Part One – New Jersey Archives (continued)
The Ramapo Fault is a “Subluxation Zone” running from Northern New Jersey – roughly tracking Route 287 – down past Mount Holley in Burlington County. A “Subluxation Zone” is a place where two pieces of the Earth’s crust meet and scrape against each other. These movements cause Earthquakes.
The Ramapo Fault is considered one of the most “quiescent” or inactive Earthquake Zones – what few quakes have registered in New Jersey rarely go beyond 2 or 3 on the Richter Scale – but people nevertheless monitor it carefully. A lot of people live in this area of the Northeast and, if a major quake were to occur, the death and destruction would be unimaginable.
Our “New Jersey Fault line” doesn’t get the huge press coverage that the infamous San Andreas Fault in California or the New Madras Fault in the Ohio Valley and Mississippi Regions, but we all know it’s there.
Enter the Ramapo Fault Seismology Project.
The United States Army Corps. of Engineers announced in 1991 that they were going to commence seismic operations to measure the migration of soundwaves and harmonic resonance fields in the primary igneous rock formations that make up the Watchung Mountains. This data would help them check the “health” the Ramapo Fault – that is, determine if it was “waking up”.
They set up their base of operations in Peapack, NJ, a Town the Ramapo Fault Line ran directly underneath – but one day they mysteriously moved all their heavy equipment to Warren, NJ. Warren Township was almost ten miles away from Peapack as the crow flies, sitting on a Ridge of the Watchung Mountain Range that never experienced an earth tremor.
Very curious…
The US Army Corp. of Engineers set up “shop” at 99 Bardy Road in Warren – site of the two-hundred acre abandoned Hoffheimer Copper Mine. It was a flooded, open pit some 165 feet deep that was ringed by towering walls of Jersey Basalt and Schist outcroppings. Its Copper Mining shafts were opened in the 1860’s – and closed by 1900, when the ore became too expensive to extract. Andreas Hoffheimer was a co-founder of General Motors and extremely wealthy “rags to riches” business Titan of the Gilded Age. He later gifted the large property to Warren Township in his Last Will and Testament. Any open mining shafts were boarded up by the town and a secure chain-link fence perimeter was erected to keep it “off limits” to the public. The Township garaged its snowplows and serviced its municipal vehicles there.
The “Old Mine” property was just off Washington Valley Road, surrounded by toney and multi-million-dollar housing developments. It’s a Mecca of rich professionals and businessmen, doctors and dentists – a serene place of legendarily stratospheric New Jersey property taxes. Deer Path Elementary School is right next door. The Warrenville Fire Company Station with its iconic Civil Defense siren tower from World War Two is less than a block away. Food stores, restaurants – everything is convenient and neat as a pin. By anybody’s standards, Warren is a dream come true.
When Commander Erik Henson and his Army Corp. of Engineers rolled in to Warren, NJ on June 10, 1991, all municipal vehicles were removed from the Mine property and Township operations were relocated. The mayor told residents that it was all part of a “US Government Seismic Study” being undertaken and that any “inconvenience” to the public would be minimal.
Then the blasting began. Residents were annoyed and outraged. They were mourning the disappearance – and believed demise – of three little girls from Deer Path Elementary School, not far from the mine explosions. The timing couldn’t have been worse.
Why was the Army blasting?
Soundwaves propagate through various mediums at different speeds and resonances. Soundwaves moving through water is the very core of the US Navy’s Sonar defense capability. Soundwaves propagating through rock, however, are extremely variable and effected by numerous factors: voids, mineral deposits, gaseous pockets, petroleum fields, etc.
Soundwaves in rock tend to “track” or intensify at Fault Lines – therefore scientists use sound wave propagation as a yardstick to measure if Fault Lines have moved, expanded or otherwise shifted. Soundwaves that propagate through igneous rock have another interesting characteristic: they’re loud as Hell.
Commander Henson met with Warren Mayor “Teddy” Wells and tried to mollify everyone. Henson brought with him a surprise guest – Sakima Anders Crow-Feather, Sachem and Nemahtenow (Medicine Man) of the Lenni Lenape Tribe of Central New Jersey.
Question: Why was an Indian on the site of a US Army Corps. of Engineers seismic study in Warren, NJ?
Answer: The laconic Sachem would only say that he sought “To offer prayers and serenity to the noble spirits that still reside in these Mountain places of our ancestors”.
The US Army Corp. stayed for a month in Warren. Every seven days throughout that period explosions rocked the town. Whenever blasting was to happen it would be announced – and accompanied – by Warren’s loud Civil Defense Siren. The cacophony was unbearable. Residents complained constantly.
When the project finished and Commander Hansen pulled out his men and equipment, the 165 feet deep open mine pit was gone – filled in by tons of basalt and schist rock from overhangs that didn’t quite resemble overhangs anymore. They weren’t towering over much of anything. Where the boarded-up mining shafts had been were now piles of rock debris. The whole mine had been collapsed in on itself.
The Township Municipal Workers once more reclaimed the place and tried to get back to business as usual. But some residents who knew what the place looked like before the Army moved in weren’t impressed.
Anthony Monteverde, a lawyer who lived on Bardy Farms Road about 100 feet away from the mine property said it best.
“They blew the mine to shit. Seismic study, my Ass! They destroyed the f_ckin’ place!”
A year later, a Warren Detective named Billy Heinlein met with Sakima Anders Crow-Feather of the Lenni Lenape Tribe at his “Lodge” in Millstone, New Jersey. Many Lenni Lenape Elders still reside in Millstone for reasons the Tribe refuses to explain. Detective Heinlein asked the old Sachem – Nemahtenaw – in confidence – what the real purpose of the US Army’s project was. The cop was very familiar with local myths and legends of Warren – and “things” that were spoken of in whispers that came from “underground”. He was also working the disappearance file of those little girls from Deer Path School and had a hunch there was a connection.
Nemahtenaw Anders Crow-Feather’s “Lodge” turned out to be a pleasant Center-Hall Colonial on Haas Street in Millstone with Little-Tikes toys strewn over the front yard. Anders-Crow was gracious and hospitable and fashionably attired in a button-down shirt, khakis and loafers. His Lodge was tastefully furnished and he served iced tea.
Detective Heinlein’s questions made him pensive and quiet. He then spoke softly.
“Before I talk you must agree that what I now say is confidential. Our Elders – who learned from their Elders – spoke of the Yakwahe. A Monster who lives in the Gray Rock…Many of our people have another name for the Gray Rock. They call it Watchung Rock”.
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