VAN CAMPENS GLEN
Old Mine Road, Delaware River Gap National Recreation Area, Hardwick Township, Warren County, New Jersey

Directions:

US 80 west to Exit 1 and Old Mine Road north. 2.7 miles north of the signal light at the one lane part of Old Mine Road is the southern boundary of Worthington State Forest.  9.1 miles north of the signal light is the entrance to Van Campens Glen.

Geology:

Van Campen Brook flows from Blue Mountain Lakes and Long Pond. It passes Millbrook Village; Watergate Picnic Area, Van Campen Glen and finally the Delaware River by Poxono Island. The glen is a cool hemlock ravine. There are two small waterfalls.

History:

Van Campen refers to Colonel Abraham Van Campen, settler.

1725 --  house of Abraham Van Campen built. The house is reputed to have been the oldest in Warren County.

1732  -- Abraham Van Campen built a mill in the future village of Calno, the southernmost Dutch settlement in a chain extending down the Minisink Valley from Esopus (now Kingston), New York

1756  --  the Van Campen house was used as a frontier fort during the French and Indian War.  it was located on Van Campens Brook and consisted of a blockhouse, stone house and a log house, within a 65-foot square palisade. (http://www.geocities.com/naforts/nj.html)

The Isaac Van Campen Inn (originally built 1750) was located on the Old Mine Road.  Some of its guests were John Adams, Count Pulaski, and General Horatio Gates.  Van Campen was a member of the legislature, 1782-85 (Hine 1985:150)

1903  -- millionaire businessman Charles C. Worthington, president of the Worthington Pump Corporation, buys the 8,000 acres on both sides of the river in the Delaware Valley.  He rented the old Walker's house to Harry Cudney (the game warden) and later sold it to the Walter Van Campen family.

Facilities:

There are picnic tables here.

Trails:

The 1/4 mile yellow-blazed Van Campen Glen Trail. The area is very beautiful with a narrow glen and small reddish cliffs by the brook. 

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney
* = blooming on date of field trip, 04/22/2005

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Amelanchier arborea (shadbush)
Betula alleghaniensis (yellow birch)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Betula nigra (river birch)
Carya ovata (shagbark hickory)
Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)
Fagus grandifolia (beech)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree)
Ostrya virginiana (American hop hornbeam)
Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Quercus velutina (black oak)
Salix spp. (willow) *
Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock)  -- lots

Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Corylus sp. (hazel) *
Elaeagnus umbellata (autumn olive)
Euonymus alatus (winged euonymus)
Forsythia sp. (golden bells) *
Lindera benzoin (spicebush)
Rhododendron maximum (rosebay rhododendron)

Vines:
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:
Achillea millefolium (common yarrow)
Ajuga reptans (ajuga) *
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Allium vineale (field garlic)
Antennaria sp. (pussytoes) *
Erythronium americanum (trout lily)
Fragaria virginiana (wild strawberry)
Hedyotis sp. (bluets) *
Hemerocallis fulva (tawny day lily)
Hepatica americana (round-lobed hepatic)
Narcissus sp. (white daffodil) *
Ranunculus abortivus (kidney-leaf crowfoot) *
Rumex crispus (curled dock)
Saxifraga virginiensis (early saxifrage)  *
Stellaria media (common chickweed) *
Symplocarpus foetidus (skunk cabbage)
Taraxacum officinale (common dandelion) *
Trifolium sp. (clover)
Verbascum thapsus (common mullein)
Viola sororia (common blue violet) *

Rushes:
Juncus effusus (soft rush)

Sedges:
Carex stricta (tussock sedge)

Ferns and Fern Allies:
Polypodium sp. (rockcap fern)
Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)