{"id":442,"date":"2016-07-14T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T04:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/?p=442"},"modified":"2016-07-15T12:29:18","modified_gmt":"2016-07-15T16:29:18","slug":"delaware-water-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/delaware-water-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area: Home to humans since the start of the Holocene"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEHMAN TOWNSHIP, Pa.<\/span><\/p>\n

F<\/span>rom any angle, the Delaware Water Gap is a monument to the forces of nature, so it is easy to overlook what humans have left in the dirt.<\/p>\n

In his 1983 geologic history of the region, \u201cIn Suspect Terrain,\u201d the writer John McPhee described approaching from the east and seeing the arresting gap on the horizon, \u201cas sharply defined as a notch in a gunsight,\u201d cleaving the otherwise unbroken crest of the Kittatinny ridge.<\/p>\n

The Delaware River snakes through the gorge it carved on what is now the border between Pennsylvania and New Jersey and exposes patterns on the cliff walls that indicate how the ancient earth rose and folded.<\/p>\n

The view captivated Hudson River School painters and, later, geologists, who recognized the Delaware Water Gap as a fragment of the Appalachians that helps explain the whole, Mr. McPhee wrote: \u201cTell me what made that scene and you will tell me what made the eastern United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The <\/a>
The recreation area also includes wooded tributaries to the Delaware, like Raymondskill Creek. <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A view of the Delaware River from the Cliff Park section of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area near the northern end of the 70,000-acre park. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"John <\/a>
John A. Punola casting for shad on the New Jersey side of the Delaware Water Gap in the Delaware River. <\/div> <\/div>
\"Rafters <\/a>
Rafters float down the Delaware River in Westfall Township, Pa. on May 29, 2016. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Archaeologists <\/a>
Archaeologists begin to excavate post molds identifying a structure that was part of an 800-year-old Native American fishing village on the New Jersey side of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. The park announced the discovery in 2004. (National Park Service, DEWA Archives) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Delaware <\/a>
Delaware Water Gap (AP Photo\/Warren Westura) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The same scene encompasses a remarkable, representative chronicle of human life in the region, although its outline is less conspicuous. Remnants buried beneath the flood plains and the river\u2019s terraces offer hints at the ways people lived and died during 13,000 years of almost continuous occupation.<\/p>\n

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Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area<\/h2>\n

1978 River Road, Bushkill, PA 18324<\/p>\n

1-570-426-2452<\/p>\n

Official Website<\/a><\/p>\n