Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is a

national recreation area A national recreation area (NRA) is a protected area in the United States established by an Act of Congress to preserve enhanced recreational opportunities in places with significant natural and scenic resources. There are 40 NRAs, which emphasiz ...

administered by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

in northwest

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 northeast

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. It is centered around a stretch of the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...

designated the Middle Delaware National Scenic River. At the area's southern end lays the

Delaware Water Gap Delaware Water Gap is a water gap on the border of the U.S. states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania where the Delaware River cuts through a large ridge of the Appalachian Mountains. The gap makes up the southern portion of the Delaware Water Gap N ...

, a dramatic mountain pass where the river cuts between Blue Mountain and

Kittatinny Mountain Kittatinny Mountain (Lenape: Kitahtëne) is a long ridge traversing primarily across Sussex County in northwestern New Jersey, running in a northeast-southwest axis, a continuation across the Delaware Water Gap of Pennsylvania's Blue Mountain ...

More than 4 million people visit the recreation area annually, many from the nearby

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass, at , and one of the list of most populous metropolitan areas, most populous urban agg ...

. Canoeing, kayaking, and rafting trips down the river are popular in the summer. Other activities include hiking, rock climbing, swimming, fishing, hunting, camping, cycling, cross-country skiing, and horseback riding.

Worthington State Forest Worthington State Forest is a state forest located in Warren County, New Jersey within the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, just north of the water gap in the Skylands Region of the state. It covers an area of and stretches for mor ...

and a section of the long-distance

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail (also called the A.T.), is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian Tr ...

are located within the area, alongside numerous waterfalls and historic sites. The region, known historically as the

Minisink The Minisink or (more recently) Minisink Valley is a loosely defined geographic region of the Upper Delaware River valley in northwestern New Jersey (Sussex County, New Jersey, Sussex and Warren County, New Jersey, Warren counties), northeastern P ...

, was inhabited by the

Munsee The Munsee (or Minsi or Muncee) or mə́n'si·w ( del, Monsiyok)Online Lenape Talking Dictionary, "Munsee Indians"Link/ref> are a subtribe of the Lenape, originally constituting one of the three great divisions of that nation and dwelling along t ...

at the time of

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

and French

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

colonization in the late 17th century. The national recreation area was established in 1965 ahead of a dam project which would have flooded a large region north of the Water Gap. Over 15,000 people were displaced as the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

acquired land for the reservoir. The controversial project was ultimately canceled in 1978 and the land transferred to the recreation area. There are recent efforts to re-designate the area as a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

, the first in New Jersey or Pennsylvania.

Description

The recreation area includes parts of

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

and

Warren A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval Angl ...

counties in New Jersey, and Monroe,

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

, and

Pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

counties in Pennsylvania. The

runs along much of the eastern boundary of the park and is maintained and updated by the

New York–New Jersey Trail Conference The New York – New Jersey Trail Conference (NYNJTC) is a volunteer-based federation of approximately 10,000 individual members and about 100 member organizations (mostly hiking clubs and environmental organizations). The conference coordina ...

The park offers historical and cultural sites including the Minisink Archaeological Site, Millbrook Village, and the arts center in Peters Valley and rural scenery approximately an hour's drive from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The park has significant Native American archaeological sites. In addition, a number of structures remain from early

settlement during the colonial period. Outdoor recreational activities include canoeing, hiking, camping, swimming, cycling, cross-country skiing, horseback riding, and picnicking. Fishing and hunting are permitted in season with valid state licenses. The area is also noted for its many waterfalls. These include Buttermilk Falls, the tallest falls in New Jersey at about , and Raymondskill Falls, the tallest in Pennsylvania at about .

Geology and geography

Delaware Water Gap

The namesake feature of the recreation area is the prominent

, located at the area's southern end. The Delaware River runs through the gap, separating Pennsylvania's

Mount Minsi Mount Minsi forms the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware Water Gap, and is the eastern extent of the Blue Mountain. It is composed of sandstone and conglomerates of the Shawangunk Formation. Hiking The easiest route to the summit of Minsi is ...

on Blue Mountain, elevation , from New Jersey's

Mount Tammany Mount Tammany is the southernmost peak of the Kittatinny Mountains, in Knowlton Township, Warren County, New Jersey, United States. It is tall, and forms the east side of the Delaware Water Gap. Across the Gap is Mount Minsi, on the Pennsylvani ...

