Worthington State Forest (in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area)
Hardwick Township, Warren County, NJ
6,000 acres
extends about seven miles along the Kittatinny Ridge

Directions:

see the parts of the forest: Dunnfield Creek, Sunfish Pond

Geology:

Looking westward over the river one can see Shawnee and Depue islands, while looking upstream yields Tocks Island.

History:

pre-Revolutionary 18th Century  -- the area known as Shawnee.

1736  -- James Gould starts a ferry, known simply as "Gould's Ferry" and this even became the name of the local settlement.

1760  --  a man named Shoemaker takes over from Gould and the area called Shoemaker's Ferry.

c 1810  --  Shoemaker's family works the ferries for at least fifty years.  Jacob Brotzman purchases the ferry and becomes an important local politician.  And true to form, the name of the local settlement changed to "Brotzmanville."

1833  --  Pahaquarry Township has four mills in operation, two at Brotzmanville.

c. 1850  --  Charles Walker buys the ferry business and, no surprise, the area became known as "Walker's Ferry".

1903  -- millionaire businessman Charles C. Worthington, president of the Worthington Pump Corporation, buys the ferry along with acquisitions of 8,000 acres on both sides of the river in the Delaware Valley. (He was one of four children of Henry Rossiter Worthington (1817-1880) of Brooklyn, New York, inventor, hydraulic engineer and pre-eminent authority in the design and construction of pumping engines.) Charles Worthington farmed the land on the Pennsylvania side of the river. Later he opened it as a public resort area. He rented the old Walker's house to Harry Cudney (the game warden) and later sold it to the Walter Van Campen family (now the local headquarters of Worthington State Forest).

Worthington erected a small mansion (called Buckwood Lodge) on a hillside half way between the river and Sunfish Pond (which supplied the water for the mansion). He called the pond: Buckwood Lake.

Worthington turned Shawnee Island into the Shawnee Country Club and Golf Course and also opened the Depue Island into a resort. Later, his sons opened the Buckwood Inn on Shawnee Island.  

1920s  -- Worthington dies.

1954  -- the Worthington family tenure in the area comes to an end when the State of New Jersey starts purchasing the Worthington lands.

1955  -- the great flood of this year destroyed much of Brotzmanville.  (There is a marker on the side of Old Mine Road).

(Source: Skylands Visitor: http://www.njskylands.com/pkworthington.htm)