The Morris Canal was an engineering marvel of its time. A system of 23 locks and 23 inclined planes enabled the canal to overcome more elevation change than any other canal ever built. Large changes in elevation were overcome using the canal’s famous inclined planes which were short, water-powered marine railways on which canal boats were pulled up or let down hillsides. The locks operated like water elevators, overcoming smaller changes in elevation. Mules were the power source that pulled boats across the state in five days.

The Morris Canal was crucial to the economy and development of northern New Jersey from the time of the waterway’s construction until after the Civil War. Running from Phillipsburg to Jersey City, the canal linked the anthracite coal fields of northeastern Pennsylvania with northwestern New Jersey’s iron industry, major industrial cities, and the New York markets. Open from 1831 to 1924, the canal carried anthracite coal, iron ore, timber, limestone, and agricultural products.

The Morris Canal Greenway encompasses part of the historic Morris Canal’s alignment and is a cooperative effort of the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry, the Canal Society of New Jersey, the Village of Waterloo and the Friends of the Morris Canal. The Greenway’s purpose is to preserve the remains of the Morris Canal and its associated natural environment, to interpret canal sites to the public, and to offer recreational opportunities. Visitors to the Greenway will see the remains of canal features, including inclined planes, locks, canal bed, and historic industries and communities directly related to the Morris Canal’s operation.

Saxton Falls was originally a natural rapids in the Musconetcong River. Nathaniel Saxton purchased the property at the falls and constructed a dam across the river, harnessing its power to operate a sawmill. When the Morris Canal was built during the 1820s, the canal company constructed a larger dam at Saxton Falls, creating a reservoir to feed water into the 32 miles of canal to the west and forming a slackwater pool in the river for the boats to safely navigate in the Saxton Falls area. Boats entered the newly formed Saxton Lake at Lock 4 West, about one mile upstream of Saxton Falls. The creation of the dam at Saxton Falls necessitated the construction of Lock 5 West adjacent to the dam. Known as a guard lock, the lock at Saxton Falls guarded against changes in the level of the Musconetcong River, and maintained the proper water level in the 11-mile section of the canal to the west. The lock also enabled boats to pass between the lake and the adjacent section of canal.

Although the Saxton Falls lock did not overcome an elevation change along the canal, it did have gates at both its upstream and downstream ends. The tops of the lock’s walls and its downstream curved wingwalls are still visible at Saxton Falls. Massive sandstone blocks form the lock walls. Recesses in the walls indicate where the lock gates folded back when open, allowing clearance for boats to pass through the lock. The canal towpath, the pathway along which the mules walked while towing the canal boats, crossed over the Saxton Falls lock on what is known as a change bridge. As the mules walked over the bridge and the tow ropes crossed from one side of the lock to the other, the wet, sand-covered ropes rubbed over the sandstone capstones of the lock, wearing grooves into the masonry. These grooves, ghostly images of the operation of the Morris Canal, are still visible on the Saxton Falls lock stones.

Formerly, several buildings surrounded the Saxton Falls lock. On the river side of the lock were a canal store, which sold supplies to passing boatmen, and a shed which may have housed maintenance materials. On the opposite of the lock were the locktender’s house and a stable to house canal mules when they were not towing boats. The bridge that formerly spanned the downstream end of the lock allowed the locktender, boatmen, and the canal mules to cross over the lock and canal.

The original canal company dam at Saxton Falls had sluice gates at its Morris County end, enabling control of the water level of Saxton Lake. These gates were accessed from a narrow footbridge that extended across the river from the riverbank next to Saxton Falls lock.

A short distance to the west of Saxton Falls, a waste gate discharged excess water from the canal into the Musconetcong River. Near this gate was a bridge that carried an earlier alignment of Waterloo Road over the canal.

Early in the 20^th Century, near the end of the Morris Canal’s operation, a summer bungalow colony developed along Saxton Lake and the canal. The scenic valley along the river and canal was an attractive area to spend summers, boating on the lake and fishing and swimming in its waters. For a time so many of the bungalow owners were from Phillipsburg that the colony at Saxton Lake became unofficially known as "Little Phillipsburg."

With the closing of the Morris Canal in 1924, the passing canal boats ceased, but the Saxton Lake bungalow colony continued to thrive. As part of the process of dismantling the canal at Saxton Lake, the State of New Jersey constructed the present concrete dam across the river. The original timber crib dam was left in place, immediately upstream of the concrete dam, and remains so today. The State filled in the lock at Saxton Falls, but not before a pipe was installed to carry water from Saxton Lake to the adjacent section of canal bed to the west. This water-filled piece of the canal served as a public swimming area for about 65 years in what became known as Saxton Falls State Park. In addition to swimming, families enjoyed picnics at Saxton Falls and fishing remained a favorite pastime. In fact, for many years the Governor of New Jersey would open the annual trout fishing season at Saxton Falls.

Saxton Falls is destined to become a major attraction within the Morris Canal Greenway. A new vision for Saxton Falls State Park has recently been developed through a cooperative effort amongst the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry, the Canal Society of New Jersey, and The Friends of the Morris Canal. The resulting new master plan for the park calls for the enhancement of both the historic canal features and the recreational aspects of the park. The Saxton Falls lock is to be restored to operating condition, the adjacent section of canal is to be filled with water, and a boat ride is to be operated on the canal and scenic Saxton Lake. The historic towpath along Saxton Lake is to be restored in to a walking trail, picnic areas are to be created within the park, and boating and fishing access is to be improved. The plans also call for establishing a new visitor/interpretive center which will describe both the natural and cultural heritage of the Saxton Falls area, emphasizing the transportation corridor that has passed through the narrow valley from the time of the Native American occupancy up to the present day.

