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Old Mine Road is a road in New Jersey and New York said by many to be the oldest continuously-used road in the United States of America. At a length of 104 miles, it stretches from Kittatinny Point in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area to the vicinity of Kingston, New York.

Among the many theories regarding the early history of the road, it is traditionally believed that Dutch miners began construction of the road in the 1600s in order to transport copper ore from mines along the Delaware River in Pahaquarry Township, New Jersey to Esopus (now Kingston) along the Hudson River in Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. Many historians, though, discount much of this tradition. Starting in the late 1600s, Dutch settlement began along the course of the road, which follows roughly the course of the Neversink River (which flows northeast to the Hudson) through Orange and Ulster Counties in New York for its northern half, and the Delaware River in its southern half through the western edge of Sussex County and northern Warren County in northwestern New Jersey.

The road exists today, and although much of its length in New York has been modernized, widened and incorporated into U.S. Route 209, its length in New Jersey the "Old Mine Road" is largely undeveloped as it travels through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, it still retains much of its historical and rural charm. Historic sites in both states assert the area's Dutch colonial heritage through the preservation of many homes, farms and churches.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Native American inhabitants: The Munsee 1.2 Theories of the roads origins 1.3 Early settlement 1.4 Frontier fortifications 1.5 Tocks Island 2 Today 3 See also 4 Notes and References 4.1 Citations 4.2 Books 4.3 Articles 5 External links

Munsee at Minisink. Jesuits and courier du bois, Dutch explorers

Dutch miners, New Albion and Lord Plowden, slowly following settler populations.

Early settlers (Minisink Patent, wawayanda Patent, NY-NJ Border War, Minisink settlement, Esopus, etc.)

French and Indian War and American Revolution. Joseph Brant. Military Road, etc.

• Delaware Water Gap
• Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
• High Point State Park
• Stokes State Forest
• Worthington State Forest

• Decker, Amelia Stickney. That Ancient Trail. (Trenton, New Jersey: Privately printed, 1942). NO ISBN (Pre-1964).
• Hine, Charles Gilbert. The Old Mine Road. (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1908). ISBN 0-8135-0426-0
• Kraft, Herbert C. The Dutch, the Indians & the Quest for Copper: Pahaquarry & the Old Mine Road. (West Orange, New Jersey: Seton Hall University Museum, 1996). ISBN 978-0935137026
• Snell, James P. History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey, With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. (Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1881). NO ISBN (Pre-1964).

• Batko, Alicia C. Searching for the Old Mine Road in Cultural Resources Management Vol. 25 No.3 (National Park Service, 2002).
• Kopczynski, Sue. A Ride Down Old Mine Road in Spanning the Gap Vol. 22, No. 2 (Summer 2000).
• Kopczynski, Sue. "The Dutch Mines: Fact or Myth? in Spanning the Gap Vol. 10, No. 2 (Summer 1998).

• High Point State Park
• Stokes State Forest
• Worthington State Forest
• National Park Service: Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area

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