Monarch Butterflies in Pyramid Mountain Park

I'm fascinated with butterflies. Even more so with Monarch Butterflies that manage the unthinkable every year with a 2,000 to 3,000 mile migration.

Imagine a creature as delicate and ephemeral as a butterfly traveling the distance from Mexico to various parts of the United States and Canada and back again.  Every year.  

No other insect undertakes as long a migration.

Monarch butterflies make their way  back to their 'overwintering grounds' in Central Mexico [more specifically the Oyamel fir forest] in September and October.  Hence the recent Meet a Monarch Butterfly Festival  at the Pyramid Mountain Natural Historic area in Montville Township in Morris County, NJ - as well as many other areas around the country as reported in USA Today in an article titled "Catch the monarch on its migratory path."

The Daily Record reported on the Pyramid Mountain event in Imaginations aflutter at butterfly festival; Hands-on Kinnelon event teaches visitors about Monarchs' life cycles which my daughter and I attended.  It was fascinating.

From the press release, I learned the following: "Weighing only half a gram, monarch butterflies travel up to 80 miles a day to cover a dangerous 2,000-mile journey to Mexico."

We missed the butterfly tagging demonstration during which trained naturalists attach tiny numbered tags onto the wings of the adult monarchs, immediately before releasing them to begin their journey.  I presume they use a tooth pick...

However, we did enjoy a tour [actually several] of the butterfly garden immediately next to the Visitor Center. There, we saw a monarch caterpillar in a "J" position about to enter into the pupa phase and turn into  a chrysalis [see photo above left].  We saw several chrysalis further along and even returned the following day to admire a newly emerged monarch [see below].

Critical to the survival of monarchs is the milkweed plant.

Monarchs only lay eggs on milkweed plants.  The milkweed also protects the insect in its butterfly stage as the acidic milkweed 'milk' that the caterpillar eats voraciously is toxic to many animals.

No surprise, the Native Plant Society of New Jersey had displays and information about the benefits of a multitude of native New Jersey plants, including milkweed. Note: the NPSNJ website offers lists of native plants by county.

I came across milkweed for the first time during a walk last summer and fell in love with the sweet smell and the intense flowers. When I noticed that I could purchase seeds, I did so and we plan to sow them next weekend.

For the record, I purchased Swamp Milkweed [Asclepias incarnata], Butterfly Weed [Asclepias tuberosa] and Common Milkweed [Asclepias syriaca].

I came across this article titled Monarch butterfly: Color protects it from predatory birds which lists details on the monarch butterfly.  Pay special attention to the life cycle section [also check out the Wikipedia article referenced above].

Other sites I discovered:
+ Inner clock may lead monarch butterflies

+ KidZone information on the Monarch butterfly with terrific pictures and monarch-related kid activities.

+ And, you can help track the monarch butterfly migration each fall and spring by becoming a member of this site - Journey North: Monarch Butterfly Migration - and reporting your observations.

Although this is the third year of the Meet a Monarch Butterfly Festival, this was our first visit.  I doubt it will be our last, though.  There's too much that's marvelous about these insects.

By the way, at the Pyramid Mountain visitors' center, you can sign up to receive email updates on the scheduled hikes and programs.  That's how I learned  about the Festival.

I can't wait to plant our milkweed seeds and eventually welcome monarch butterflies to our yard.

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Louis C. Tiffany and St. Hubert's Interior

As mentioned in St. Hubert's Chapel Visit, Francis Kinney commissioned Louis Comfort Tiffany for the interior of St. Hubert's Chapel in Kinnelon, NJ, some time after 1886 and before 1889 when the Chapel was dedicated.

Louis Comfort Tiffany [1848 -1933] was the son of Charles Lewis Tiffany who founded the venerable Tiffany & Co. A talented artist, he was known for stained glass windows and lamps, ceramics, jewelry, blown glass and glass mosaic. He was originally trained as a painter, learning from George Inness and Samuel Colman, both landscape painters. Tiffany captured an Art Nouveau sensibility [also see Art Nouveau].

Despite the painting background, from 1875 on Tiffany became increasingly interested in glassmaking. In 1879 with several other artists he formed Louis Comfort Tiffany & Associated American Artists. This was dissolved in 1885 so he could focus solely on glass arts, when he launched Tiffany Glass Co. [which in 1902 became Tiffany Studios].

Given the dates, I assume that Tiffany Glass Co. is the organization that Francis Kinney worked with for St. Hubert's Chapel.

