Poricy Park facts for kids
Poricy Park is a special place in Middletown Township, New Jersey, covering about 250 acres. It's known for its amazing fossil beds, which are like a window into the past! You can even look for fossils there yourself. The park also has a Nature Center and an old farmhouse called the Murray Farmhouse, which is a New Jersey Historic Site. It's a great spot to learn about nature and history.
Park History
Poricy Park started because local people cared about their environment. In 1969, they protested a plan to build a sewer system that would have harmed Poricy Brook. To protect the area, they created a non-profit group. Working with Middletown Township, the Nature Conservancy, and New Jersey Green Acres, they began buying land between 1970 and 1973. The town then made the land a nature preserve and let the Conservancy manage it. In 2004, the group officially became the Poricy Park Conservancy.
Park Geology
The Poricy Brook stream cuts through several layers of rock. These layers are slowly rising because of something called glacial rebound. This happens when land that was once pushed down by heavy glaciers slowly springs back up.
The top layer of rock you might see is a rusty-colored sand called the Red Bank Formation. Deeper down, there's a greenish, clay-like rock called marl from the Navesink Formation. Both of these rock layers formed during the Late Cretaceous period, which was about 72 million years ago! That's when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. The fossil shell beds you can find were likely part of an ancient ocean floor. These layers are quite thick, ranging from about 45 to 65 feet deep in the area.
Finding Fossils
The Nature Center at Poricy Park has a cool display of fossils found right there. You can even rent special screens and small shovels to help you search for your own fossils! The best place to look is in the stream bed of the Navesink Formation. It's easy to get to from the parking lot on Middletown-Lincroft Road.
There's a sign that shows pictures of the fossils you're most likely to discover. The park asks that you only collect fossils from the stream bed. Please don't dig into the banks, as this can cause erosion. They also ask that you collect only a few fossils and, if you find something really unusual, consider giving it to the Nature Center so others can see it.
Some common fossils you might find include different types of ancient oysters and clams. You might also discover shark teeth!
Park Wildlife
Poricy Park is home to many different animals. You might spot rabbits, skunks, snakes, bats, opossums, and groundhogs. There are also white-tailed deer and American eel in the water. Many kinds of birds live here, including owls, hawks, and Turkey Vultures. You might even see a red fox! Murray Pond, within the park, is a good place to find frogs and turtles.
