The Great Old Mine Road Showdown

Nobody knows how old the narrow road paralleling the banks of the Delaware River in northwestern New Jersey known as Old Mine Road might be. It was an Indian path before white settlers arrived in the late 17th century.

The 40-mile-long New Jersey portion of the road is little changed since Dutch miners used it to transport iron ore from the Catskills in upstate New York to Delaware Water Gap across the river in Pennsylvania, the nexus of what would become the tourist hub known as the Poconos.

Old Mine Road is mostly gravel and barely wide enough for two cars coming from opposite directions to pass each other, and it is so historic that it is on the National Register of Historical Places. But many centuries of unfettered access came to a sudden end late last year when padlocked gates went up.

The perpetrators were not the National Park Service, which runs the 70,000-acre Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, nor the state of New Jersey, caretaker of the 6,500-acre Worthington State Forest, both of which straddle Old Mine Road.

They were Matthew and Aaron Hull and their wives, Michelle and Bonnie, who had recently paid $1 million to purchase the 122-acre Harker Farm, which straddles about 300 yards of the road and is one of the few privately-owned parcels of land within park boundaries.

The Hulls have not spoken to the news media, but park Superintendent John Donahue was told that they had safety, security and privacy concerns and turned down his offer to increase patrols in the area.

Donahue is not a happy camper.

"It's a travesty," he said. "It's very unfortunate. We believe the public has a right of access. It sees traffic. It's surprising the number of 'windshield tourists' that drive there. Then there are the hunters, canoeists, bird watchers and bikers. All their access has been denied."

It appears that there will be a court showdown between the feds and the Hulls. The major sticking point is likely to be who owns the 300-yard stretch of Old Mine Road.

In 1988, farm patriarch Enos “Cy” Harker apparently wrote a deed to himself in which he listed restrictions on his farm, including prohibitions on subdividing it or selling or giving it to his sworn enemy -- the park service.

Sandyston Township agreed the same year to donate the portion of the road now claimed by the Hulls to the National Park Service. A township committee approved an ordinance for the land transfer but it was never filed with the county clerk, apparently because of a mistake in the wording, meaning that the ordinance apparently is not legal.

It is no small irony that the dustup is an outgrowth of the bitter controversy over the Tocks Island Dam project, which is what set Harker against the park service.

Tocks Island is a negligible spit of sand covered with oak, sycamore and scrub brush that sits midstream about six miles above Delaware Water Gap just out of the sight of motorists crossing the Interstate 80 toll bridge that links Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The Army Corps of Engineers received funding to build a reinforced concrete dam – by far the largest east of the Mississippi -- and beginning in 1967 and continuing for five years forced over 200 families out of their homes in three Pennsylvania and two New Jersey counties on both sides of the river who lived in the footprint of the huge reservoir that would be created by the dam.

Among the holdouts were 93-year-old Harker, who was killed in 2006 when his tractor rolled over while he was cutting hay and crushed him. His ashes were spread on a hillside overlooking the river on the property the Hulls now own.

The dam project died a slow but necessary death, strangled by negative public opinion and a lack of funding as estimated construction costs soared. The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area was developed in its stead.

Donahue said the park service's lawyers are now involved and "intend to pursue this until we remedy the situation."

"To have one family stop all the citizens of the U.S., in fact the whole world, from enjoying the park is very vexing," he said.

A bit hyperbolic, but you can be certain that the spirit of Cy Harker is smiling.

More here.