South Mountain Reservation - and Cougars?

Mountain lion (not photographed in New Jersey!)

Though none of these animals inhabit our state, I regularly get comments and emails here about sightings of a moose, elk, reindeer, or wolf. I chalk them up to misidentification but the most persistent rumored animal is the mountain lion (also known as cougar or puma). State biologists will tell you our biggest cat is the bobcat, but that hasn't stopped people from reporting a cougar. 

You can find an occasional news article about "sightings of a large cat." One of those sightings was on the Winslow Hammonton border by Route 73 (Camden County) which was reported to be a mountain lion. A panther was once reported in Vineland. The NJDEP's Division of Fish and Wildlife receives these reports and often investigates but there is usually no video, photos, or physical evidence (like tracks or fur samples). There are no officially confirmed cats bigger than a bobcat in the state.

Look at the photo above. That cat is very different from abob cat or domestic cat. The tail alone should be distinctive enough for identification. Cougars are 5 to 6 feet in length including their long tails and average about 135 pounds and can weigh up to 180 pounds. Bobcats are mid-sized cats measuring 2 to 3.5 feet long and weighing up to 40 pounds. They are about twice the size of a domestic cat.

The state's denial of the existence of any cats larger than a bobcat hasn't stopped readers of this blog from making almost 60 comments (as of today) on my post about the idea of a mountain lion in New Jersey

Blackrock Falls

Hemlock Falls

I will add to this idea by saying that there were mountain lions here historically.

South Mountain Reservation, which is now a very suburban area near South Orange and Millburn, was a childhood playground for me and my friends. WE wander to Washington Rock, fed the deer in the fenced-in paddock, climbed Hemlock and Blackrock Falls, walked and biked trails, and fished at Campbell's Pond and Diamond Mill.

The Reservation covers 2,110 acres between the first and second ridges of the Watchung Mountains. Going back to 1896, John Durand, who grew up in Maplewood, described the mountain that includes South Mountain Reservation as:

“a wilderness, as it probably existed at the time of Hendrick Hudson, a primitive forest abounding with deer and other wild animals, and traversed by streams alive with trout. Game was plentiful – partridges, quail, woodcock, rabbits, squirrels of every species, raccoons and foxes; while occasionally a hungry bear that had trespassed on the farmyards in the vicinity would be tracked to its den and shot.”

In 1680, wolves, bears, and cougars were observed in the area, and there was a bounty on them. 

The Lenape Indians gave us the name for the Watchung ridges of New Jersey, the first and second of which form the Reservation’s eastern and western boundaries. “Watchung” meant “high hills.” 

In colonial times, sawmills existed on the Rahway River and there was a logging industry. During 1779-80, the eastern ridge protected the Continental Army’s encampment at Morristown and gave the Army a clear observation to tNew York to the east. The place is known now as Washington Rock Lookout but it was  Beacon Signal Station 9 of the 23 beacons built by General Washington to observe the movement of British troops quartered on Staten Island and Manhattan.

On June 23, 1780, the Essex County and Newark Militia were warned by those beacons that the British were moving west had launched an attack westward. In a pincer movement designed to gain access to Hobart Gap, Hessian troops fought bitterly along Vaux Hall Road while the British advanced along Galloping Hill Road before being repelled, the Hessians at the base of the mountain and the British in Millburn (then Millville). 

Washington Rock served again as a lookout for the Army when reactivated during the War of 1812.

After the war, Samuel Campbell dammed the Rahway River to establish a paper mill. Campbell’s Pond at the southern end of the Reservation bears his name. By the 1820’s, the Diamond Paper Mill Company had dammed the river to sluice water to their mill site. Today that site is the Paper Mill Playhouse.

The reservation was built from land purchases starting at the close of the 19th century. Famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted visited the newly acquired reservation and regarded it as some of the most beautiful and promising terrain he had ever seen anywhere. He turned the design commission over to his stepson and the Olmsted Brothers firm. Later construction work, including trails, footbridges, and shelters, came with the Federal government's Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

It is still a wonderful parcel of preserved land in a densely populated area of the state. Much of the wildlife that Durand reported still exists there - but no evidence of any mountain lions.

More info on the area at South Mountain Conservancy