Hike #1204; Oxford to Clinton

Hike #1204; Oxford to Clinton

3/7/19 Oxford to Clinton with Ken Zaruni and Justin Gurbisz

For this next hike, the regular weekly night hike, there was a lot of snow on the ground. I had to have something that was going to be walkable in the situation, and I didn’t really feel like scaling off something completely new.

The closed A&P at the end point

Instead, it was a good opportunity to repost the Spruce Run Turnpike hike.
It seems that every year, at some point, I hike the historic route of the Spruce Run Turnpike. It was an early road that connected Clinton NJ and the Oxford Furnace.
Originally, the roads through the area were smaller routes that connected areas of business and settlements. The Oxford Furnace started production in 1741, and the Union Furnace near Clinton started up in 1742, and other smaller operations existed in the area.

Old ore trestle site

In 1813, the Spruce Run Turnpike was chartered to connect the towns, which most likely utilized much of the old existing stage roads of the time. We know there were already some roads in place, but nothing so improved.
The toll road passed through the settlements of Washington, Springtown, New Hampton, Hampton (which was not yet a town), Glen Gardner, Irishtown, and then Clinton.
Like I’d done in the past, I set the meeting point as the old A&P in Clinton NJ.
The A&P has now been out of business a couple of years, but sits vacant with it’s old sign on it. It’s probably the messiest and most poorly managed of all of the retail places I’d worked in (not the Clinton location).

Oxford mine railroad bed

Justin and Ken showed up, and we shuttled in my van to the start point in Oxford, out along the Furnace Brook in the lot across the foot bridge from the Oxford Central School.
Both Justin and Ken had done this hike before. I was hoping we’d get some new people involved this time, but it wasn’t that enticing I suppose.
Since it was just them, I figured we could try to do some stuff a bit differently. There was always more to explore that I’d not had a closer look at, especially in areas like Oxford.

Mine railroad abutment

We started by crossing the foot bridge over the brook, then crossed at Oxford Central School over Kent Street to Church Street. We skirted the school, and at the ninety degree bend, we cut directly into the woods.

Oxford mine railroad bed

There is a single bridge abutment back in those woods I hadn’t been to in years. This route was that of the Oxford Iron Mine railroad, which broke off of the old Lackawanna main line just south of the Oxford Tunnel.
Oxford is quite the tangled web of old railroads, more so probably than anywhere else in Warren County.
The first railroad to come to town was the Warren Railroad, 1856, which became the main line of the Lackawanna until the completion of the Lackawanna Cutoff in the first years of the twentieth century. Even then, it remained an important connection for industry. The iron mines remained in use.

Oxford mine railroad bed

From 1856 until 1862, the Warren Railroad circumnavigated West Oxford Mountain and County House Mountain in a roundabout route through Van Nest Gap. It was only considered to be a temporary track, but in Oxford there were sections that remained in service to reach Oxford Furnace, and the station also remained on the spur of that track for a time before the one was built to the east.
The line we were walking originally went out to what is now the road to Oxford Lake, and then made a switchback up West Oxford Mountain to the iron mines. Later, it was changed to a gradual ascent by encircling the mountain without the switchback.

Mine railroad abutment

The bridge abutment was probably an old ore dump because there is only one abutment, and it would have just been a trestle to dump to other cars or something. There was what appeared to be a drainage on the north side, and then another right of way on the south, which we soon began to walk to Axford Avenue.
The right of way goes across Axford at the emergency squad building and enters the county park land. We crossed here and continued.
Axford Avenue itself is built on the original Warren Railroad right of way, and was turned into a road some time in the late 1800s.
Just into the county land, where the line crosses a small brook, there appears to have been a junction I never really noticed before. The track back that goes to the supposed ore dump breaks off here and goes through where the emergency building is now, while the one we were walking went through toward the main line (note a switch box can still be seen along Rt 31 where this line crossed).

View on the road

We continued on, and soon reached Mine Hill Road, the original route of the Spruce Run Turnpike, where we turned left up hill.
Another right of way breaks off and ascends in a roundabout route away from the road to reach the mines along the road just further up. The mine railroad right of way we had been walking continues in back of the church on Mine Hill.
We made our way up and crossed the peak of West Oxford Mountain, which took us out of the Pequest River watershed and into the Pohatcong watershed. There was still a good view to the left of the road left over from when tropical storm Sandy knocked so much of it out.
Someone honked at us as we were walking down hill, and it turned out to be Michael Brennan who I’m facebook friends with since finding common interest in the old railroads.
We continued down to cross the Pohatcong Creek, then started heading up hill into Washington. The old turnpike route becomes Broad Street.
We continued on through town, passed the old Cornish Mansion, and reached the CVS where we stopped for snacks. Justin had not been in since the recent change over. This had been a Quick Chek as far back as I can remember, and one of the busiest ones around. Just a couple of months ago, Quick Chek quickly announced they would be closing this one and it would be taken over by CVS. There is already a Quick Chek on the other side of town near Brass Castle, but both still did good business (and Hackettstown now has three Quick Cheks that are all open).
Apparently, Quick Chek is moving away from their failing pharmacies, and rather than lose the pharmacy property, they opted to just sell. As I understand, a pharmacy is kind of like a liquor store, in that it has to be zoned or have a license or something, so even though Quick Chek had a money maker, they’d have to sell out because it was a pharmacy. I’m not sure all the details, but something like that.

