Ringwood, New Jersey history

In 1807, Martin J. Ryerson bought the mines and furnaces in Ringwood and ran a profitable business.

Ringwood was expanded under Ryerson’s management, and it supplied the war effort of 1812.

Ringwood lay idle until Martin J. Ryerson (1752-1837) purchased it from the sheriff of Bergen County for unpaid taxes and ran it profitably until his death in 1837.

However, in 1839, after his death, the company went into bankruptcy.

In 1853, the Ringwood mines and furnaces (the furnace was at the Long Pond Ironworks (left), which today lies in West Milford) were bought by Peter Cooper of New York.

In 1875, the Montclair Railway Company built a line from Pompton to Greenwood Lake with a spur to Ringwood (the railroad would become the Erie's Greenwood Lake Branch), but it was too late.

Starting in 1908, the state Water Supply Commission began work on a comprehensive project to develop water sources up north.

In 1920, construction began.

Today, Skylands Manor is a state botanical garden (Lewis was an avid gardener, and turned Skylands Manor into a living showplace during his lifetime). The 1924 mansion still stands, and is open to the public several times a year.

In 1928 the project was completed, and it took another year for the works to fill.

During this period Ringwood's appearance took on a new look as parts of the town disappeared under the water forever (above). By 1930 the reservoir was full, and became known as the Wanaque Reservoir.

The Hewitt family kept Ringwood in production until 1931 when the site was abandoned.

The park has been opened to the public since 1938 and contains the sites of the ironworks that were in operation since the management of Robert Erskine.

After the war, the mine was sold to private interests, and passed through several companies before finally being shut down forever in the late 1950's.

Norvin H. Green (d.1955), a nephew of Erskine Hewitt, donated additional land to bring the total park acreage to 579.

In 1966, Skylands Manor was bought by the state of New Jersey under the Green Acres program.

The site was closed by the state in 1976 because of contamination of groundwater, surface streams, and the nearby Wanaque Reservoir.

Ringwood was placed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of sites eligible for Superfund cleanup in 1983 and financial responsibility for the cleanup was given to Ford International Services, who started on the project.

Although monitoring of ground and surface water continues, the Ringwood mining site was removed from the Superfund list in 1994.