From The Saint Hubert's Chapel booklet: "In order to carry out Kinney's plan for a medieval church, Tiffany assembled a team of artists and antiquarians. Under the direction of J.A. Holzer, a prominent artist, they set out to research the life and times of St. Hubert. The group spent three years locating art treasures and exploring museums in Belgium and throughout Europe to collect data. Sketches, models and drawings were made and sent to New York where a highly skilled group of professional craftsmen under Tiffany's supervision, carefully recreated the various artworks that were to be installed at St. Hubert's Chapel."

I have found references to J.A. Holzer and Louis Comfort Tiffany working on the following projects - all after St. Hubert's Chapel: Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University built from 1892 to 1894; Church of the Covenant in Boston, MA [redecorated in the 1890s]; Marquette Building in Chicago built in 1895; St. Paul's Church in Troy, NY in the 1890s; Willard Memorial Chapel completed in 1894 in Auburn, NY.

My conclusion: St. Hubert's Chapel represents a very early Tiffany Glass Co. project. I expect that many aspects of the Chapel's interior captuer early concepts and techniques that Tiffany and Holzer would have developed further in subsequent projects.

According to Cornie Hubner in a Didja Know? article titled "St. Hubert Chapel": "Two complete families of sculptors and masons were brought from Italy and resided on the estate for more than two years. Their work and that of the wood carvers and carpenters was directed by the Tiffany supervisor, Mr. A. Holyer [i.e., Holzer]. He also designed and supervised much of the interior with its tile floor and many inlays."

"The Tiffany organization supplied the altar and fixtures, furnishings and vestments decorated with many long gone semi-precious stones. Scenes of the Forest and the hunt were pictured in original windows. A wood sculptured confessional, a fireplace, and pews provided seating for 24."

The Chapel Brochure describes the baptistery, site of the magnificent Tiffany window, as follows:

"In the baptistery of the Chapel is a Tiffany double-paned window in the shape of a Celtic cross. This thick glassed window is filled with a most elaborately wrought cross of lead grill-work. The lumps of glass are broken roughly to make as many facets as possible, so as to reflect the light and add to its brilliance. The lower portion of the cross originally contained the symbols of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the foundation of the faith which is represented by the cross itself. [Two of the symbols were removed by thieves during the past forty years.] Above, in the arms and top of the cross, the symbols of the four Evangelists, the channels of the faith, are represented respectively. The exterior glass of the double-paned window was selected to appear as a mosaic in the stonework and enhance the beauty of its interior view when sunlight is transmitted. "

According to Wikipedia's entry on Tiffany, "In the beginning of his career, Tiffany used cheap jelly jars and bottles because they had the mineral impurities that finer glass lacked. When he was unable to convince fine glassmakers to leave the impurities in, he began making his own glass. Tiffany used opalescent glass in a variety of colors and textures to create a unique style of stained glass. This can be contrasted with the method of painting in glass paint or enamels on colorless glass that had been the dominant method of creating stained glass for several hundred years in Europe."

From the descriptions, it sure sounds like St. Hubert's Chapel's Celtic cross of stained glass captures Louis C. Tiffany's unique glass works technique and sensibility. I hope to get better photos when I next visit.

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website comes information on Tiffany's stained glass work:

"Beginning in the late 1870s, Tiffany and his early rival John La Farge revolutionized the art of stained glass. Until then, the craft had remained essentially unchanged since medieval times. La Farge and Tiffany, dissatisfied with the limited colors and poor quality of available window glass, experimented with novel types of materials, achieving a more varied palette. Opalescent glass, internally colored with variegated shades of the same or different hues, enabled artists to substitute random tonal gradations, lines, textures, and densities—inherent in the glass itself—for the pictorial details that previously had been painted on the glass. Other innovations involved plating, the addition of one or more layers of glass to attain greater depth of color and three-dimensional effects and to blend different hues. Tiffany drew from a stock of thousands of different types and colors of glass, some of which were given dramatic textures and shapes through the use of molds and through manipulation of the material in its molten state."

Fascinating, isn't it? What a gem and historical masterpiece available in Smoke Rise and Kinnelon, NJ. If you haven't already, do make a point to visit St. Hubert's Chapel.

The St. Hubert's Chapel Conservation Committee replaced the entry, baptistery and bell tower roofs in 1992. Electrification and alarm system came in 1993. The Tiffany Celtic Cross was removed for restoration in 1993, and reinstalled in 1994.

The Chapel's entrance door [pictured above] was also designed and created by Tiffany Studios. It was restored in the mid 1990s.



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Meet Tom Kline

Tom Kline is an amazing man in my estimation. He is responsible for the ongoing restoration of St. Hubert's Chapel. Talk about boundless passion for a historic labor of love.

