The sun., 1901-04-07
JERSEYS NEWEST LAKE.
PROGRESS or THE WORK on JERSEY
CITYS WATER SYSTEM.


tons Ucadgunfters 10 to-NeHc initNeS
at work Mistake About sa old Forge.
BoovroN, y y. April o-Nearly one thou
san nd acres Of what T. now n beautiful valley
covered with fine farms and dotted with eS-
ccllcnt farmhonsrs. some OF them dating back
to Colonial times. and one Of them nt least
of much historical interest. will year hence
De a great mountain lake two miles In length,
n mile or more in breadth and from so TO
100 feet In depth. The engineer In charge
of the construction Of the great Banta dam
and the reservoir or lake referred to estimate
that they will bc ready 10 deliver To Jersey
civ the entire 30. OoOO0 gallons Of water
a day which the contract cnllS for.
With the first settled warm spring weather
the construction of tie dam proper Will be-
gin The trench for II. stretching across the
valley. has been made. together with the
artificial channel through which tho brawling
little Rockaway River IL % be diverted from
IL. channel while the dam across the river
bed proper i being built Meantime. up In
the Hog Mountain ouarries three miles away
the stonccuttcrs and blasters have been
getting ogt and dressing the granite with
which the dam is to be constructed.
About four hundred men are now at work.
When the warm weather comes and the great
task Is fully under way something II Ike two
thousand " III be employed. Ipt0 the present
time the work has been all OF preliminary
charaCtnr--the running Of lines, the erection
Of ali the various kinda Of shops needed. the
digging Of the trench. ana, anoye an, tne
clearing Of the ground, lhi' last-named
work i iqSt now the lnn.t N eVuente S mnss p,IYss
are hnrd at il cutting down timber ana rip
plnr out the stImps with blasts Of dynamite
BY the hlu" colnn,nI oi smoke ana ta" ;raSn raaa
pf explosives In all directions you may trace
tho operations Of those ioDor"r1
The work Of tearing down the buildings
which must 60 has not begun yet Mr fnhss
gibbons who owned the most interesting ot
some .r two months rro The old .Fitzeibbons
homestead has had so many additions and
l. so moderni1ed that the simple. firm INES
of the colonial nucleus " the structure are
somewhat lost f. the tumble. But the old
colonial core OF the building stil remains
nac There is Gra1. 49ITiag oIm,ioSg,ry rIIT stvTe
with large handsome rooms on each side
In each Of these rooms there are deep nreI
places, and what give! these nrePlhces ana
the entire house a special interest," Is the tde'
that in the dark DAYS Of the RevQlutlQh
when Washington wns lowering with ms
rarced, hnlf.harcfooted army IN these Jersey
hills he pa-Sed many days in thus old fltL-
gihhon, house and toasted his ~hins before
tho Nros in those nrcpiac"s Lafayette was
with him IN those days and he, 100. occupIei
the old house with Washington,
short distance down the road there IS
nm old stone house, fronting immediately
on he roadway. IN which the oWcetS ~
Wo-hiuytou's staff lived while the COM
m1udnr-in-C Chief and Lafayette occupied
the EuHgibbons house. or course ms "u
stone house must 90, too To be sure II
might stand and do no particular harIh TO TO
tho reservoir, but "a II would have 81 or lpV
foot Of water over II there would be- no great
advantage In preserving II even as 4 rene
Il will be rn2ed like every other structure
within he area of the reservoir ,,
when Mr. Fiugibbon- left his historicai
old home a couple of months ago be locked
u up. ~ he supposed, securely. lh"i" was
nothing in particular left in II 20 steal anyway,
hc Thought, and about all IA" danger Seenlrd
~ br from tramp- or some Of the reservoir
workm"n getting IN and using III" hou q lot
a lodging. with ia" usual promising chliiYs
under such Circum~t ucos that they would
set fire to it. But MIR Fu2RlhbonS counted
without IN" relic hunters. IN one 0i tiIr
large front rooms of the old colonial ptrt
of the house there was n heiutliul Uhntrl-
piece, made in England, II Is HIlG. ana I'M
pOrtrd TO this country, as much or IN" me
Interior woodwork IN American houses was
once upon "A time II WIS MIR, flIglhbonS :
Intention 10 present this fine old chimney
piece 10 som" historical society. So he was
ANYTHING hut pleased when he returned 70 The
old house 70 few weeks ago and found that
not only the mautrIpiec" hut large wlI
ornament in wood thEt had been tNed IN The
wun hotwc"u two windows in another room
had been stolen bodily.
1t was no small labor to tear these hNtures
from the walls whprn they had been so many
yeors But the ioh was done, and done
rather neatly, and tho. relics, valuable from
their associHtiOus with Washington alone,
have vanished or course no ordinary plum
dnrcrS did hi, bin of burglary II was the
hgndvurk Of somebody who knew the his
tory Of tho old house and the antique value
There ha, boon a good deal of harmless
sentiment l,iug over tho coming destruction
Of another SUPPOSED R"yolu'onory relic in
come tiou win tao building ol the Bantn
Dnm reservoir ami that j. n" old forge
known "a Liberty Forge, used during IT."
struggle for In irurnirnce TO make cannon
bah, for WASHINGTON army The structure
has been INFINITELY described and people
have come from great distances - look on ~
wal- bnforr it"r were SWEPT away for
ever A. a mntt'r of fact, . walls That
we're TIM, muuruei over wcr" those Of
FItgIhhon-'- CONT lrntivoly o. odorn paper
mill The old force was de,trov"1 long
ago, although H. found l'ion walls may be
ii seen cio.r :, the banks of the river nj
only a short distance from the old Tt2gih-
hons homestead II was built in l70l. this
uli forV" and did turn uut hundreds OF can
non balls Tor tho H"yolutonlrv army. NJ
time when thav Woro so SoTr!r needed Mat
Ni-hngtuu moro than once expressed his
thaukNlno.s that the Boonton forge was in
cNl-'uuC"
from tho reservoir 80 jersey city j. work Of
no small dimensions in itself II will be
tw cuty-throo miles long and II boreS through
mountains and dives twlc" unlcr the bed
ni flr pls-air anal once under that Of the
Iiaryru.lri on it, vav. The distance around
tho reservoir lruror will b" about ten miles,
ami. although thor" will b" no pnrk-liEc
ELECTS Attempted, tHcre will be a GI-foot
road All around. which naturally viii make
q very holuurui drive
mi. uurt Of Jrr."v has long hecn noted
FOR .ts !Os.I form Ii.o ons, and when the Golfer
dam was put down unl the excavations
mHtc within II grcIt Quantities Oi -ngularlv
pcrfert fish murNugs ana tracks OF animals
Of Iu-t geological ora- we're found When
. Ell, NF. 4 vail a. a Nnu