Timeline

A dated timeline of Kinnelon and Smoke Rise, New Jersey, from the last glacier to the present, with every entry linked to its sourced page.

c. 18,000 yrs agoThe last glacier retreatsThe ice sheet pulls back, leaving Pyramid Mountain's giant erratics — Tripod Rock and Bear Rock — strewn across the highlands.Pyramid Mountain
Before the 1600sLenape homelandThe Lenape live across these ridges; the dawn mist gives the land an enduring name — where the smoke rises — and the word Pequannock survives to this day.Smoke Rise
1695The first European settlersSettlers led by Arent Schuyler purchase land in the Pompton region, opening this corner of the highlands to European farming.Kinnelon
1700sLand grants and the Fredericks farmThe Mead, Stickle, and Cobb families take up Proprietor land grants; the Fredericks build one of Morris County's oldest stone farms — later Fayson Lakes.Fayson Lakes
1740Pequannock Township is formedKinnelon's parent township is established, spanning Kinnelon, Butler, Pompton Plains, Riverdale, and Montville.Kinnelon
1765The Charlotteburg furnacePeter Hasenclever raises the Great Charlotteburg iron furnace for the American Iron Company, naming the tract for Queen Charlotte.Charlotteburg
Revolution eraIron for the warCharlotteburg's ironmaster Robert Erskine supplies the Continental Army and becomes George Washington's Surveyor-General.Charlotteburg
1839The first Meadtown SchoolA one-room schoolhouse is built below Wilton Mead's house in Meadtown; it serves the district until 1873.Founding Families
1873L'Ecole — the schoolhouse that became the museumA new Meadtown schoolhouse replaces the 1839 one; this 1873 building later becomes L'Ecole and stands today as the Kinnelon Museum.Founding Families
1868The Beers Atlas maps the valleyF.W. Beers's atlas charts the Fredericks family and roughly thirty other households on its Pequannock plate — the founding families, by name.Founding Families
1880sKinney builds “Kinney-lawn”Tobacco magnate Francis S. Kinney assembles a ~5,000-acre estate on Stickle Pond — the seed of both Smoke Rise and the borough's name.Smoke Rise
1886–1889Tiffany's island chapelKinney builds St. Hubert's Chapel on an island in the lake — Louis Comfort Tiffany's first liturgical commission.Smoke Rise
1900Newark buys the watershedThe City of Newark purchases the ~35,000-acre Pequannock Watershed, locking much of the highlands — Kinnelon included — into permanent open space.Kinnelon
1922The borough of KinnelonKinnelon incorporates on February 20, taking the Kinney estate's name; Warren Kinney becomes the first mayor.Kinnelon
1925–1927Fayson LakesFrank Fay develops the old Fredericks farm into a lakeside summer colony, filing the “Fayson Lakes” map in 1927.Fayson Lakes
1933The Casino speakeasyJohn Canty builds a stone dine-and-dance speakeasy on Lake Canty — later the centerpiece of Silas Condict County Park.Silas Condict Park
1937The WPA builds the Kakeout ReservoirThe Works Progress Administration dams Stone House Brook on Miller Road's shoulder, creating the Kakeout (Butler) Reservoir — still the source of Butler's drinking water today.Kakeout Reservoir
1946The Smoke Rise ClubThe former Kinney estate becomes the Smoke Rise Club — “Created by Nature – Preserved by Man.”Smoke Rise
1954Our Lady of the MagnificatA stone chapel rises on Miller Road, built by Henry Wise Miller for the poet Alice Duer Miller and dedicated in July 1954.Our Lady of the Magnificat
1961Lake RealityThe former “Tony's Pond” is dug out and Lynnview Estates rises around it.Lake Reality
1962A parish on Miller RoadOur Lady of the Magnificat is canonically erected as a parish under its first pastor, Fr. John R. Ryan; the parish cemetery opens in 1965.Our Lady of the Magnificat
1953–1964Silas Condict County ParkMorris County acquires the old Canty estate and dedicates Silas Condict County Park — today some 1,500 acres adjoining the Smoke Rise lands.Silas Condict Park
1973The parish church is dedicatedA building drive begun in 1970 culminates in the dedication of the Our Lady of the Magnificat church, whose school was run by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chestnut Hill.Our Lady of the Magnificat
1988–1989Pyramid Mountain is savedLucy Meyer's grassroots campaign halts development around Tripod Rock; Pyramid Mountain becomes a Natural Historic Area in 1989.Pyramid Mountain
TodayOne borough, many communitiesSmoke Rise, Fayson Lakes, Lake Reality and more — distinct communities, one Kinnelon, ringed by preserved watershed and parkland.