He started the project as a teenager. The story I heard is that he created a calendar with photos of the chapel and went door to door selling the calendar to raise money.

Cornie Hubner writes the following in a Didja Know? article [written in the late 1980s]:

"For the last 14 years, one man has been making heroic efforts to research and restore St. Hubert's Chapel on the lake. Despite vandalism and the ravages of nature, his efforts and that of his family have made progress in one direction while losing ground in others. These many hours of research, hard labor and no little personal expense will have been wasted unless the project is recognized, supported and funded."

Cornie provides historic perspective on the construction of the chapel, which the Kinneys used for family mass into the 1920s. The chapel served the Smoke Rise community in the early 1950s until the congregation became too large and services moved to the Smoke Rise Inn.

He continues: "There followed a period of destruction by vandals which was not discovered until too late. A reward of $100 was offered and several perpetrators were discovered. Little or no action was taken and damage to a greater or lesser degree continued. Several efforts were made to organize restoration programs but lacking protection, no progress was made.

The curiosity of the son of a long time Smoke Rise resident led him to research that soon resulted in his approved restoration activity. With the help of his family and their financial assistance, this produced some lasting results.

The clock works and chimes, requiring replacement parts mostly hand made, were restored to full working order. Soothing chimes, from the huge brass bells rang out across the lake and resounded in the hills until the nightly serenade caused some annoyance and were stopped. The unique soothing sound can again be enjoyed if we can provide a control to allow its performance only during daylight.

The damaged clock faces were reproduced by making almost 1000 wood screws and many special parts. More than 2,000 pieces of colored glass have been designed to remake the mosaic back of the altar. A new roof is being prepared for the Belfry and when help is obtained will be erected to protect the delicate controls from the nesting birds whose droppings and other debris threaten the painstakingly restored equipment.

Tom Kline, for many years residing on Ski Trail, is continuing his solitary efforts to preserve our unique inheritance. His dedicated untiring efforts can only succeed if a concerted drive is made to enlist help and financial support. This provides an opportunity to contribute your ideas, exercise your artistic talents and have the satisfaction of preserving a historic landmark. Tom will be very happy to hear from you and give you the details."

Tom routinely conducts tours of St. Hubert's Chapel to tell its story. I've been on two tours, the most recent this past July 6. Both took place around the July 4th holiday Smoke Rise Days, with residents volunteering to boat visitors out to the island, and back.

Last summer, Tom also presented a historic slide show with the most amazing images of Smoke Rise and Kinnelon in the time of Francis Kinney. I wish the slide show were a regular presentation at the Inn or at the Kinnelon library. It's marvelously full of information and perspective on the area.

Cornie Hubner ends his Didja Know? article with a plea to support the restoration of the chapel.

I end this post with the same plea to please support St. Hubert's Restoration by sending a tax deductible contribution via check payable to the Kinnelon Heritage Conservation Society, Inc., address: 1 Perimeter Road, Kinnelon, NJ, 07405.

BTW, Tom Kline sits on the Kinnelon Historical Commission.

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"Didja Know?" by Cornelius A. Hubner

I wish I had met Cornelius [Cornie] A. Hubner.

He is responsible for a series of articles documenting the history and stories associated with Smoke Rise, the days of Francis S. Kinney and the early days of Kinnelon. The series was titled "Didja Know?" and appeared starting on June 15, 1985 in the Smoke Rise Club News.

The stories are magical.

Cornie lived at 218 Hemlock Lane. He started writing these stories at around age 85, producing close to 100. Nowadays, the newsletter comes out twice per month. I suspect it came out once a month back then. Assuming he wrote one story per issue, Cornie would have written this series for over 8 years... Wow.

Cornie writes: "Beginning with the one paragraph contribution "Eagles," June 15, 1985, and encouraged by the Editors' reception of "Prices," two months later, the column became a full page story. Historical dates are included with otherwise unrecorded facts?, hearsay and folklore embellished my sometimes vague recollections of almost 90 years."

My biggest regret is that these stories aren't digitally available so they can come alive again for a new generation of Kinnelon and Smoke Rise residents.... So, when appropriate, I intend to quote from Cornie's writings whenever possible to add context, perspective, and texture to the stories I share with you here.

I strongly recommend that you get yourself a copy of the articles from the Smoke Rise Club Office. By the way, you may already have a copy from the packet you received when you moved into Smoke Rise. A second copy costs $6 and is well worth the money. It is sponsored by the Women of Smoke Rise and dedicated to Cornie's wife of 67 years, Peg.

