Split Rock Access Secured

The Great Turtle entrance to Split Rock Mountain.

If you’ve been following The Land Conservancy’s work for the last few years, you’ve probably heard about the long journey to save Split Rock Mountain from public auction and return this sacred place to the Ramapough Munsee tribe, its original stewards for many hundreds of years.

A decade ago, TLCNJ was planning to acquire a trail easement over Split Rock Mountain, a little-known geological treasure brought by a glacier during the last ice age thousands of years ago, but found that the property was to be auctioned for development. During our research we started meeting with Ramapough Munsee tribal leaders, and they informed us that Split Rock Mountain was their most spiritually sacred site–the place their ancestors had cherished to look down upon their homeland, to hold ceremonies and debate important matters. At this point, we knew we had to get more involved.

What we thought would be a few months of staff time turned into a four-year saga to stop the auction and help the tribe establish New Jersey’s first indigenous land trust. TLCNJ and the Ramapough Munsee worked diligently with community groups, funders, and local government. We completed a cleanup of truly epic proportions, eliminated the steep taxes, and raised private funds to acquire the property and donate it to the newly formed Ramapough Munsee Land Alliance (RMLA).

But a thorny matter remained: the property did not include access to a road. There was no public access for the tribal members to reach Split Rock Mountain; the only route was through private property. So we worked for another two years to purchase, clean up, and subdivide an adjacent ten acres of land that contained the path up the mountain. The landowners retain ownership of their home and five acres of land, and the rest was preserved. Known locally as Owl Woods, this property contains the ancestral path and Great Turtle entrance to Split Rock Mountain as well as mature forest and animal habitat.

We are proud to announce that this has been completed, and that permanent access to this remarkable site has been secured for the Ramapough people.