Worthington State Forest

Worthington State Forest is a state forest located within the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, just above the water gap, in Warren County, New Jersey. It covers an area of 6,421 acres and stretches for more than seven miles along the Kittatinny Ridge near Columbia. The park offers hiking, camping (including a hike-in, primitive area) and canoeing and kayaking on the Delaware. There are some twenty miles of hiking trails within the park, including seven miles of the Appalachian Trail, which passes through the park. The park is operated and maintained by the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry.

The forest is named after Charles Campbell Worthington, who purchased 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) of land of both sides of the Delaware River in 1903 as a hunting reserve. He built Buckwood Lodge, a small mansion, on the side of Kittatinny Ridge, between the river and Sunfish Pond, a small lake higher up the ridge covering 258 acres (104 ha). Worthington gave Sunfish Pond the name of Buckwood Lake, and used it as a water supply for his lodge. Worthington hunted deer in what is now the State Forest.

The forest includes the 1,085 acre Dunnfield Creek Natural Area; the creek is designated a Wild Trout Stream. The 258-acre Sunfish Pond Natural Area consists of a glacial lake and the surrounding chestnut oak forest, and can be reached by a steep and rocky climb along the AT. Mount Tammany, at 1527 feet, offers view of the Delaware Water Gap.

The Old Mine Road, one of the earliest roads in the area, runs along the Delaware; it was used for transporting copper and slate from nearby mines and quarries, and is believed to have originally been a Native American trail that saw use by fur traders and Dutch settlers.

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