Goffle Brook is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainag ...

of 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, ...

which flows south through a section of

Passaic County Passaic County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of New Jersey that is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the population of Passaic County was enumerated at 524,118, an increase of 22,892 (4.6%) from ...

and

Bergen County Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

and drains the eastern side of the First Watchung Mountain. Heading up the brook from the confluence with the Passaic River, one encounters the borough of Hawthorne, the village of Ridgewood, the borough of Midland Park, and the township of Wyckoff.

History

Goffle Brook has seen human occupation for hundreds of years, as evidenced by abundant

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 inclu ...

camp sites along its banks. Two such camps are known to have existed near the brook’s mouth, while another two existed about one and a half miles upstream on the east bank. A fifth camp, still locally remembered, sat at the confluence of

Deep Voll Brook Deep Voll Brook, also known as Deep Brook (USGS captioned name), is a tributary of Goffle Brook and part of the Passaic River watershed. The brook drains part of the eastern flank of First Watchung Mountain, cutting through portions of Bergen ...

and Goffle Brook. During the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of ...

General Lafayette Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (, ), was a French aristocrat, freemason and military officer who fought in the American Revoluti ...

stationed his men along the banks of the brook. In 1780, Major Lee’s Virginia light horse troop occupied the east bank of the brook, while Lafayette’s light infantry corps occupied the flanks of First Watchung Mountain to the west. Lafayette’s headquarters sat on the western bank of the brook in what is now Goffle Brook Park south of Diamond Bridge Ave in Hawthorne. Prior to the twentieth century, the brook’s gradation supported saw, grain, and grist mills. It was probably instrumental in initial settlement and farming of the northern Passaic River valley. In addition to it uses as a drinking water supply and an energy source for mills, the brook has served as a focus for human creativity. New Jersey native

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both ped ...

immortalized the brook in his 1949 poem ''Spring is Here Again, Sir''. The poem opens with the line, ''Goffle brook of a May day blossoms in the manner of antiquity''. Today, Goffle Brook serves as the centerpiece of Goffle Brook Park and Kings Pond Park, providing fishing and ice skating opportunities to local residents.

Relationship with the NYS&W Railway

The New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway parallels Goffle Brook for the majority of its route through Hawthorne, Ridgewood, Midland Park, and Wyckoff, running roughly along the centerline of the Goffle Brook drainage basin. The railroad crosses the brook only twice, once in Ridgewood and again in Midland Park.

Tributaries

Traveling north along the brook from its mouth, the first tributary encountered is Janes Brook, in Hawthorne. Much of this small stream, which can be found in the wooded, southern section of Goffle Brook Park, was converted to a buried sewer in the twentieth century, but a tiny portion still remains at the surface where it empties into Goffle Brook. The second tributary encountered along Goffle Brook is

or Deep Brook (captioned name used by the USGS in 1995), which joins Goffle Brook just north of Goffle Hill Road at the far northern end of Goffle Brook Park in Hawthorne.

, which flows from northwest to southeast, is the most significant tributary of Goffle Brook, draining a sizeable portion of the northeastern corner of First Watchung Mountain in Hawthorne and Wyckoff. Beyond

are two smaller streams that join Goffle Brook relatively close to each other. Both of these less significant tributaries appear to be unnamed. After these two tributaries is yet another tiny tributary that drains a small swamp at the head of Kings Pond, a manmade lake in southwest Ridgewood. Continuing north, past the tributary at Kings Pond, Goffle Brook splits into western and eastern branches at Maple Lake, a former manmade swimming hole that was drained in the late 1980s. Of the two branches, the eastern branch is less significant, extending a short distance through Wyckoff before ending just inside the southern limit of Waldwick. The western branch almost completely bisects the town of Wyckoff through the midsection, ending west of Russell Ave at Goffle Pond, the source of Goffle Brook.

Dams

Seven dams exist along Goffle Brook, although ten existed historically. In Hawthorne, a former dam at the southern end of Goffle Brook Park once held back Mill Pond. A dam just south of Goffle Hill Road now forms Arnold's Pond, often referred to as the ''Duck Pond''. In Ridgewood, a dam just north of Rock Road forms Gypsy Pond, and a bigger dam just a little further upstream holds back Kings Pond. The current fourth and fifth dams exist just to the west of where Goffle Road crosses the brook in Midland Park. A dam that was destroyed during a storm lies just upstream from Sicomac Avenue bridge. This dam was held back the waters to form Morrow Pond which was a swimming hole in Midland Park. North of Canterbury Lane in Wyckoff a dam used to exist which held back Maple Lake, now a wetland in danger of development. Two more dams create large lakes on the north and south sides Wyckoff Ave, again in Wyckoff.

References

External links

TopoQuest map depicting Goffle Brook in Hawthorne2007 Water Resources Data brief on USGS's Goffle Brook stream gage
{{authority control Rivers of Bergen County, New Jersey Rivers of Passaic County, New Jersey Tributaries of the Passaic River Rivers of New Jersey