Ringwood State Park facts for kids

Ringwood State Park is a large park in New Jersey, USA. It covers about 4,444 acres (17.98 km²) of land. You can find it in the Ramapo Mountains in a town called Ringwood. The park's forests are part of a special natural area called the Northeastern coastal forests.

This park is home to several cool places. These include the New Jersey Botanical Garden at Skylands, the old Ringwood Manor, and the Shepherd Lake Recreation Area. The New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry takes care of the park.

Skylands Manor and Botanical Gardens

The Skylands Manor is a big house with 44 rooms. It looks like an old English mansion. A rich stockbroker and engineer named Clarence McKensie Lewis had it built in the 1920s.

The beautiful gardens around the manor were started by a lawyer named Francis Lynde Stetson. He owned Skylands from 1891 to 1922. The botanical garden is about 96-acre (390,000 m²) big. It has many different kinds of plants, trees, and bushes. You can see pretty crabapple trees, gardens with different levels, and paths through the woods. The gardens also offer amazing views of the Ramapo Mountains.

You can take tours of Skylands Manor one Sunday each month. These tours happen from March through November.

Ringwood Manor: A Historic Home

Ringwood Manor was once home to important ironmakers. They lived there from the 1740s to the late 1800s. During the American Revolution, a man named Robert Erskine managed the iron-making. He helped George Washington by making maps for the army. George Washington even visited the Manor House a few times!

The iron made at Ringwood was very important. It was used to make the famous Hudson River Chain. This chain helped protect the river during the war. Iron from Ringwood also made tools for the army.

One of the last owners of the Manor was Abram S. Hewitt. He was an ironmaker, a teacher, a lawyer, and even a mayor of New York City. Ringwood Manor is now a National Historic Landmark. You can take tours of the Manor from Wednesday to Sunday, all year long.

Shepherd Lake Recreation Area

Shepherd Lake is a 74-acre (300,000 m²) lake fed by natural springs. It's a great spot for fun activities. You can go swimming, boating (but only with electric motors), and fishing. You can also rent boats there.

There are many trails around the lake. These trails are good for hiking, horseback riding, and mountain biking. In winter, you can even go cross-country skiing or snowmobiling on some trails. A popular mountain bike loop is about 7.5-mile (12.1 km) long.

Shepherd Lake used to have a ski area in the 1960s. It had a rope tow and a chairlift. If you hike to the top of the hill, you can still see parts of the old chairlift. The old ski slope is now mostly covered with plants. Sledding used to be allowed on part of the hill, but it's not anymore because it was too close to the lake. Don't worry, you can still go sledding in the park on two hills in the Ringwood Manor area.

Images for kids

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  A former pumphouse at Skylands Manor

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  The State Botanical Garden at Skylands

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  Ringwood Manor showing a mortar and part of the Great Chain

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  Shepherd Lake Recreation Area

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  Skylands Manor