The old Morris and Essex line

We continued from here across the main intersection in town, and started heading down Belvidere Ave, the next leg of Spruce Run Turnpike.

The old Hudisphere

We opted to take another side trip from here; since we’d done all this before, we turned right when we got to the railroad tracks. This was originally the Morris and Essex Railroad.
When the Lackawanna built their line through the Delaware Water Gap, competitor Morris and Essex continued to build to Phillipsburg. It soon after became part of the Lackawanna system anyway, and was known as the Morris and Essex Division. The main line was rerouted onto that rather than to Hampton, which brought it through Hackettstown out to Lake Hopatcong. When the cutoff was built, it cut the corner and the Washington hub out by going direct from Hopatcong to Slateford PA.

The old Hudisphere

We took the tracks only over to South Lincoln where we turned left, heading up hill. We then turned right into the Washington Heights Apartments.
This was where our good friend Gregg Hudis used to live before moving to Astoria in New York City. We had many great Metrotrails meetings he graciously invited into his home. We used to call it “The Hudisphere”. Sadly, he lost everything to a devastating fire in 2017. We walked by the old apartment building, which was supposed to be rebuilt, but really hardly anything appears to have happened except for some concrete block base.
Whenever I get to see Gregg again, I got him a grey blazer just like one we had got on a thrift store trip together to replace the one that probably got ruined.

Washington Cemetery

We continued out the back of the place and into the beautiful Washington Cemetery.
The cemetery had been subject to a lot of controversy in the past couple of years. Tomb stones were knocked over and left looking awful, from what I’d seen in a lot of facebook posts.
Another thing getting people irked is that the entire new section of the cemetery is mostly all Asian people from farther away. There’s nothing unfair about them purchasing plots up there, because it’s a beautiful spot, but a lot of citizens think it should be a cemetery for locals only.

Washington Cemetery

However, a cemetery is truly a business because they need to keep it maintained. They have the ability to charge more because of the outstanding view at the top, so they have to do so. Otherwise, there won’t be any way of paying anyone to maintain the extensive grounds.
The cemetery also wanted to expand in the rear, which I had no problem with because it remains sort of open space, but a lot of people fought that too.
We went up to the very top where we had an outstanding view out over the countryside. We could see the new Shop Rite and other stores, as well as Rt 57 heading south very clearly. In the other direction, there was a surprisingly nice view out into the Pohatcong Valley as well.

Washington Cemetery

The hill we had crossed by the apartments marks the separation from the Pohatcong watershed and the Musconetcong River watershed. A lot of people seem to think they are the same, but each flows totally separate into the Delaware River.
We headed down hill through the cemetery, and then turned briefly left on Cemetery Hill Road to reach the oldest part of the cemetery, actually a separate one, known as the Mansfield Woodschurch Cemetery.
The cemetery predates Washington, from when it was part of Mansfield. There was a log church here where the Presbyterian congregation used to meet.

Pohatcong Valley view from the cemetery area

That building burned, and the congregation separated. One half went to Musconetcong Valley to the church built there in 1837, just outside of Hampton, which is where I attended church growing up.

Washington Cemetery view

I led the way down to the graves from the Changewater Murders there.
The three graves are side by side closely, eloquently and oddly written about the events.

Washington Cemetery

The graves are those of John B. Parke, Maria and daughter Mary, and John Castner.
This is probably one of the greatest cold cases in New Jersey history, but the problem is so many probably don’t see it as a cold case at all.
The murders took place in 1845. A great sum of money was known to be in the Castner house, which was the motive.
Joseph Carter and Peter Parke were tried and found innocent, but public outcry led to illegal Double Jeopardy, and they were tried again to be found guilty. Loose evidence, testimony from questionable source, the ignoring of alibis, an overzealous minister, and an award placed on finding the killers led to quick prosecution and execution of Carter and Parke.

Washington Cemetery view

There were apparently other suspects, and I was always told the story of a man who lived to an old age, and on his death bed tried to confess his sins to his daughter, but she refused to let him confess.
Whatever the truth is, it is widely believed today that Carter and Parke were innocent, and that the actual killers had gotten away.
Carter and Park, as “murderers”, were not allowed to be buried in a regular cemetery, and instead were buried on the farm at the intersection of Changewater Road and what is now Asbury-Anderson Road.

