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The cache is a small container located in Belvidere between the Pequest River and the A&P. Although there is no big hike required, the small path to the cache is a little steep so watch your step. Bring your own pen.
Hard to believe that this cute little town had no geocaches. Thus, we've added a few! Good Luck!
PEQUEST RIVER
The river enters Warren County via Allamuchy Township, following the old railroad bed around the village--actually, the river was there first--and the two of them made a good pair until the river entered the swampy Great Meadows. Here, the train couldn't follow; river and train parted company. Then the river entered extremely fertile meadows that, understandably enough, took the name, Great Meadows. Thousands of years ago, after the last glacier, the place was at first a lake, and then a swamp that became a lake again after every rainfall or snowfall. A glacial moraine, a ridge of rock and dirt left by the melting glacier, dammed up the Pequest at present day Vienna and, after rainfalls, caused floods throughout Great Meadows and surrounding areas.
Today the river runs quietly through the meadows that surround it in the Allamuchy area. This section of the river provides a calm but enjoyable trip in canoe with little evidence of the civilization that surrounds it. A canoe trip from Long Bridge Road where it crosses the river in Allamuchy to Route 46, or a mile or so beyond Route 46, makes an interesting, relaxing trip of a couple hours duration.
Then calmness leaves the river as it starts its strong drive towards the Delaware. The Pequest, during this last half of its life, moves more rapidly, is rocky and very often too shallow for canoes except during rainy periods. Below Great Meadows the river and Route 46 run side by side almost all the way to Belvidere where the Pequest joins the Delaware. Not too far after the highway and river join they pass through an agricultural area that is becoming residential. On the right hand side of the highway are some cleared fields that were occupied by the Pequest Iron Furnace, one of many furnaces in this area 120 years ago. Workers lived here and worked at the iron furnace, but today, the furnace and company houses have all disappeared.
It is in Belvidere that the Pequest enters the Delaware. Before the town, however, Route 46 and the Pequest River part company abruptly. The highway curves right and will come to the Delaware a few miles upriver; the Pequest River makes a sharp left turn, taking the direct line into Belvidere and the Delaware. Just at this turn a rushing mountain stream charges into the Pequest from the right, from the direction of the highlands of Hope. This is Beaver Brook which, indeed, does have its beginning in Hope. In the old days, this brook operated the Moravian grist mill and a saw mill for as long as the Moravians were there and a long time afterward, as well. The Pequest, now with Beaver Brook added, is followed closely into town by an appropriately named thorofare, Water Street. As the river parts company with Route 46 it enters a deep chasm, the deepest on the river. For the length of the chasm Water Street remains high above.
Within a quarter of a mile of the village center the river rises to the road level again and enters town still to the left of Water Street, and running parallel to it. Two principal streets are bridged over the river. The first street is Prospect Street. The next street, Market Street, is also bridged over the river. A third bridge that crossed the river closest to its entry into the Delaware is a railroad bridge used in the past by the fabled Bel-Del Railroad.
One of the first non-Indian settlers in this area was Major Robert Hoops who, when he came to the area just prior to the Revolutionary War, saw the value of the river's water power. The Pequest falls a full 50 feet in its last mile to the Delaware which made it an important power source in those days. Hoops dammed the river and had several mills and other water power plants along it. He also operated a large slaughter house here during the Revolution here to supply Washington's army. Hoops originally called his little village "Mercer" but later changed the name to "Belvidere".
During the Revolutionary War and especially when Washington's troops were stationed in Morris County, Hoops' food shipments, including meat from his slaughter house, prevented starvation of the army and later resulted in some major military victories. During part of the war Hoops served with General Washington as an aide. For the Revolutionary War foodstuffs which he sent to the army he was paid in the currency of the new nation which in the first depression became worthless. Hoops used what money he had to pay his debts and moved to what is today Olean, New York, where he built a cabin home. His wife had passed away earlier in Belvidere and he lived his last years in Olean, alone, and in near poverty.
After Hoops, the production of water-powered mills and factories along the Pequest at Belvidere far exceeded the production of the Delaware's power at Belvidere. Even a flouring mill on the banks of the Delaware ran on water piped from the nearby Pequest. The waste water then flowed into the Delaware. In 1825, Belvidere was chosen to be the county seat of new Warren County over Hope and Washington. Land values in the new county capital jumped upward with one corner lot bringing the "extravagant" price of thirty-six hundred dollars. James P. Snell, in his book of Warren County's history published in 1881, wrote of many mills and other water operating plants on the banks of the Pequest that were operating a hundred years after Hoops milling operations. In addition, by the 19th Century the river was surrounded by additional manufacturing operations. Two carriage manufacturing businesses were in existence by the end of the century, one on Prospect Street and the other on Water Street. During this same period both bridges that crossed the river were widened to carry the additional traffic and the Bel-Del Railroad, with its bridge over the Pequest, was bustling. With the nationalization and internationalization of manufacturing, plants have been built closer to the raw materials and large populations, often out of the United States. Belvidere and other old manufacturing towns in the county have faded from state and national prominence.
Notable visitors to the Pequest River include Herbert Hoover, Babe Ruth, and Thomas Edison.
Additional Hints
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