, elevation . The gap is less than wide at river level and less than wide at the ridge line. The river is about wide at the gap. The gap has long facilitated transportation across the ridge, with Pennsylvania building the first road through the gap in 1793. Today,

I-80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

occupies the eastern side of the gap, while PA 611 and the

Pocono Mainline The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad) was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey (and by ferry with New York City), a distance of . Incorporated in ...

of the

Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad is a shortline railroad operating in Northeastern Pennsylvania, especially the Scranton area. DL began service in August 1993 and is the designated operator for of trackage in Lackawanna, Wayne, Northampton, a ...

runs through the western side.

Minisink

The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area incorporates much of the historical

. The Minisink (or more recently "Minisink Valley") is a loosely defined geographic region of the Upper

valley in northwestern

(

and

counties), northeastern

(

and Monroe counties) and New York (

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

and Sullivan counties). The name was derived by Dutch colonists from the

name for the area. While the term "Minisink" is not used often today, it is preserved because of its historical significance in the early European settlement of the region during the American colonial period and as an artifact of the early "first contact" between Native Americans and early European explorers, traders and missionaries in the seventeenth century.

History

Delaware Water Gap MET DP837869 (cropped)

At the time of European contact, the Minisink was inhabited by

, the northern branch 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 ...

. The area's first European settlers arrived in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and were

and French

families from colonial New York's

Hudson River Valley The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to Yo ...

Tocks Island Dam project

The Delaware River is prone to floods—some resulting from seasonal snow melt or rain run-off from heavy rainstorms. However, record flooding occurred in August 1955 in the aftermath of two separate

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

s (

Hurricane Connie Hurricane Connie was a Category 4 hurricane that contributed to significant flooding across the eastern United States in August 1955, just days before Hurricane Diane affected the same general area. Connie formed on August 3 from a tropical ...

and

Hurricane Diane Hurricane Diane was the first Atlantic hurricane to cause more than an estimated $1 billion in damage (in 1955 dollars, which would be $ today), including direct costs and the loss of business and personal revenue. It formed on August ...

) that passed over the area within the span of one week. On 19 August 1955, the river gauge at

Riegelsville, Pennsylvania Riegelsville is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 868 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia-Wilmington-Camden Metropolitan Statistical Area, des ...

recorded that the Delaware River reached a crest of 38.85 feet, or 16.85 feet above flood stage. A project to dam the river near

Tocks Island A 1950s proposal to construct a dam near Tocks Island across the Delaware River was met with considerable controversy and protest. Tocks Island is located in the Delaware River a short distance north from the Delaware Water Gap. In order to co ...

was in the works before the 1955 floods. But several deaths and severe damages resulting from these floods brought the issue of flood control to the national level. The

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

proposed the construction of the dam, which would have created a 37-mile (60-km) long lake between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with depths of up to 140 feet. The area around the lake would be established as the ''Tocks Island National Recreation Area'' under the oversight of the

, to offer recreation activities such as hunting, hiking, fishing, and boating. In addition to flood control and recreation, the dam would be used to generate

hydroelectric power Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

and provide a clean water supply to New York City and Philadelphia. Starting in 1960, the present-day area of the Recreation Area was acquired for the Army Corps of Engineers through

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

. Approximately 15,000 people were displaced by the condemnation of personal property along the Delaware River and the surrounding area. An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 dwellings and outbuildings were demolished in preparation for the dam project and subsequent flooding of the valley. This included many irreplaceable historical sites and structures connected with the valley's Native American and colonial heritage.

Establishment of the recreation area

In support of the Tocks Island Dam project, Congress authorized the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in 1965. The area was intended to encompass a narrow strip of shoreline surrounding the reservoir, in part to make the project more cost-effective. The dam project was embroiled in controversy, engendering strong opposition from environmental groups and embittered, displaced residents. Due to this opposition, the unavailability of funding for the dam, and a geological assessment revealing the dam would be located near active

fault lines In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

, the federal government ultimately decided to abandon the project in 1978. The lands acquired were then transferred to the

and added to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

Recent history

The recreation area is currently facing major under-funding. Deferred maintenance costs total over $161 million, with an annual $6 million routine maintenance cost. In November 2021, a proposal was introduced to redesignate the recreational area as a full-fledged

, which would make it the first such park in Pennsylvania or New Jersey. Local

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

chapters have supported this proposal, claiming it would help to improve the Recreation Area's infrastructure and capacity for tourists.

