Scott Park
West Mill Road, Washington Township, Morris County, NJ

Located on both sides of the South Branch of the Raritan River south of Long Valley Middle School.

Directions:

US 80 west to Exit 27 for Route 206 south; in Chester Boro, turn right onto Route 24; pass by Schooley's Mountain Road (still Route 24); park at a pull-off on the right side of the road just south of green mile marker 25.   

History:

History of German Valley

1738  -- first established.

1740  -- a number of German groups came to the area.

1747  -- "Union" Church of logs built.

1774  -- stone church built.  The Old Stone Union Church was the site of the pastorate of Henry M.. Muhlenburg, D .D., known as the father of Lutheranism in America.  (Only the remains of the wall still stand, on Fairview Avenue, near Schooley's Mountain Road..)

WWI  --  German Valley renamed Long Valley because of the anti-German feeling during the War.  . 

Trails:

4/18/2005.  Ceferino Santana, dog Sonar and I parked at the pull-off that we had seen before, but had been discouraged by all the private property signs.  I asked a fisherman if he knew how to access the area.  The fisherman told me that the woman owner lets people use part of her driveway to access the river and the Columbia Trail.  So we walked down the driveway, passed over the river and turned right onto the Columbia Trail.  We walked the around 0.8 of a mile to Schooley's Mountain Road in Long Valley.  The last 250 yards of the trail were free of any No Trespassing signs and marked just with No Hunting signs.  So we figured that this might be the Scott Park marked on the maps.  But we don't really know.  The land on both sides of the trail are swampy with lots of skunk cabbage and spice bush.  Walked a little ways down Schooley's Mountain Road and then turned around and made the journey back. Dr. Patrick L. Cooney.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney
* = plants in bloom on date of the field trip, 4/18/2005

Trees:
Acer negundo (box elder maple) *
Acer rubrum (red maple) *
Ailanthus altissima (tree-of-heaven)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Betula populifolia (gray birch)
Carpinus caroliniana (musclewood)
Carya ovata (shagbark hickory)
Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree)
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine)
Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore)
Populus deltoides (cottonwood)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus palustris (pin oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Quercus velutina (black oak)
Salix sp. (willow) *
Sassafras albidum (sassafras)
Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock)
Ulmus sp. (elm)

Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Cornus amomum (swamp dogwood)
Forsythia sp. (golden bells) *
Hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush) *
Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's honeysuckle)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus phoenicolasius (wineberry)
Viburnum prunifolium (blackhaw viburnum)
Vinca minor (periwinkle) *

Vines:
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Dioscorea villosa (wild yam root)
Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle)
Smilax sp. (greenbrier)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:
Achillea millefolium (common yarrow)
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Allium vineale (field garlic)
Artemisia vulgaris (common mugwort)
Centaurea maculosa (spotted knapweed)
Daucus carota (Queen Anne's lace)
Dipsacus sylvestris (teasel)
Erythronium americanum (trout lily)
Galium sp. (bedstraw)
Glechoma hederacea (gill-over-the-ground)
Narcissus sp. (daffodil) *
Pastinaca sativa (wild parsnip)
Plantago lanceolata (English plantain)
Ranunculus abortivus (kidney-leaved crowfoot)
Symplocarpus foetidus (skunk cabbage)
Taraxacum officinale (common dandelion) *
Trifolium sp. (clover)

Sedges:
Carex stricta (tussock sedge)

Grasses:
Microstegium vimineum (Japanese stilt grass)
Phragmites australis (giant reedgrass)