If you’ve been to The Great West Orange Trolley Crash geocache down the hill (or at least read the story), then you know that there was once a steep cable car and later trolley that connected with trolley and rail lines down in the Orange Valley below up the steep slope here to the top of Orange or First (now called South) Mountain.
Then you also know that it was all really an elaborate scheme designed to drive interest in a real estate development here at the top of the ridge (you’d think the views alone would have sold it…). Seems like a lot of trouble to go through just to sell houses, doesn’t it? Well, you don’t know the half of it.
When the unique cable car ride proved not enough to draw people to the ridgetop, the developers pulled out all the stops and resorted to a new tactic: they built an amusement park called Highland Park to help promote ridership to the top of the ridge.
The finished park featured picnic grounds, a large pavilion with dance hall, refreshment stands, fishing and ice skating at Cable Lake (still there today, now part of Rock Spring Golf Course).
The piece de resistance was a large iron pedestrian bridge that went across the cable road rock cut, so visitors could enjoy the unobstructed panoramic views of Newark and New York City (and teenagers could throw bottles and rocks at the trolleys — ah, some things never change).
The tragic trolley crash (and resulting closing of the trolley line) in 1906 obviously threw a wrench into park attendance and housing lot sales — but the developers showed that although they apparently lacked any real skills at predicting the real estate market, they more than made up for that in pure, stubborn persistence.
Two years later, they opened a new, safer trolley route from the Valley to the top of the ridge. This new line avoided the steep grade by switchbacking up the mountain across the old route.
Renaming it the Mountain Railway Company, they eventually extended the run to Northfield Avenue by the Rock Spring Water Company.
The trolley ran from 1908 until 1914, when it closed for good due to lack of business.
Although Thomas Edison would use the rock cut and Cable Lake to conduct experiments with explosives and submarines for the war effort in WWI, the trolley tracks were torn up, the amusement park faded away, and the pedestrian bridge was eventually torn down.
Cable Lake itself (and the old rock cut, now just a steep ravine in the backyards of unknowing homeowners) is all that remains of West Orange’s cable car and trolley adventure up the mountain — as well as Highland Park.
Now for the cache! You're looking for a simple P&G pill bottle, with room inside for the log and geocoins or buttons. Just be sure to practice careful stealth when the country club is busy — this spot varies from completely empty to very busy depending on time of day and year. Congrats to swampland'r and Ragtime Fan for the joint FTF!