Superintendents and regional affiliations

Previous and current superintendents of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area include: * Peter DeGelleke, 1965–1973 * James McLaughlin, 1973–1979 * Albert "Amos" Hawking, 1979–1988 * Richard Ring, 1988–1992 * Roger Rector, 1992–1997 * William Laitner, 1997–2003 * John Donahue, 2003–2017 * Sula Jacobs, 2018–present The park is currently a part of Interior Region 1 of the National Park Service. It was originally a part of the Northeast region, and later the North Atlantic-Appalachian Region.

Gallery

File:Marie Zimmerman Farm Hog Barn DWG NPS.jpg, The Hog Barn at the Pennsylvania farm of artist

Marie Zimmermann Marie Zimmermann (June 17, 1879 – June 17, 1972) was an American designer and maker of jewelry and metalwork. She is noted for fine craftsmanship and innovative design in a variety of different mediums and styles. Calling herself “a craftsman ...

File:Raymondkill.jpg, Raymondskill Falls File:Dingmansfalls.jpg, Dingman's Falls File:Middle Delaware River above Walpack Bend.jpg, Middle Delaware River above Walpack Bend File:Delaware Water Gap.jpg, View of

from Delaware Water Gap

Notable sites within the Park

Brau Kettle The Brau Kettle is a geological feature known as a karst that is located along the Wallpack Ridge in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in Sandyston Township, New Jersey. Its name derives from the Dutch for "brewing kettle" or "boiling ...

* Brodhead Farm * Callahan House * Cold Spring Farm Springhouse *

Dingman's Ferry Dutch Reformed Church Dingman's Ferry Dutch Reformed Church is a historic Dutch Reformed church located on U.S. Route 209 in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area at Dingman's Ferry, Delaware Township, Pike County, Pennsylvania. It was designed in 1837, ...

Metz Ice Plant The Metz Ice Plant, also known as the Jacob Klaer Gristmill and the Milford Ice and Refrigeration Company, is an historic, American ice manufacturing plant that is located in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in Milford, Pike County, ...

* John Michael Farm * Military Trail *

Nyce Farm The Nyce Farm, also known as the Eshback Farm and Van Gordon House, is an historic, American home and farm complex that is located in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in Lehman Township, Pike County, Pennsylvania, Lehman Township, ...

Schoonover Mountain House The Schoonover Mountain House, also known as the Schoonover Farm, is an historic, American home that is located in Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area at Middle Smithfield Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania, Middle Smithfield Township, ...

* Capt. Jacob Shoemaker House *

John Turn Farm John Turn Farm is a historic farm complex located in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area at Middle Smithfield Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania, USA. The complex includes the lime kiln, smoke house and weave house. The property al ...

* Marie Zimmermann Farm * Van Campen's Inn *

Raymondskill Falls There are many waterfalls in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, a national recreation area managed by the National Park Service in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. List Buttermilk Falls Buttermilk Falls is one of the tallest waterfall ...

* Zion Lutheran Church *

List of waterfalls of the Delaware Water Gap There are many waterfalls in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, a national recreation area managed by the National Park Service in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. List Buttermilk Falls Buttermilk Falls is one of the tallest waterfall ...

References

External links

National Park Service: Delaware Water Gap National Recreation AreaThe Friends Of The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation AreaThings to do in Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
{{authority control National Park Service National Recreation Areas National Park Service Wild and Scenic Rivers Wild and Scenic Rivers of the United States Pocono Mountains Delaware Water Gap National Park Service areas in New Jersey National Park Service areas in Pennsylvania Protected areas of Sussex County, New Jersey Protected areas of Warren County, New Jersey Protected areas of Northampton County, Pennsylvania Protected areas of Monroe County, Pennsylvania Protected areas of Pike County, Pennsylvania Protected areas established in 1965 1965 establishments in New Jersey 1965 establishments in Pennsylvania