Highlands Natural Pool facts for kids
The Highlands Natural Pool is in Ringwood, New Jersey, United States. This swimming pool is located in the Wyanokie Highlands adjacent to the Norvin Green State Forest. The pool is a stream-fed non-chemically-treated swimming pond with stone retaining walls and a safe children’s area. Annual memberships and daily visitors passes are available to the general public.
History
In 1921, Camp Midvale was founded as a haven for working people seeking refuge, recreation, community, and nature by a group of outdoor enthusiasts called the Nature Friends (Naturfreunde). In 1935, Nature Friends volunteers carved the present swimming pool out of the hillside by hand.
In 1974, the Metropolitan Recreation Association, a successor group of the Nature Friends, donated the Camp Midvale property to the Ethical Culture Society, because they were unable to financially maintain it, and most of the wooded area of over 100 acres (0.40 km2) was placed under the New Jersey Green Acres program, to be preserved from development in perpetuity.
Ethical Culture members Walter and May Weis endowed money to the remaining developed part of the property in order to realize their dream of preserving land for the purpose of environmental education. Thus the Weis Ecology Center (WEC), a private, non-profit organization, was created to offer the public a unique opportunity to learn about the Northern New Jersey Highlands Region.
The WEC was then taken over by the New Jersey Audubon Society who closed the pool in 1994.
In 1995, New Jersey Audubon agreed to allow the community to open the pool and in 1996, The Community Association of the Highlands incorporated, reopening the site as the Highlands Natural Pool. In 1998, NJAS/WEC formally donated the pool to the community.
