LOCATION:
Lost Brook Preserve, Borough of
Tenafly, Bergen County. This woodland tract has numerous
hiking trails from which to explore nature’s beauty.
Figure 1. Local topographic view of
the Lost Brook Preserve
ACCESSING THE TRAIL: The
waypoint will bring you to the head of the Haring Trail along E.
Clinton Ave. Park on the grassy strip
along E. Clinton Ave, on the same side and just east of the trail
head. There are only a few spots
available at any time. Parking is also
available across the avenue, along residential
streets. Caution – Watch for cars as
you exit your vehicle or cross the avenue.
HARING ROCK
Glacial erratic are rocks that have been
transported by glaciers and dropped at a distance (often many
miles) from their original locations.
Erratic are a different rock type than the local bedrock because it
was common for glaciers to flow across different types of bedrock,
plucking up chunks of rock as they moved.
In the late 1800’s and early 1990’s, Dr. John J. Haring made sick
calls throughout the area on horseback, bartering farm goods for
medical care.
Figure 2. Dr. John J. Haring
He often walked through the woods and along
the brooks in the area which would later become, in part, the Lost
Brook Preserve. He would meditate near
a 15 ton boulder. At that time, the
glacial erratic was 10 feet tall by 10 feet
around. Delicately poised upon
trap-rock, the sandstone boulder was deposited by melting glacial
ice approximately 12,000 to 15,000 years ago onto property which
would later be owned by the local Jewish Community Center
(JCC).
Figure 3. Postcard of Dr.
Haring with his namesake rock, c.
1910
(from the Collections of
the New JerseyHistorical
Society, Newark, New
Jersey)
Figure 4. Black and White photo of
rock at original location and orientation, early 1900’s
(from the Collections of the New Jersey Historical Society, Newark,
New Jersey)
In the late 1960’s, the JCC was developing
their property, with the plan to blast apart the
erratic. Saved by local activists and
financed by a modern medical doctor, Dr. Alfred Traynor, the
boulder, named the Haring Rock, was hoisted onto a flatbed and
moved to the eastern section of the JCC property, out of harms way,
on property which would still later become the Lost Brook
Preserve. However, man could not
duplicate nature’s positioning of the erratic on its narrower
bottom and had to turn the boulder upside down and cement it into
place, burying some of the erratic below ground level.
Figure 5. Upside down erratic at
final resting stop, 2007
Figure 6. Reverse angle of Haring
Rock, 2007
LOST BROOK PRESERVE
Under pressure of development, the Borough of
Tenafly undertook a four-year effort to acquire nearly 200 acres of
woodland tract for passive recreational
use. The property was acquired in 1975
with the largest state grant ever awarded at the time by the State
of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection’s Green
Acres Program, along with monies from other governmental entities
and donations from local concerned
citizens. NJ Governor Brendan Byrne
explored the trails on the top of the Palisades, four hundred feet
above and about a mile west of the Hudson River.
Figure 7. NJ Governor Brendan Byrne with
local officials exploring site, c. 1975
Located adjacent to the preserve is the
Tenafly Nature Center which offers additional natural areas to
explore as well as an interpretive
center. With nearly 400 acres of
continuous preserved open space, the Borough of Tenafly offers a
beautiful area to explore with nearly seven miles of natural trails
that meander through densely wooded, yet relatively level,
lands. The natural trails are open to
the public year round, dawn to dusk.
Figure 8. A nature trail within the Lost
Brook Preserve, 2007
Figure 9. Trail System of the Lost Brook
Preserve
TO CLAIM THIS CACHE
Answer the following questions, and post your answer in your log.
Tell us how many people were in your group. (You don't have to wait
for a confirmation from us to claim the cache. We trust you!)
1. Describe the rock as if you are a geologist discovering it
for the first time. What is the color? Texture? Size? Do you see
layering? Any other interesting features?
2. Take a picture of (a) yourself with the Haring Rock in
the background or (b) your gps receiver propped on the rock.
REFERENCES
Wall, Dave, “History of Tenafly”, 1998
Fernandez, Teresa, “The Haring Rock”, March
2005
Borough of Tenafly, “A Pictorial History of
Tenafly 1894-1994”
www.tenaflynaturecenter.org