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| Federal Hill | |
|---|---|
 Federal Hill seen from Riverdale, NJ | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | ≈400 feet (120 m) |
| Coordinates | 41°00′17″N74°18′38″W / 41.004711°N 74.310524°W |
| Geography | |
  Federal Hill  Federal Hill  Federal Hill | |
| Parent range | New Jersey Highlands |
Federal Hill is a ridge nestled in the foothills of the New Jersey Highlands. It is located in the town of Bloomingdale in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
The hill is in the northern part of the state, in the New Jersey Highlands region, which is known for its rugged terrain, forests, and lakes. The ridgeline rises approximately 400 feet (120 m) above sea level, and is surrounded by other rugged hills and ridges, including Pompton Mountain and the Ramapo Mountains to the west. [1] Following a generally northeastern course, Federal Hill and the NJ Highlands area are part of the same orogen as the Appalachian Mountains further west in the state. [2]
The area is part of the Passaic River watershed, which collects water from a number of NJ highlands streams and lakes in the region. The Pompton River, which flows northward from the Ramapo Mountains, passes through the valley to the east of Federal Hill and provided water power for mills and other industries in the area. The Pequannock River also runs south of the ridge and is a popular destination for fishing. [2]
The ridge has been referenced as having served as part of a beacon network, consisting of a series of signal stations located at strategic points along the coast and on high ground, where fires could be lit and seen from a great distance. Set up by George Washington's Continental Army, the "Blue Hills Beacons" were used by both sides and played an important role in many key battles and campaigns, including the Battle of Long Island and the Siege of Boston. [3]
The area was the site of the Pompton Mutiny, an insurrection of American soldiers in the winter of 1781. Caused by a number of grievances, including lack of pay, poor living conditions, and a lack of provisions, the soldiers, who were mostly from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, mutinied against their officers and demanded better treatment and payment. The mutiny was later solved through negotiations, however some perpetrators were later prosecuted and punished for their actions on Federal Hill. [4]
In the twentieth century, the Amnerika-Deutscher Volksbund, or German-American Bund as it is commonly referred to, constructed a youth camp on Federal Hill called Camp Bergwald. The camp was active during the interwar period, amidst a resurgence in German nationalism in the United States due to Adolf Hitler's ascent to power in Germany in 1934. [5] Activities of the German-American Bund continued there until American involvement in World War II in 1941, when it was shut down by the FBI.
The area has also been the site of the Riverdale Quarry, a granite gneiss quarry that has been in operation since the early 1900s owned by Tilcon. Producing crushed stone and other materials for construction, it has been an important source of jobs and economic activity in the region for over 100 years. Stone from the quarry on Federal Hill has provided rock for the entrance steps and atriums of several national landmarks in Washington, D.C. [6]
Route 23 is a state highway in the northern part of New Jersey, United States. The route runs 52.63 mi (84.70 km) from County Route 506 and County Route 577 in Verona, Essex County northwest to the border with New York at Montague Township in Sussex County, where the road continues to Port Jervis, New York, as Orange County Route 15. Route 23 heads through Essex and Passaic Counties as a two- to four-lane surface road and becomes a six-lane freeway north of a complex interchange with U.S. Route 46 and Interstate 80 in Wayne. The freeway carries Route 23 north to a concurrency with U.S. Route 202. Past the freeway portion, the route heads northwest along the border of Morris and Passaic Counties as a four- to six-lane arterial road with a wide median at places, winding through mountainous areas and crossing Interstate 287 in Riverdale. The route continues northwest through Sussex County as a mostly two-lane surface road that passes through farmland and woodland as well as the communities of Franklin, Hamburg, and Sussex before reaching the New York state line, just south of an interchange with Interstate 84 and US 6 in Port Jervis, in Montague Township near High Point State Park.
Scouting in New Jersey has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live. The second Boy Scouts of America National Headquarters was in North Brunswick, although it was referred to in BSA publications as being in neighboring New Brunswick.
Bloomingdale is a borough in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 7,777, an increase of 121 (+1.6%) from the 2010 census count of 7,656, which in turn reflected an increase of 46 (+0.6%) from the 7,610 counted in the 2000 census.
Pompton Lakes is a borough in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 11,127, an increase of 30 (+0.3%) from the 2010 census count of 11,097, which in turn reflected an increase of 457 (+4.3%) from the 10,640 counted in the 2000 census.
Ringwood is a borough in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 11,735, a decrease of 493 (−4.0%) from the 2010 census count of 12,228, which in turn reflected a decrease of 168 (−1.4%) from the 12,396 counted in the 2000 census.
The Passaic River is a river, approximately 80 miles (130 km) long, in Northern New Jersey. The river in its upper course flows in a highly circuitous route, meandering through the swamp lowlands between the ridge hills of rural and suburban northern New Jersey, called the Great Swamp, draining much of the northern portion of the state through its tributaries.