Changewater Murders article

When the railroad came in in 1856, the road shifted, and the graves ended up on the opposite side. Since the road was widened, the stone wall that went around the graves was pushed off into the now abandoned Lackawanna Railroad cut. It’s still down there today. There’s a lady that lives just down the road who claims the graves are in her yard, but they’re not. Her property was never a part of the farm that they were buried on.
We continued down to pick up Spruce Run Turnpike, on Springtown Road, across 31 from here. I was going to walk across the golf course to do something else different, but it was just too damn deep and annoying to walk through.
We continued across Asbury Anderson Road, to the right, and then the left on New Hampton Road. The original main route is recognizable when looking across, but it’s interesting that today the main route is Asbury Anderson. We continued into New Hampton and crossed the old truss bridge, then right on Musconetcong River Road into the little town.
We passed the old school house, now Lebanon Township museum, and continued out toward Rt 31. On the way, we passed New Hampton Inn, which had a sign for “Schmidt’s” on the outside.
I didn’t think they made Schmidt’s any more, but apparently they do. I’m just not sure. There were old brewing companies by that name, but I’m not sure if they have any relation to the more recent incarnations that were at some point owned by Pabst.

The graves from the Changewater Murders of 1845

We continued on across Route 31 and entered Hampton, the town that got it’s name when a less generic one was needed for the railroad. It was originally just called “Junction” for the junction with the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the Lackawanna/Warren Railroad. The nearest town was New Hampton, and so it just took part of that name to become “Hampton Junction: This is why the town of New Hampton is actually older than Hampton, because the “junction” part was dropped when the Lackawanna was abandoned.

Schmidts

We continued up hill through town, which took us from the Musconetcong Watershed to the Raritan watershed. We headed across Rt 31 and into Glen Gardner, which was a dark but welcoming section to walk through. I always love walking through that little town.
The entire town is built into a slope, which adds for a nice ambiance. We crossed the Spruce Run as we entered, and remained along it much of the way through town.
Once we get out of Glen Gardner, the worst part is where we have to walk along busy Route 31.
We moved along pretty fast on this section. Really, we moved along pretty fast on all of the sections. We soon reached Irishtown, which supposedly spurred up when the turnpike was created. It’s a little bit of side road, the original route, that was bypassed when the current highway was put in during the 1930s. Much of the old turnpike was bypassed for this, but in the section from Hampton to Clinton it was much more closely parallel. It was Rt 30 when built, but there was another state highway in south Jersey with that designation. It was changed to Rt 69, but was changed to 31 when too many of the signs were being stolen.
We continued back onto 31, passed the bit where it turns away at Buffalo Hollow Road, then continued north. Usually, this time of year the water is low and we’re able to follow the former turnpike route out across the end of Spruce Run Reservoir, but this year the water has been beyond it’s “full” level for months. We had to skip it and remain on Rt 31. We did however turn to the left at the next bit where the original route goes away form the highway, just south of the intersection with Rt 513, now parallel with the golf course.
In years past, this section was getting rough to walk through, but this time it had been cleared and the fallen trees removed. It was a nice bit.
We continued across Rt 31 before it went to four lanes, and continued up to the Valero Station on the right for a break.

Meatloaf

I was getting hungry and had only had the snacks we got at CVS, so we went in for something. I get lunch there very often. The two girls who made everything, Ascia and Colleen, were awesome. The food was fresh and high quality, well beyond what one would expect at a gas station. Unfortunately, Ascia and her brother quit there to get other jobs, and only Colleen was left working very early shift. Some of the people don’t care as much, and the quality has dropped.
I was surprised to see breakfast sandwiches were still left out from the morning. I didn’t know how new anything else was, so I decided to try for an empanada from the heat lamp. Those are usually pretty good.
When I bit into it, it was terrible. Totally dry inside, and certainly not safe to eat. I would assume the same of everything that was out there. I returned the one that I’d had and instead got a cold sandwich that Colleen had made earlier. That was definitely good.
I made sure to tell them the next day that they’re going to ruin their reputation if they have that stuff left out for over 15 hours.
We continued from the station along 31, and then cut to the trail and access road along the Spruce Run Reservoir levee to reach where Halstead Street continues down into Clinton.
We walked down the road, crossed the South Branch of the Raritan, and then turned to the left on Main Street.
Downtown Clinton is always a beautiful little walk through at the end of a hike. We turned left shortly into Dickens Alley, and then reached Old Rt 22 where the left turn brought us a short distance back to the A&P parking lot to finish the hike.
Ken took me back to my car in Oxford.
I was glad we did this one, because it’s good to have a look at these places again and add in the differences here and there. It’s nice to know where I’m going, and not have to think very much about it like I do on so many of the other hikes. It becomes a bit less of a hike and a bit more of a therapy.

HAM