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203744810
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The Tuxedo-Ringwood Canal Description, February 3, 2010
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203744810
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The Tuxedo-Ringwood Canal Description, February 3, 2010
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THE TUxEDO-RINGWOOD CANAL
anal Society member Jakob Fran-
ke, who is a resident of northern
3'
Original
Bergen County, was very inter-
14
Water Flow
ested to hear about the Tuxedo-Ring-
7.5'
wood Canal and submitted the following
information about this early waterway:
Cross Section
As measured by Ed Lenik in 1962
Dam
The canal was approximately three
Left: Map showing the location
of the Tuxedo-Ringwood Canal
miles long, extended from Tuxedo Lake,
and existing cross section of
Orange County, NY and connected with
Tuxedo
the canal at Tuxedo Lake.
the Ringwood River in northern Passaic
Lake
Bottom: Jakob Franke's 2009
County, New Jersey. Reportedly built
photo of part of the canal at
c.1765 by iron entrepreneur Peter Hasen-
the entrance to the Tuxedo
clever, the canal was designed to bring ex-
New Water
Lake community.
Flow to
tra water to power waterwheels at Hasen-
Ringwood
clever's ironworks at Ringwood and
Tuxedo -
perhaps may also have floated logs to the
Ringwood
Canal
works for conversion into charcoal fuel.
Hasenclever headed a London syndicate
which formed the American Company to
establish ironworks at Ringwood, Char-
lotteburg, and Long Pond in New Jersey
and at Haverstraw and Cortlandt in New
Ringwood
New
York. Shortly after coming to this coun-
Furnace
try Hasenclever brought in over 500 Ger-
mans to build and operate his industrial
works which included forges, furnaces,
TUXEDO-RINGWOOD
dams, houses, stables, bridges, reservoirs,
CANAL
ponds, and other buildings.
Historical accounts indicate that Hasen-
noted that the canal was 7.5 feet wide and
ent at the entrance to Tuxedo Lake but also
clever constructed an 860-foot-long dam
three feet deep.
photographed them. Jakob was quite sur-
from 12 - 22 feet high to impound a reser-
His interest piqued, Jakob Franke did
prised and pleased to find an historic canal
voir about three miles long and one mile
his own exploration last spring and not
to explore so close to home!
wide, called Toxito Pond (now Tuxedo
only found the canal remains still pres-
Lake). His plan was to store water here,
which could be released into the Tuxedo-
Ringwood Canal to supplement water
flow at times of drought or low water
in the Ringwood River. In this manner
his ironworks at Ringwood would be
idled less frequently by low flow in the
Ringwood River. A July 1779 map of the
region depicts Hansenclever's dam, the
pond and what appears to be the canal
leading to the Ringwood River.
A memoir written by a member of the
Hewitt family at Ringwood in the 1940s
mentioned this canal and noted that part
of it was still visible near the south gate of
Tuxedo Park, a gated community that still
exists. Historian Edward J. Lenik searched
for remnants of the canal in the 1960s and
found that a considerable portion of the
waterway was still present then near the
entrance to the gated community. Lenik