Nature
Campgaw Mountain is the northernmost ridge of New Jersey’s volcanically formed Watchung Mountains, stretching about three miles along the borders of Franklin Lakes, Oakland, and Mahwah. Formed roughly 185 million years ago in an early Jurassic rift valley, it was later shaped by erosion that left resistant basalt standing above the surrounding landscape. Before European settlement, Munsee Lenape lived here, and the mountain’s name derives from a variation of a Lenape chief’s name, Kum-Kow. In the nineteenth century its summits were cultivated, while the twentieth century brought a county reservation, displacement of Ramapough Mountain Indians, and a Cold War Nike missile base. Today it is known for both recreation and its layered natural and human history.
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New Jersey · United States