The Black River Journal, LLC PO Box 115 Pottersville, NJ 07979 US
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Welcome to Black River Country
Tumbling over falls and down Hacklebarney’s rugged ravines as it leaves Morris County, the roiling dark waters of the Black River rush headlong to the village of Pottersville, where the landscape begins to flatten and the river banks become wider, and the once raging waterway transitions to the Lamington River and flows gently into Hunterdon and Somerset Counties. The Black/Lamington River is the heart of Pottersville, a village that grew up around the mills and foundry along the river bank, and reached it’s heyday with the arrival of the “Rock-A-Bye-Baby” railroad in the late 1800s. But while the mill wheels and rail cars stopped turning long ago, Pottersville still retains an abundance of 19th century charm and is a popular stop for day trippers and Sunday drivers. Spread out among four townships and three counties, Pottersville is also the place where the boundaries of Hunterdon, Morris, and Somerset Counties all converge, and The Black River Journal is the meeting place for all three. We’re bringing together readers that share a love for the villages, historic town centers, and open countryside that make our area of New Jersey such a unique and special place to live and work!
We Happened to Pick Up a Copy
"While visiting my son and daughter in law in Basking Ridge, I had the pleasure of visiting Oldwick where we happened to pick up a copy of your magazine.
To my delight and surprise I found your articles well written and informative, heads and shoulders above the usual caliber of such advertising journals.
As I am a psychologist, I found “The Asylum” fascinating. Then I moved on to History in Miniature: The Peapack Trestle. I found that article totally charming and quite evocative.
Most surprising is that I read all your articles enjoying the accompanying photographs.
I look forward to perhaps joining the Frilluftsliv revelers next January. It was fun reading about the Wolf Moon and learning its meaning.
Everything about your endeavor, is first rate down to your choice of paper stock.
You give meaning to the saying, 'Anything worth doing, is worth doing well.'”
Thank you,
S.B.
Princeton, NJ
I Seem to Be Getting More Irish
Journal Entry: Spring 2023
I wasn’t surprised to find a good showing of Irish in my DNA results, as there are tinges of green throughout my family tree. But as they keep updating my results, I keep getting greener, until my roots are apparently more Irish than anything else. My forebears, like my 3rd great grandparents, Michael and Catherine Hogan, hail mostly from the remote regions of Munster, a refuge for outlaws and rebels that was decimated by the Great Hunger, also known as the Irish Potato Famine, of the mid-19th century. Read More
Inside Our Current Issue
Anna Trimmer's Hair Wreath
Performers of Passion, A Mission with Heart
Anna Trimmer's Hair Wreath
If you suffer from chaetophobia, the irrational fear of hair, cringe at the thought of a hairball, or like my wife, gag a little every time you clean a matted hair brush, you may not want to read on any further… Read More
A Hound in the Hard Covers
Performers of Passion, A Mission with Heart
Anna Trimmer's Hair Wreath
A gray drizzle fell on the village of Oldwick as I ducked onto the porch of Howling Basset Books. Tucked snugly beneath the front corner tower of a Queen Anne style house, the antique doors of the shop opened to the glowing warmth of natural wood and vibrant book jackets... Read More
Performers of Passion, A Mission with Heart
Performers of Passion, A Mission with Heart
Performers of Passion, A Mission with Heart
For Stephen Walley, Artistic Director of the new Gladstone-based opera company Opera Magnifico, opera is all about the drama. The theatrical flair of golden age and bel canto opera, a style where the singing is “a lot bigger, and more visceral, with more emotion” than your standard opera, captivated Stephen while he studied music in high school and college... Read More
History in Miniature: The Peapack Trestle
History in Miniature: The Peapack Trestle
Performers of Passion, A Mission with Heart
The view from the backyard of Bruce Bochino’s home in Peapack-Gladstone looks back on three hundred years of borough history, and as a boy, his playground was the adjacent property known as “Trestle Brook”... Read More
The Pheasant
History in Miniature: The Peapack Trestle
The Pheasant
I think at some point in our lives all have encountered the pheasant. In North America, the overwhelmingly predominant pheasant is the Ring-necked Pheasant, characterized by the males’ emerald green head, bright crimson eye patches, and a white ring around the neck delineating the head from the brown mottled body. Very long tail feathers complete the picture.
Simply said, it is a stunning, regal bird... Read More
"The Asylum"
History in Miniature: The Peapack Trestle
The Pheasant
An aging 18th century fieldstone house in Middle Valley may have been the earliest private insane asylum in New Jersey and the first to practice “moral treatment” in the care of the mentally ill... Read More
Local Author Craig J. Tomsky is Changing the Game
Local Author Craig J. Tomsky is Changing the Game
Local Author Craig J. Tomsky is Changing the Game
If your game meat recipes have gone from gourmet to, yes let’s say it - “gamey,” then it’s time to start Changing the Game, with Craig J. Tomsky’s kitchen and field “how-to” guide for sportsmen and cooks who want to optimize their “field-to-fork” experience... Read More
Note the Nyssa
Local Author Craig J. Tomsky is Changing the Game
Local Author Craig J. Tomsky is Changing the Game
In New Jersey, the choice of which tree species we plant is becoming more complicated. Plant pathogens, invasive species, deer pressure, increasing temperatures and extreme weather events all bear on this decision, and whether a tree is more likely to live to an age of 2 years or 200... Read More
Mansion in May at Three Fields
Local Author Craig J. Tomsky is Changing the Game
Mansion in May at Three Fields
This year, May brings not only balmy weather and green expanses to New Jersey but also the debut of Mansion in May at Three Fields. Since 1974, the Women’s Association for Morristown Medical Center has presented the Mansion in May Designer Showhouse and Gardens as its signature fundraiser, generating more than $12 million over the years in support of Morristown Medical Center... Read More
Howling at the Wolf Moon
Howling at the Wolf Moon
Mansion in May at Three Fields
The bleak winter rain that had fallen for days finally tapered off to a clammy drizzle but the sky was still sullen over the Raritan Headwater Association’s (RHA’s) Fairview Farm Wildlife Preserve in Far Hills, New Jersey. It was hardly a night for man or beast to venture to the cold-bitten top of a sodden hill and howl at the moon... Read More