According to Lynn in the Smoke Rise Office, Cornie was a wonderful man who loved the community -- an old school gentleman who always drove around with a cap on his head. He was brought up in Butler, and was probably one of the early residents of Smoke Rise.

He died in 1992.

I think Cornie would have been a natural at blogging.



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St. Hubert's Chapel Visit

Imagine a perfect July day and the opportunity to take a boat trip through time to visit St. Hubert's Chapel on Lake Kinnelon... Would you hesitate? I sure didn't. In fact, I stood in line so I wouldn't miss out!

St. Hubert's Chapel sits on Chapel Island, the largest island in Kinnelon Lake in Smoke Rise. [See Lake Kinnelon Walk for a description of the islands].

The only way to access the chapel is by boat. Think of the implications...

Francis S. Kinney built St. Hubert's Chapel for his wife, Mary, so she wouldn't have to travel the 7 miles to the nearest church at the time, St. Anthony of Padua in Butler, NJ [which features a stained glass window with Kinney's name].

That time was the late 1880s.

Per the St. Hubert's Chapel booklet available if you take part in a tour of the chapel:

"In the Spring of 1886, Mr. Kinney, using his walking stick, drew a crude ground plan for the future chapel on the rough soil of the tiny island in the center of Lake Kinnelon [aka Stickle Pond]. No one knows why Mr. Kinney chose the remote island location for St. Hubert's Chapel. Some speculate that the location was symbolic of either the remote areas where St. Hubert established Christianity or Kinney's desire to place a watery separation between church and state.

Construction of St. Hubert's Chapel was conducted quietly and secretly, and its structure was erected in complete harmony with its rural environment. Rough stones were gathered from the slopes surrounding the lake, and during the winter, massive horse drawn sleds were used to transport them across the frozen lake to the remote island. The church proper and clock tower were completed first. Initially, the interior was a counterpart to the exterior, rough and unhewn. The ceiling was made of oaken rafters and the window frames were of massive oak as well.

The Chapel looked cold and cheerless in its early unfinished condition. Yet, on the morning of the feast of Ss. Chrysanthus and Daria, the Chapel was consecrated by William Wigger, Bishop of Newark, and placed under the patronage of Saint Hubert. It was then that Mr. Kinney determined to give his island shrine historical significance by reproducing, with meticulous historical and artistic accuracy, a medieval chapel from the period in which St. Hubert lived. To accomplish the task, Mr. Kinney commissioned Louis C. Tiffany to undertake the Chapel's interior decoration."

From a series of articles titled "Didja Know?" in the Smoke Rise Newsletter by Cornelius A. Hubner, starting in 1985, come these details:

"The cornerstone of St. Hubert's was laid nearly 100 years ago in 1886. The chapel completed in 1889 was consecrated by Bishop Wigger of the Newark Diocese* assisted by the Rt. Rev. James Dougherty and several priests from the Mission of St. Anthony in Butler."

Sitting in our boat, as we made our way to the chapel, and then back to the mainland afterwards, I couldn't help but feel awe over the scope of the project, and the logistics associated with getting workers, tools, materials and equipment across water.

Next: the interior of St. Hubert's Chapel

Note: I found no reference to Bishop William Wigger, only to Bishop Winand M. Wigger of Newark.

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Meet C.B. Whittemore

We moved to Smoke Rise in June of 2004 from Bergen, County New Jersey.

As have many of the people we've met here, we moved to escape density and congestion and find a more family-friendly place to bring up our daughter. Although it's been everything we expected, it has been even more that we ever thought possible.

Much of that has to do with belonging to a lake community - something I had never experienced before - combined with inherent contrasts: proximity to New York City's concrete jungle vs. bears, lakes and preserved farmland; being on the edge of modern suburbia yet being surrounded by vestiges of an industrial and historic hotbed.

Although I moved around quite a bit growing up, some of my favorite memories had to do with magical beaches and outdoor places where, as a kid, I could spend hours watching, catching small fish, building underwater sea castles, drying seaweed, collecting rocks, watching the ebb and flow of the tide, or just curling up with a book. I sense that magic around Lake Kinnelon, Smoke Rise, Kinnelon and the other towns in this part of Northern New Jersey. It's a place where imagination can run wild.

I'd like to capture all of that, and share it as I've learned to do blogging at Flooring The Consumer and The Carpetology Blog, and also via photos on Flickr.

I intend to describe marvelous local finds, like What's In Your Neighborhood? The High Point Brewery in Butler, NJ, and learn more about Boonton, Skylands, Silas Condict, Pyramid Park and the Morris Canal.

I hope others living in or around Smoke Rise and Kinnelon will contribute here, and - in the not too distant future - that my daughter will be sufficiently in awe of snapping turtles and black bears to document here what she learns.

