The Wallkill River Watershed Management Group (WRWMG), under the administrative auspices of the Sussex County Municipal Utilities Authority (SCMUA), and in partnership with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge (WRNWR) developed a self-guided auto tour of the Wallkill River Watershed, covering a thirty (30) mile stretch of the Wallkill River from the headwaters in Sparta, New Jersey to Warwick, New York. Along the way, the tour provides opportunities to participate in various recreational activities appropriate for all age groups. From beginning to end, this tour is approximately 30 miles long and will take about 3 hours at a leisurely pace.
The auto tour booklet was created to be a free public educational resource that not only charts an exciting journey through the watershed, but more importantly will raise awareness, promote the recreational use, and encourage active environmental stewardship of the Wallkill River and the surrounding watershed area.
For more information about the Wallkill River Watershed Auto Tour, please contact Nathaniel Sajdak at 973-579-6998 x 109 or by email at nsajdak@scmua.org.
Click here to see a map of the auto tour stops.
Sample Page From The Wallkill River Watershed Auto Tour Booklet:
Stop 5 - Scott Road Bridge, Franklin Borough
The Scott Road Bridge offers a picturesque view of the Wallkill River. The river's clear, fast moving waters offer one of the best springtime trout fishing stretches in the watershed. Easily observed just 50 feet east of the bridge is the still active rail line of Conrail that was for many years the Lehigh & Hudson River Railway (L&HR RR). Not so easily seen, but also present just 50 feet west of the bridge are the remains of the New York Susquehanna & Western Railroad (NYS & WRR) as it headed up to Hamburg and New York State.
This section of the Wallkill River has a fair amount of elevation change which historically allowed for many dams, mill ponds, and waterwheels. These waterwheels produced the basic needs of the community in the 1700s and 1800s. There were grist mills, fulling mills (to help make wool), saw mills and most notably, iron forges. The area had all the resources needed for iron forges; bountiful wood for the charcoal fires, lime for catalyst, stone for the foundations, the energetic river, and plenty of iron from the nearby hills. About a half-mile downstream (north) of the bridge was a papermill and Sharpe's forge that produced iron during the Revolutionary War and was later the original home of Wheatsworth crackers, which are still sold today by Nabisco.