Old Mine Road
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Old Mine Road is a road in New Jersey and New York said by many to be the oldest continuously-used road in the United States of America. At a length of 104 miles, it stretches from Kittatinny Point in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area to the vicinity of Kingston, New York.
Among the many theories regarding the early history of the road, it is traditionally believed that Dutch miners began construction of the road in the 1600s in order to transport copper ore from mines along the Delaware River in Pahaquarry Township, New Jersey to Esopus (now Kingston) along the Hudson River in Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. Many historians, though, discount much of this tradition. Starting in the late 1600s, Dutch settlement began along the course of the road, which follows roughly the course of the later Delaware and Hudson Canal for its northern half, and the Delaware River in its southern half through the western edge of Sussex County and northern Warren County in northwestern New Jersey.
The road exists today, and although much of its length in New York has been modernized, widened and incorporated into US 209, its length in New Jersey as the "Old Mine Road" is largely undeveloped as it travels through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, it still retains much of its historical and rural charm. Historic sites in both states assert the area's Dutch colonial heritage through the preservation of many homes, farms and churches.
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[edit] History
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[edit] Native American inhabitants: The Munsee
Munsee at Minisink. Jesuits and courier du bois, Dutch explorers
[edit] Theories of the roads origins
Dutch miners, New Albion and Lord Plowden, slowly following settler populations.
[edit] Early settlement
Early settlers (Minisink Patent, Wawayanda Patent, NY-NJ Border War, Minisink settlement, Esopus, etc.)
[edit] Frontier fortifications
French and Indian War and American Revolution. Joseph Brant. Military Road, etc.
[edit] Tocks Island
[edit] Today
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. |
[edit] See also
- Delaware Water Gap
- Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
- High Point State Park
- Stokes State Forest
- Worthington State Forest
[edit] Notes and References
[edit] Citations
[edit] Books
- Decker, Amelia Stickney. That Ancient Trail. (Trenton, New Jersey: Privately printed, 1942). NO ISBN (Pre-1964).
- Hine, Charles Gilbert. The Old Mine Road. (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1908). ISBN 0-8135-0426-0
- Kraft, Herbert C. The Dutch, the Indians & the Quest for Copper: Pahaquarry & the Old Mine Road. (West Orange, New Jersey: Seton Hall University Museum, 1996). ISBN 978-0935137026
- Snell, James P. History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey, With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. (Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1881). NO ISBN (Pre-1964).
[edit] Articles
- Batko, Alicia C. Searching for the Old Mine Road in Cultural Resources Management Vol. 25 No.3 (National Park Service, 2002).
- Kopczynski, Sue. A Ride Down Old Mine Road in Spanning the Gap Vol. 22, No. 2 (Summer 2000).
- Kopczynski, Sue. "The Dutch Mines: Fact or Myth? in Spanning the Gap Vol. 10, No. 2 (Summer 1998).
