Rosenkrans name steeped in New Jersey history
Greg Rosenkrans doesn't have to go far to see his family legacy. Ten generations are buried in a cemetery 200 yards from his front door in Walpack Township.
And he doesn't have to look hard to see his family's future. His children are often at his side as he works to maintain the 25 remaining acres of family land that dates back to at least 1714.
For much of those 302 years, the land was a working farm but no longer is. The last barn was torn down a few years ago as Rosenkrans, who spent more than 20 years in big-time theatrical and music production, shepherds the property through a new incarnation -- that of a concert venue and retreat center.
"We don't want to do anything crazy here," he said. "But I see opening the land to the public for religious retreats or use by nonprofits.
"Basically, I want good people to be able to use the land for good things."
MORE: Recent Mark Di Ionno columns
Rosenkrans' property, at the southeast end of Sussex County, is surrounded by the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and another parcel owned by the Nature Conservancy.
But his name is synonymous with early West Jersey history and Old Mine Road, one of the oldest continually used roads in the state.
A marker just a few miles north of the Rosenkrans property tells the story of Col. John Rosenkrans, a Revolutionary War officer who battled British-backed native Americans along the early frontier.
"Everybody knows us," said 5-year-old Ben Rosenkrans, the youngest of Greg and Beti Rosenkrans' four children and the 12th generation of Rosenkranses to live on the land.
When Greg Rosenkrans, 41, was growing up on the farm, it totaled 108 acres, much of it rich soil along the banks of the Delaware River.
"That field was one of the most productive cornfields in the state," he said, from a bluff overlooking a large swath of land now sprouting wildflowers. "It breaks my heart seeing it being returned to nature."
That statement may seem ironic coming from a man with deep roots in his land, but when Rosenkrans looks around his bluff or the surrounding acres, he sees history - contemporary and old.
He sees the now-fallow, football field-sized garden his late grandparents, Benjamin and Delores Rosenkrans, once cultivated to feed themselves and their neighbors.
"I spent a lot of my childhood working side by side with them," he said. "That's sacred ground to me."
He sees the launch of the family-run ferry -- dating back to a time long before cars and paved roads -- that shuttled farmers and their wagons across the river to the Bushkill area of Pennsylvania.
"These are the original spikes for the ferry cables," he said, kneeling on his river beachfront as he unearthed two primitive pieces of iron, their heads flattened by muscle and sledge in the 18th century.
He sees the campground that his grandmother ran, giving guests a chance to rough it by the river and enjoy the scenic beauty of New Jersey's rustic corner.
He also sees a duty to preserve what little is left of the communities displaced by the Tock's Island Dam Project.
"People still turn up my driveway and say, 'The government took our land,' " Rosencrans said. "But my grandmother fought the government and kept her land.
"The cemetery was the part of the old church here (lost in the project acquisition)," he said. "I think it's important to people from here (who were displaced) that we stay."
The dam proposal was killed in 1975 after 20 years of the federal government acquiring 72,000 acres on both sides of the river -- either by purchase or through eminent domain -- and displacing about 8,000 people.
The government bought or condemned 3,000 homes, 125 farms, 100 other businesses, seven churches and three schools, with plans to create a 37-acre recreational lake and a hydroelectric plant.
Instead, it made ghost towns of Pahaquarry Township and Walpack on the Jersey side, and Bushkill and Dingman's Ferry across the river. The dam was never built and the national park land remains dotted with acquired homes and barns that were left to rot, some of which date back to the 19th century.
Rosenkrans still has the blueprints the government made when it added his place to the inventory of homes to be "inundated by the Tock's Island Project dam."
The government described it as the "Smith-Rosenkrans House" in "Flatbrookville, " noting that it was built circa 1807.
"I believe that's wrong," Rosenkrans said. "We have a fieldstone wall that became the hearth, that I think was an original exterior wall that is probably from the early 1700s."
After Delores Rosenkrans staved off the government overtures -- "She simply exercised her Constitutional rights," he said -- the property was enveloped by the national park.
But five years ago, after Delores Rosenkrans' death, her son, Eugene, who is Greg's father, decided to sell the property.
After protracted negotiations, it was agreed that Greg Rosenkrans could keep the 25 acres that run from Old Mine Road to the river, and between the two access roads built when the family ran the old ferries. Now he is working to maintain and protect it, and find a viable use for it.
"My main ambition for the land is to keep it out of the hands of the government," Rosenkrans said. "This isn't my land. It's my family's land, past and future. It's just my turn to take care of it."
Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.