The first steps toward implementing the plan are underway. New interpretive signage is being installed and will be unveiled on September 15, 2001. In addition, the historic towpath trail along the lake’s edge is being cleared and restored into a public walkway after 70 years of disuse. Restoring the canal heritage will bring Saxton Falls alive with the sights and sounds of the historic Morris Canal. And, once again families will enjoy recreational activities along the adjacent Musconetcong River.

Greenway

The Morris Canal Greenway is an in-progress recreational trail and greenway corridor that will one day extend along the historic Morris Canal’s alignment through Hackettstown, Saxton Falls, Waterloo, Stanhope, Port Morris, Shippenport and Ledgewood. The project is the cooperative effort of the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry, the Canal Society of New Jersey, Friends of the Morris Canal and Waterloo Village. In addition to preserving and enhancing the canal remains and the associated natural environment, the greenway will provide interpretive signage and brochures at various focal points along its route. The majority of the greenway corridor parallels the Musconetcong River and will link Stephens State Park, Saxton Falls, Allamuchy Mountain State Park, Waterloo Village, Lake Musconetcong State Park (in Stanhope and Netcong) and Hopatcong State Park. Roxbury Township’s Morris Canal Park at Ledgewood will be part of the greenway, but may not be linked by a footpath due to the alignment of Interstate Route 80.

Over the past several years Canal Society volunteers have put in hundreds of hours to clear the Morris Canal towpath of brush and debris to create a continuous recreational and historical trail. Efforts have initially focused on the publicly owned length of canal in Allamuchy Mountain State Park, extending between Waterloo and Saxton Falls. Most of this length of canal is also part of the New Jersey Highlands Trail, thus the Canal Towpath Trail is connected with a state trail network. In addition, The Liberty-Delaware Water Gap Trail is proposing to follow part of the Morris Canal Greenway Trail between Saxton Falls and The Sussex Branch Trail.

To date, about 2.5 miles of canal trail have been completed and opened to the public, representing the first Morris Canal trail in a New Jersey state park. Public events have been held during recent years to commemorate the trail effort and increase awareness of the trail’s existence. At the most recent trail day two mules led a public hike along the historic towpath. It was the first time in 74 years that mules had walked this section of Morris Canal. During the canal’s 1831 - 1924 operation mules had been the motive power for towing the freight-laden boats the 102 miles across northern New Jersey.

The canal trail has also been used by a March Of Dimes Bike-a-Thon fundraiser, several Canal Society of New Jersey tours, a regional Boy Scouts of America seven-state Jamboree with nearly 10,000 participants, and the bi-annual Warren County bus tour of the Morris Canal across the county.

New Jersey Parks and Forestry staff have constructed a timber footbridge to allow the path to cross over a former canal waste gate structure, located a short distance west of Waterloo Village. The crew is currently building a second bridge to span a cut across the canal that allows a stream to cross the dry canal bed. Additional bridges will be built along the towpath causeway that hugs the shore of Saxton Lake. The first interpretive signs and trail marker signs have been installed and in the spring of 2001 new National Park Service-quality signage was installed at Waterloo to describe the canal features at this historic site. Similar signage will be installed at Saxton Falls during the late summer of 2001.

Canal Society volunteers have also worked to clear the canal banks and the yard surrounding the locktender’s stone house ruin at the site of Lock 2 West near Stanhope. This ruin is being stabilized by the Canal Society of New Jersey and the Mount Olive International Trade Zone. Adjacent to the locktender's house ruin is one of the best-preserved sections of the Morris Canal. This water-filled length of canal is part of Allamuchy Mountain State Park and is accessible to the public.

Saxton Falls is another project that is part of the greenway effort. Plans for this site call for restoring the canal lock to operable condition, reflooding a section of canal and establishing a boat ride on the canal and Saxton Lake. In addition, interpretation of the historic canal- and transportation-related sites will be installed and on-site recreational facilities will be improved. The State of New Jersey has allocated seed money for the Saxton Falls project for planning, installation of interpretative signage and publication of a brochure explaining the project and the importance of the Saxton Falls site.

During the past two years the Canal Society volunteers have been clearing the towpath trail along the edge of Saxton Lake, implementing part of the Master Plan for the Saxton Falls area. In this location the towpath follows the lakeshore and in some sections utilizes a built-up causeway. Saxton Lake was one of the few locations where a causeway towpath existed on the Morris Canal. The majority of the Saxton Lake towpath trail will be open by late spring 2001, providing public access to the lake-edge historic towpath for the first time in 77 years. With growing publicity the trail will become better known and will be utilized by increasing numbers of park visitors. In fact, it is hoped that growing usage will be a catalyst for the trail to be extended both eastward and westward along more of the Morris Canal corridor.

Stanhope will be a very important interpretive site along the Canal Greenway. The community not only has well-preserved canal features, but a historic downtown which features many canal- and ironworks-related buildings. Stanhope may have more surviving canal-related buildings than any other community along the route of the historic waterway. Recently the State of New Jersey purchased half of Furnace Pond to preserve the historic Morris Canal- and ironworks- related features located on the edges of the pond. Furnace Pond and the new state park on its edge are important additions to the Morris Canal Greenway.