Local hiker and archaeologist Ed Lenik has spent many a day sifting through the layered evidence of human history in the Ramapo Mountains, a search that includes the general northern New Jersey, southeastern New York regions. His investigations have detected patterns that bear witness to Indians in the Ramapos. Continue Reading

Turtle clan Chief Vincent Mann from the Ramapough Lenaape is given a friendship gift while Chuck Stead and Chris St. Lawrence look on / Photo by Geoff Welch

The sun shone bright and hot Sunday as people from across Ramapo, and beyond, gathered to celebrate the huge new medicine garden in Torne Valley. Covering half an acre, the Ford Motor Company built a large, raw-post and fenced-in garden that will feature Sweet Grass for basketry and smudging as well as herbs and other native plants. Continue Reading

Blunt Mountain mint, Pycnanthemum Muticum, transplanted from the Harmony Hall Herb Garden to the Saltbox Environmental Research Center in Torne Valley by volunteers Nathan and Angela.

The slow, steady work by hand and machine to clean up Torne Valley is bearing fruit. The story of how 55 gallon drums of paint sludge trucked from the long-closed Mahwah automobile factory and dumped in the valley are now legendary. Continue Reading

Ramapo Mountain watershed issues and the story of the Ramapough-Lenape people are old familiars for many in these parts. But they hold interest and reflect a wider concern with governmental and industrial practices currently at work. Say fracking and safe drinking water. Continue Reading