employed at
this place. The force has recently been
reduced on account of the introduction
of steam drills. The work is just now
necessarily confined to narrow limits,
but it was said by the men in charge OF
the work that more laborers would be
employed as soon as they could be
utilized
From the top of the hill, back of the
Office, at the point where the dam will be
constructed across the river TO the left,
broad, deep valley stretches out to the
view, reaching to the north about two
miles and a half, through which winds
down between grassy banks. The river
has its source in the mountains, five
miles above the valley, near the
villages of Canistear and Stock
holm. in Morris county, and on
its way down is fed by numerous noun
tain streams. When it reaches the VAL
lev the stream can scarcely be called q
river though it is more than brook. In
| some places it is from ten to fifteen feet
! In width, while at other points 1t broad
ems out to twenty and thirty feet i'll
width. The valley is from a quarter to
C1fee-I0urDLS Oh " lIlllG III Wlulu. w ueH
the reservoir is filed there will be about
four hundred acres OF water surface and
a depth OF about fifty feet in the deepest
part. The surveys have not yet been
completed, and until they are the quanti-
ty OF water cannot be estimated, nor the
height OF the dam determined upon.
BUILDING NEW ROADS.
At this point the Pequannock River
divides the counties of Morris and Pas
sale. Two public highways, belonging to
both counties, will be flooded when the
water is damned up, and during the
winter months workmen in the employ of
the company were engaged IN con
structing new roads on the company's land
on either side of the valley to take their
places The company has not yet OBJ
| tanned from the counties the right to de-
| stroy the old roads, but hopes to effect an
exchange without any difficulty. About
three miles of roads in the bottom of the
valley will be bl1tted out. One of them is
the road from Oak Ridge to Milton, and
the other tho road from Milton to Stock.
| holm.
The reservoir is q natural one and nc
excavation will be made excepting at the
side of the dam, where the gatehouse will
| be located Work was begun here about
q month ago. The hill back of the flee
already mentioned, is a mass of rock with
| a few feet of soil on top. just IN front of
the point from which the dam will extend
to the left deep cut is being made int he
rocky hill, like the letter l. inverted