Lord Stirling Park is a 925/950 acreSomerset County Parks Commission: Parks, Programs % People, Fall 2008 Edition, page 3 park operated by the Somerset County Park Commission and located in

Basking Ridge Basking Ridge is an Local government in New Jersey#Unincorporated communities, unincorporated community located within Bernards Township, New Jersey, Bernards Township in the Somerset Hills region of Somerset County, New Jersey, Somerset Count ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, and separated from the

Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge The Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is located in Morris County, New Jersey. Established in 1960, it now is among what has grown to be more than 550 refuges in the United States National Wildlife Refuge System. The initial portion of the ...

by the

Passaic River Passaic River ( ) is a river, approximately 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, ...

. The park displays a diverse ecosystem in floodplains of the upper Passaic River and its contributors and contains swamps, fields, forests, brooks, marshes, and meadows. Lord Stirling Park has two major parts. It is home to the Somerset County Environmental Education Center which contains and provides educational services for visitors and contains a gift shop; it is also the starting point for a number of hiking trails for the exploration of the park. The office and education building was the first public building in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

that was solar-heated when opened in 1977.Somerset County Park Commission: Welcome to the Environmental Education Center at Lord Stirling Park, public brochure (2008) The original hot water solar heating system panels were replaced in 2013 with solar photovoltaic panels. The Lord Stirling Stable is an equestrian center with stables, an indoor arena, outdoor rings, and about of dedicated horseback trails in its section of the Lord Stirling Park. The area was prehistorically part of the

Glacial Lake Passaic 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.Stanford, Scott D. “Glacial Lake Passaic.” ''Unearthing New Jerse ...

. For thousands of years it has been inhabited, and current archeological sites explore the artifacts of the

Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...

civilization. The park is named after

William Alexander, Lord Stirling William Alexander, also known as Lord Stirling (1726 – 15 January 1783), was a Scottish-American major general during the American Revolutionary War. He was considered male heir to the Scottish title of Earl of Stirling through Scottish line ...

, a general of the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

whose estate included the area. His manor is in an unopened part of the park.

References

External links

Somerset County Park Commission
{{Nature centers in New Jersey County parks in New Jersey Parks in Somerset County, New Jersey Passaic River Nature centers in New Jersey Education in Somerset County, New Jersey