I invite you to take part in this adventure.



P.S.: My daughter learned how to ride her bike today!

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The Land Where The Smoke Rises

I had the best of intentions at the recent Smoke Rise Beach Campout. I truly wanted to capture my very own image of smoke rising.

After all, Lisa and Ted had seen it when they stood in line to reserve picnic tables on July 5th, the day of the fireworks. That was 5:30am.

I missed it. This photo - taken at around 7am captures the complete stillness of the water. Unfortunately, no smoke...

I love the name "Smoke Rise." It conjures up images of steam rising over lake waters, of rich, dense vegetation, full trees, rocky terrain from which mountains rise and over which waters trickle [or rush after a major rain] back down to the lake.

It also matches up with the history surrounding the area.

Several sources [including the Smoke Rise website] state that Lenni-Lenape Indians [also known as the Ramapough Mountain Indians] named the area surrounding Smoke Rise 'The Land Where the Smoke Rises.' They hunted and farmed in the area and must have spent many an early morning close to the lake admiring the rising smoke of the water.

Of course, given how many lakes exist in this area, this entire section of northern New Jersey must have fit that description.

Interestingly, in the early 1700s, given the relative proximity to New York ports, those areas with access to rushing waters [i.e., power], trees [for charcoal] and iron ore became centers of intense industry. In 1766, the London Company established the Charlotteburg Furnace on the Pequannock River.

According to Barbara and Ernie Suto's site describing the history of Kinnelon, "Ruins of the furnace still lie under the water of the Pequannock Reservoir, south of Smoke Rise's North Gate. Other forges were built on the Pequannock River at Smith's Mills and Butler, and on the outlet of Stickle's Pond (Lake Kinnelon) on Stony Brook."

[Many of these names appear on local maps. On this MapQuest image, I added some of the names. Note that Route 23 in this section follows the course of the Pequannock River.]

"The typical furnace was a stone pyramid on the side of a hill. A platform was built along which layers of ore, fuel, and flux were wheeled to the opening atop the furnace. The mixture was dropped into the furnace and ignited. Air blasts from bellows powered by water wheels kept the fires intense. Gradually, the iron ore melted and the heavy metal flowed out at the base of the furnace into troughs of sand on the casting floor. The arrangement of these cooling beds resembled a sow and her piglets: thus the term "pig iron." Slag floating above the iron was drawn off and discarded. The pig iron was further purified and shaped in the forge."

[Photos of the Carlisle Furnace by Pat Henson and of an Iron Furnace in Kentucky by kyterryls shots give you an idea of the construction. This one of the Cyfarthfa Furnaces by locus imagination includes copious notes about the Cyfarthfa Ironworks in SW.]

"Charcoal was painstakingly prepared in the surrounding hills. Trees had to be cut down during the wintertime, trimmed to the proper size, stacked in cone-shaped piles, and topped with earth and damp leaves. Once ignited, it took three to ten days to char the wood properly. When furnaces were in full blast, it took an acre of trees a day to feed the fires. Some of Kinnelon's roads were once wagon trails where teams of oxen hauled charcoal to the furnaces.

England demanded that the colonies ship all their iron to the mother country and buy from her all their finished hardgoods. By 1770, one seventh of the world's iron was being produced in this region, and England's unjust law soon made rebels of the people of New Jersey. The Highlands' natural barrier to transportation kept the mines and forges safe from British attacks, and left the colonists with a plentiful supply of iron for guns, shot and tools. A huge iron chain forged in this area stretched across the Hudson River near West Point to bar British ships. The hills rang with the banging of trip hammer, the rumble of wagons, and the roar of many fires."

Imagine how polluted the air must have been, how denuded the mountain side - an acre of trees per day to keep the fires going. It boggles the mind.

For more information about the Charlotteburg Ironworks, I encourage you to read Chapter 10 of Kinnelon: A History by Lucy A. Meyer, the town historian. Although the book is available only for reference at the Kinnelon Library, Kinnelon.com has posted a copy of Chapter 10 The Great Charlotteburg Furnace Tract online. You'll find maps and sketches that bring it all to life.

Back to the name 'Smoke Rise.'

In 1922 the borough of Kinnelon was incorporated. Up to that point, 'Kinnelon' had been the name of Francis S. Kinney's estate [i.e., Kinney's lawn]. It seems that he generously gave that name to the new borough while taking on the name 'Smoke Rise' for his property. In 1946, when the property started its transformation into a residential development, it became The Smoke Rise Club, "one of the earliest community club plans in the United States."

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