February 18, 2007 - An article from the Record (below) brings some bad news for Bloomingdale’s Federal Hill.

Over the last 10 years numerous groups including the PRC have steadfastly opposed this development on Federal Hill due to impacts on the adjacent Pequannock River. The original proposal called for housing sprawled across much of this steep, rocky, wetlands-laced property. That proposal was voted down by the Bloomingdale Planning Board in 2003. And in a one-two punch, the DEP also required enormous changes in the design, largely due to objections and the state’s adoption of the new Stormwater Rules. Those extensive changes made the original plan unfeasible.

A revised proposal was presented in 2005. Though the land area affected was reduced by half, citizens still had objections, particularly to the developer’s request for a DEP waiver. This waiver would allow construction of a new road across critical stream buffers and impact habitat for threatened wood turtles on the tract. Due to repeated requests, strongly supported by local citizens, a hearing was scheduled on this waiver request. After listening to comments from a packed house, the DEP denied the waiver request. This again served to reduce the area of the development by half.

Unfortunately the developer called on the courts for relief. The mandate to provide affordable housing is a card developers have played repeatedly in New Jersey to good effect. Bloomingdale’s concerns on flooding and environmental degradation are legitimate, but that may not win the day. Ironically, the newly released draft of the Highlands Regional Master Plan identifies Federal Hill as a target for conservation.

Federal Hill History

Federal Hill was the scene of a Revolutionary War mutiny that caught the attention of General George Washington

and led to the execution of two mutineers.

The hill, once named Burnt Mountain, looms over the intersection of Hamburg Turnpike and Newark-Pompton Turnpike in Riverdale, N.J.. During the Revolution it was used as lookout post.

The mutiny occured during the severe winter of 1781, after most of the fighting in the war had moved south. G

eneral Washington was living in the Ford Mansion in Morristown, about 15 miles away.

It was not the first mutiny of the war. Three weeks earlier, about 1,300 Pennsylvania Line troops in Morristown, N.J. got fed up with their living conditions and decided to take their grievances to Princeton. They were nearly halfway when they were met by General "Mad Anthony" Wayne. He told them to submit their complaints to the Continental Congress, which was meeting in Philadelphia, and pledged to support them. They agreed to turn back. A congressional committee soon heard their grievances, and many of the Morristown troops were given back pay and honorable discharges.

General Washington apparently feared that a wave of insurrections could mean victory for the British, and he positioned General Robert Howe and his troops in Ringwood, N.J. as a safeguard.

On Federal Hill, meanwhile, life was brutal. The 160 soldiers had minimal food, clothing and shelter; they were beginning to suffer from frostbite and scurvy, they were bored, and they had not been paid in months.

On Jan. 20, 1781, the men left their posts and began a march to Elizabethtown to air their grievances. The troops were not deserting, but Washington sent General Howe and 500 troops to put an end to the mutiny.

Before Howe could reach them, the mutineers heard the good news about the settlement with Morristown troops and they decided to turn back. On their way they ran into Howe. The general let them return to Federal Hill unpunished.

A few days later, Sergeant Gimlore and Private John Tuttle persuaded a handful of Federal Hill troops to mutiny once more. After the two previous revolts, such an attempt could not go unpunished. The two ringleaders were arrested and shot by a firing squad made up of 12 fellow soldiers. The emotional executions shocked the remaining troops, some of whom were in tears.

There were no further incidents.

Source: http://graphicwitness.com/federalhill/mutiny.html

Federal Hill 1902:  Railroads and Mines

In the late 1930s, Germans moved up onto Federal Hill and started a Bund camp called the Bergwald, which means mountain forest. Bund is a German society.

When Hitler came into power, the Klu Klux Klan reportedly went up to the entrance of the bund camp and burned a cross to scare the Bund out of the area. They warned the swastika-wearing Germans to get out of the area, but no attention seems to have been paid.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, and with anti-German sentiment on the rise, it is reported that the government stepped up pressure on the Bund and apparently drove them out of the area.

When the bundists were gone, the government found some ammunition and guns on the hill, but no gunpowder.

In 1950, a fire started on the hill and there were three explosions, probably caused by some hidden black powder.