Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge
| Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge | |
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IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area)
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Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey during March
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 Map of the United States
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| Location | Morris County, New Jersey, United States |
| Nearest city | New Providence, New Jersey |
| Coordinates | 40°42′30″N 74°28′00″W / 40.70833°N 74.46667°WCoordinates: 40°42′30″N 74°28′00″W / 40.70833°N 74.46667°W |
| Area | 7,800 acres (32 km2) |
| Established | 1960 |
| Governing body | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service |
| Website | Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge |
| Designated | May 1966 |
The Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is located in Morris County, New Jersey. Established in 1960, it is one of more than 550 refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System.
The refuge was declared a National Natural Landmark in May 1966. The eastern half of the refuge was designated as wilderness by Congress in 1968, making it the first wilderness area within the Department of the Interior.
The refuge is managed by the federal United States Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency within the United States Department of the Interior. Refuge lands lie within the townships of Chatham, Harding, and Long Hill.
The Great Swamp is the remnant of the bottom of the once-mighty Glacial Lake Passaic that about 15,000 to 11,000 years ago stretched 30 (48 km) by 10 miles (16 km) miles in what is presently northern New Jersey. The lake was formed by the melting waters of the retreating Wisconsin Glacier at the end of the last Ice Age. The glacier had pushed a moraine ahead of its advance, a rubble of soil and rocks that plugged the existing outlet for the waters that drained into the area. As the retreating glacier melted, the waters rose to create the lake before a new outlet began to allow the water to exit at a much higher elevation.
The plug altered the course of the Passaic River, which had drained the pre-lake swamp. A range of mountains to the west of Morristown formed the western boundary of the new lake and the most easterly line of the Watchung Mountains became the eastern boundary. The tops of some of the Watchung range became islands in the great lake. Water that had vented through the Watchung range, or to its south, found a new path that altered the old drainage paths. When the plug collapsed, the river still was forced to travel north through the range before finding a new outlet near present-day Paterson where it could manage the eastern turn toward the sea.
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Wikipedia