The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-05-15
AROUND G REEN POND
Wild and Beautiful Scenery
Surrounding New Jer-
sey's Lake Gem.
IT'S UNIQUE BEACH FEATURE
Cut Out by Nature for a Summer
Resort But Never
Utilized.
IT'S UNIQUE BEACH FEATURE

Snugly stored away in a wild and re-
mote corner of Morris county is a most
attractive natural lake, which has prob
ably undergone fewer changes than any
other similar body of water in this State
during the last few thousand years, says
the Newark Sunday CALI 1t is known
as Green Pond, and every effort to
change the name to Green Lake has
failed. because of the ~pertinacity with
which the few steady visitors and old adj
mirers adhere to traditions, and yet it is
one Of the few inland bodies of water in
this State which have never been con-
verted into ponds by damming them for
water power. Perhaps the reason it has
escaped a dam is that nobody could see
that it had any visible means of sup
port, it being fed chiefly by hidden
springs n having little watershed in
proportion to its size. On the northwest
side the lake is sheltered by lofty pail
sades, sparsely covered with ~chestnuts,
oaks and other Indigenous trees. This
almost perpendicular and ievel-topped
wall is composed Of purple red conglom-
crate rock, known in this State as pud-
ding stone, because of it being spotted
with suet-like pebbles of feldspar. Great
blocks Of this stone, torn from the face
of the cliff by the frosts of ages, have
fallen to form a ragged talus on the lake
margin, and lie there piled up in pictur-
esque heaps, some of the blocks being
almost rectangular and almost as large
as a summer cottage. From top to bot
tom the rocks are covered with rich
purplish brown lichens, each flower as
10 rra ond a1pansf nc rap11l1r as a nriTn-
rose, while growing. from the crevices are
countless varieties of vines, shrubs and
young trees. On the crest of the cliff
is an almost untouched forest of ever
greens and deciduous trees and a thin
covering of turf, in which some of the
rarest forms of New Jerseys ford have
been found. Trickling down the face of
the hill n finding. their way noisily but
unseen under the masses of fallen rock,
are, numerous gurgling streams of water,
which materially aid in keeping the lake
full. On the southeast side the long slope
of Copperas mountain reaches down to
the water, and is covered with a young
growth of timber, which has on several
occasions been ravaged by fire. On this
shore the lake is quite shallow, while on
the bold side the water is scarcely less
than twenty feet deep anywhere within
a few yards of the shore, and down in
its clear depths great blocks of stone
which have fallen from the cliffs face
and pounded over the talus can be plain
ly seen, with the perch, bass and sun
fish swimming around them. The water
of the lake is marvellously clear every
where, and light colored objects can be
seen on the bottom at the depth of thirty
feet. There is little mud to be found any
where, the bottom being composed of the
| disintegrated conglomerate from the ab-
rupt hillside on the west. This forms a
| gray sand a little coarser than that OF
the Atlantic coast, and this sand covers
| nearly all of the bottom of the lake ana
makes a fine curved beach at the north
ern end. This beach is a most delightful
| feature of Green Pond. The clear water
| laps it in a miniature surf when the wlnd
is from the south. fine big trees shade 1t
in places from the fervor of the mid
| summer sun, and for bathing or Wadlng
| nothing safer or pleasanter could De
found, as a t0-year-old boy could n
ture out a hundred yards or more IN
many places without being in danger. A
picturesque lane leads down to the centre
| of this beach and along shore, as on the
shore of the sea, wagons can be drawn
Another place equally attractive for pic
nicking or ampines would be nara TO ma
in any part of New Jersey, and especlaliy
| within thirty miles of Newark. All along
the east shore are wooded hooks OF Level
ground, well shaded by trees. Close under
the cliff at the north end is a deilght1ul
spot where an old farm house once stood.
| while at the lower or southern END OF
the lake are many beautiful spots easily
accessible from the road which leads up
Green Pond is a little over three miles
| from Newfoundland, on the Susquehanna
Railroad, and slightly more than that
Denmark. Both roads leading to it are
| extremely picturesque and well shaded,
but the lower road leading in from Den
fact it would be difficult to find anywhere
in the State a more wildly beautiful
woodland way. A mile below the lax
there is a ravine WHICH in any other To-
| cality would be called a glen and be
filled up with rustic stairs and walks and
marked with pretty signs such as; sTo
van DELL" etc. Here the. ponderous cliff
towers straight up from the bed of Green
Pond X to a height of over 800 feet,
while tle bed of the ravine is. strewn, as
the shore Of the lake is. with great blocks
and slabs of stone, through which the
outlet stream boils and gurgles until it
| hides itself in a willow corpse a mile be-
low to emerge through a bed Of rushes
into old Middle Forge Pond, on the Gov
ernment powder depot at Pickaninny, and
| wind it's way thence through fiat meadow
| land to the Rockaway River neal Dover.
why has not Green Pond been more
popular as a Summer resort" will
| naturally be asked. There are old reasons
and new. 1t is not popular now because
there are no summer hotels and nothing
| but the most primitive accommodations
| there. When the Sunday CALI was first
| published, twenty-five years ago, there
| were but two houses at the lake in which
a stranger could obtain accommodations.
in the foregoing picture in the extreme
background against the hillside. 1t was
| kept by Squire James L. Davenport, who
| still owns the land and a fine farm be-
| sides at the. head of the lake. His neigh
Dor and intimate friend was the late
| Judge Andrew Cobb, upon whose place
was a log cabin occupied by an employee.
Hundreds of ardent anglers, who are
| gone and hundreds who are still alive
have slept upon the puncheon floor of the
attic of this little cabin during the last
half century or more, u gone out at
| day-break or even earlier to fish for the
| pickerel and perch for which the lake was
/ then famous. The cabin was built OF
squared logs, chinixed with clay and, for
a wonder. 1t had a cellar under it., which
has been used in recent years for the
wife, occupied this primitive. house when
| the Call was born had three or four
| boats and did business in renting them to
people who felt that they could not afford
| to put up at the hotel, where the owner
| Of the land, Judge Cobb, was wont to
stop. Their came a change, and the
| Green Pond for many years, and really it
| has never recovered from the shock. The
| story goes that Judge Cobb quarreled