 |  | |
 |
|  |
 |  | |
| | |
|
| |
| | |
|
|
Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
Right on this road is BROWNS, 1.2miles. (630 alt.), a summer colony on the
southern end of GREENWOOD LAKE, 7 miles long and extending north into
New York State between steep, wooded mountains.
North from Browns on a concrete road that hugs the lake shore (R) and offers
good views of the opposite shore; the New York Line is crossed at 4 miles Between
this point and the village of Greenwood Lake the route is N. Y. State 210.
GREENWOOD LAKE, N. Y., 7.6 miles. (630 alt.), is a collection of summer cottages, a few stores, and the homes of year-round residents spread around the head
of the lake bearing the same name. For many years it has been rimmed with summer houses; elaborately ugly mansions of past generations still stand next to more
gaudy creations of contemporary vacationists. The modern summer home may be
nothing more pretentious than a brown shingled shack, or it may be covered with
red, yellow, and aluminum paint and marked by a miniature lighthouse instead of
the conventional signs, "Lakeside Rest" or "Oak Cottage." Steep mountains rise to
700 feet above the lake, leaving scant room for the cottages.
Left 1 block, then R. in Greenwood Lake; R. at 8.1 miles., and southward on a
graded dirt road that cuts into the hillside along the eastern shore of the lake and
then twists through rock-strewn woodland where groundhogs ignore passing automobiles. STERLING FOREST, 11.5 m., is a quiet hamlet that has scarcely stirred
since the great terra cotta ICE HOUSE (R) was abandoned and the Erie R.R. tore up
the branch line that ran to the ice house. The little village lies on the shore of
Greenwood Lake, almost straddling the New York-New Jersey Line. It broke into
metropolitan newspapers in 1936 when experiments in carrying mail by rocket
planes were made on the frozen lake. F. W. Kessler, a philatelist and member of
the American Rocket Society, organized the Rocket Airplane Corporation of America
for the trial flights. His aim was to fly more than 100 pounds of mail from New
York into New Jersey, at a fee of 75 cents for each letter in addition to air-mail
and special-delivery postage. Twin planes with a wingspread of 14 feet were built
of duralumin at a cost of about $1,000 each; they resembled ordinary monoplanes
without much streamlining. Motive power was provided by liquid oxygen and alcohol, injected under pressure into the compression chamber. On February 23 a detail
of newsreel cameramen and a crowd of some 1,500 spectators gathered on the ice
to match the experiment. The first plane, named Gloria, was launched from a
catapult, which, through an error in construction, sent the craft almost vertically into
the air. As Nick Morin, who with his brother Mike owns the GREENWOOD LAKE
LAUNCH WORKS (R) where the planes were assembled, described the flight: "She
went up fast – then one wing went up and she came down – whang! She hit the ice,
went up again, and came down – whang!" The mail cargo was then loaded into the
second plane, also named Gloria. This craft was launched from the ice. After a
elide of 400 feet it took to the air and sailed almost a quarter-mile before the power
of the rocket tore the wings loose. The 6,000 letters and post cards did not pay for
the experiment, and Mr. Kessler does not intend to try again. But the Morin brothers, who fought a losing fight to keep the railroad in Sterling Forest, think that
rocket planes are a "good idea." One battered Gloria hangs from the roof of the
launch works; Nick or Mike will gladly stop work on the mahogany hull of a
cruiser to discuss the future of rocket craft. Other residents are skeptical. The foreman of a road gang remarked that "a husky man could have heaved that ship across
the State line."
As the main road swings southwest from the Greenwood Lake junction, the country changes to rolling fields and pasture land, an agricultural district in a mountain
area. Far off (R) are the rangy, flat-topped hills north of Bearfort Mt. Characteristic of this area is a water-worn purplish stone, flecked with white, known to geologists as the Green Pond conglomerate but more commonly called "pudding stone."
It is often used for walls.
The main route turns R. at 19.6 miles.
|
|
|
Return To |
|
|
