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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
POMPTON PLAINS, 18.9 miles (190 alt., 1,200 pop.), lies L. of the
highway in the flat bed of a prehistoric lake. The faintly sloping tableland
affords a low-flying bird's-eye view of the village, with small frame houses
on the eastern fringe. Pompton Plains was for many years the home of Dan
Voorhees, Tammany sachem, who continued his political activities until he
was more than zoo years old.
The plain's northern rim is at 19.9 miles, where the road mounts to cross
the Greenwood Lake division of the Erie R.R. The highway here cleaves
almost in two a terrain that seems to have been made up by jamming two
different kinds of land together: sudden high rocky ridges, scrubby with
tree growth, one hill covered with conical pines (L) ; and a low, sand-pitted stretch of earth hollows (R). The sandy earth was deposited in the
slow wake of the great glacier as it moved across New Jersey between 30
and 50 thousand years ago; the sharp rocks (L) are those of the pre-glacial
continent.
At 20.7 miles, at a traffic circle, is the junction (R) with a paved county
road (see Side Tour 9A).
Jutting rock hills rise sheer above the highway as it begins a long, left-bending climb at 20.9 miles. Farming in this country is an heroic job. Where
the road bisects boulders to form a cut with sharp low cliffs on each side,
the cross-section reveals no more than half a foot of crumbling topsoil on
the rock's hard bed. Grazing lands in isolated soil pockets are blistered
with strewn rocks.
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