Lake Passaic was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed in northern New Jersey in the United States at the end of the last ice age approximately 19,000–14,000 years ago. The lake was formed of waters released by the retreating Wisconsin Glacier, which had pushed large quantities of earth and rock ahead of its advance, blocking the previous natural drainage of the ancestral Passaic River through a gap in the central Watchung Mountains. The lake persisted for several thousand years as melting ice and eroding moraine dams slowly drained the former lake basin. The effect of the lake's creation permanently altered the course of the Passaic River, forcing it to take a circuitous route through the northern Watchung Mountains before spilling out into the lower piedmont.
The Watchung Mountains are a group of three long low ridges of volcanic origin, between 400 and 500 feet high, lying parallel to each other in northern New Jersey in the United States. The name is derived from the American Native Lenape name for them, Wach Unks. In the 18th century, the Euro-American settlers also called them the Blue Mountains or Blue Hills. The Watchung Mountains are known for their numerous scenic vistas overlooking the skylines of New York City and Newark, New Jersey, as well as their isolated ecosystems containing rare plants, endangered wildlife, rich minerals, and globally imperiled trap rock glade communities. The ridges traditionally contained the westward spread of urbanization, forming a significant geologic barrier beyond the piedmont west of the Hudson River; the town of Newark, for example, once included lands from the Hudson to the base of the mountains. Later treaties moved the boundary to the top of the mountain, to include the springs.
The Pompton River is a tributary of the Passaic River, approximately 8 miles (13 km) long, in Passaic County in northern New Jersey in the United States.
The Pequannock River is a tributary of the Pompton River, approximately 20 miles (32 km) long, located in northern New Jersey in the United States.
The Ramapo River is a tributary of the Pompton River, approximately 30 mi (48 km) long, in southern New York and northern New Jersey in the United States.
The Skylands Region is a region of New Jersey located in the northern and central parts of the state. It is one of six tourism regions established by the New Jersey State Department of Tourism; the others are Gateway Region, Greater Atlantic City Region, the Southern Shore Region, the Delaware River Region, and the Shore Region.
New Jersey is a state within the United States of America that lies on the north eastern edge of the North American continent. It shares a land border with the state of New York along the north, ratified by both states after the New York – New Jersey Line War, which is its only straight line border.
New Jersey is a very geologically and geographically diverse region in the United States' Middle Atlantic region, offering variety from the Appalachian Mountains and the Highlands in the state's northwest, to the Atlantic Coastal Plain region that encompasses both the Pine Barrens and the Jersey Shore. The state's geological features have impacted the course of settlement, development, commerce and industry over the past four centuries.
The Northern New Jersey Council was formed in January 1999 and serves Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Passaic counties as an effort to better serve the Scouting communities encompassed in these areas.
Goffle Hill, also referred to as Goffle Mountain and historically known as Totoway Mountain and Wagaraw Mountain, is a range of the trap rock Watchung Mountains on the western edge of the Newark Basin in northern New Jersey. The hill straddles part of the border of Bergen County and Passaic County, underlying a mostly suburban setting. While hosting patches of woodlands, perched wetlands, and traprock glades, the hill is largely unprotected from development. Extensive quarrying for trap rock has obliterated large tracts of the hill in North Haledon, and Prospect Park. Conservation efforts seeking to preserve undeveloped land, such as the local Save the Woods initiative (2007–present), are ongoing.
The Watchung Outliers include six areas of isolated low hills and rock outcrops of volcanic and sedimentary origin in the U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. These geologic outliers are primarily diminutive and detached remnants of the Triassic/Jurassic age Watchung Mountain basalt flows with intervening layers of sedimentary rock. All six of the outliers are found along the western edge of the Newark Basin, occupying small synclines adjacent to the Ramapo fault system. The outliers, from north to south, are known as: Ladentown, Union Hill, New Germantown/Oldwick, Prospect Hill, Sand Brook, and Jacksonwald.
The Pompton Mutiny, also referred to as the Federal Hill Rebellion, was a revolt of Continental Army troops at Pompton Camp in what was then Pompton Township, New Jersey, present-day Bloomingdale, New Jersey, that occurred on January 20, 1781, beneath the command of Colonel Israel Shreve.
The New York – New Jersey Highlands is a geological formation composed primarily of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rock running from the Delaware River near Musconetcong Mountain, northeast through the Skylands Region of New Jersey along the Bearfort Ridge and the Ramapo Mountains, Sterling Forest, Harriman and Bear Mountain State Parks in New York, to the Hudson River at Storm King Mountain. The northern region is also known as the Hudson Highlands and the southern as the New Jersey Highlands. A broader definition would extend the region west to Reading, Pennsylvania, and east to the Housatonic River in Connecticut, encompassing the Reading Prong. The highlands are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains.
Wanaque Reservoir is a man-made lake located within Wanaque and Ringwood, New Jersey along the Wanaque River. The reservoir came into being in 1928 by the construction of the Raymond Dam along the river in Wanaque. Besides the Wanaque River, the reservoir receives water from two diversions: the Pompton Lakes intake, which takes water from the Ramapo River, and the Two Bridges intake, which takes water from the Pompton River. It is the second largest reservoir in New Jersey by volume, after Round Valley Reservoir. It is the second largest body of water in New Jersey by area, after Lake Hopatcong.