New Jersey Trivia & Tidbits - Page 4

Looking for New Jersey trivia? Try our list New Jersey little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

—Fort Nonsense, located in Morristown (pop. 18,544) National Historical Park, was built on Gen. George Washington’s orders in 1777 as a retreat for guards in town. But the British didn’t attack Morristown and the fort was never used. Originally called “the Hill” or “Kinney’s Hill,” the fortified hill became known as Fort Nonsense.

first appeared: 4/8/2007

—Mad Horse Creek Wildlife Management Area consists of 9,345 acres of tidal marsh and upland habitat in Lower Alloways Creek Township in Salem County. The wildlife area is rich in saltwater fish, waterfowl, pheasant and rabbit.

first appeared: 3/25/2007

—Educator Nicholas Murray Butler, born in 1862 in Elizabeth, advocated peace through education. He co-won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 with reformer Jane Addams and also encouraged philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to establish the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

first appeared: 3/11/2007

—In 1976, two years after a similar statewide proposal failed, voters approved a referendum legalizing casino gambling in Atlantic City (pop. 40,517). Two years later, Atlantic City’s first casino, Resorts International, opened.

first appeared: 2/27/2007

—New Jersey’s two best-known institutions of higher learning were established in the 18th century. Princeton University, originally the College of New Jersey in Princeton (pop. 16,027), opened in 1746, while Rutgers University, originally called Queen’s College, was chartered in 1766 with its primary campus at New Brunswick (pop. 48,573).

first appeared: 2/11/2007

—Born in Elizabeth in 1901, Mickey Walker was known as the “Toy Bulldog” in the world of boxing. In the 1920s, Walker held the world welterweight and middleweight titles. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.

first appeared: 1/28/2007

South Mountain Reservation, encompassing 2,047 acres in Essex County, was assembled from land purchases begun in 1895. Famed landscaper Frederick Law Olmsted regarded the reservation as some of the most beautiful and promising terrain he’d ever seen. The Civilian Conservation Corps built many of the reservation’s hiking trails, footbridges and shelters in the 1930s and today those trails and structures are being restored and preserved by the South Mountain Conservancy.

first appeared: 1/14/2007

—One of the state’s oldest wineries, the Renault Winery in Egg Harbor (pop. 30,726), was established in 1864 and survived Prohibition by selling sacramental and medicinal wines. Today, the winery is the cornerstone of a resort featuring wine tours, gift shops, fine dining, a golf course and the Tuscany House Hotel.

first appeared: 12/17/2006

—Paterson, located at the Great Falls of the Passaic River north of Newark, was founded in the early 1790s as an industrial settlement of the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures. Chartered by Alexander Hamilton, one of the nation’s founding fathers, Paterson was established to promote independent American enterprise.

first appeared: 12/3/2006

—The Colonel Charles Waterhouse Historical Museum in Toms River provides a visual tour of American history via the carefully executed paintings, illustrations and sculptures by Waterhouse. His works reflect the progression of America’s fighting forces from the Revolution to the present.

first appeared: 11/19/2006

—In 1664, Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret were granted a tract of land in America. The area was named New Jersey in honor of Carteret, a prominent native son of the island of Jersey in the English Channel.

first appeared: 11/5/2006

—Katharine “Kerry” Close, 13, of Spring Lake (pop. 3,567), won the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee in June. Her victory was sealed in the 20th round when she correctly spelled “ursprache,” a word defined as a parent language.

first appeared: 10/22/2006

Anne Donovan of Ridgewood (pop. 24,936) was a three-time basketball All-American player at Old Dominion, a three-time Olympic team member and a 1995 inductee into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

first appeared: 10/22/2006

—Cape May peninsula is among North America’s premier birding locations, particularly during the fall migration. More than 400 species of birds have been identified at Cape May with more than 200 species sighted in a single day.

first appeared: 10/8/2006

New Jersey was of major strategic importance during the American Revolution. Gen. George Washington’s memorable December attack on the Hessians, German soldiers who fought on the British side, at Trenton in 1776, followed by his victory at Princeton, restored the confidence of the patriots.

first appeared: 9/24/2006

Swimmer Debbie Meyer, born in Haddonfield (pop. 11,659) in 1952, became the first woman athlete to win three gold medals in one Olympics, capturing the 200-, 400- and 800-meter freestyle races at the 1968 games.

first appeared: 9/10/2006

The Eastern goldfinch, sometimes called the wild canary, became New Jersey's state bird in 1935. This small gold and black bird with a fondness for thistle seed lives in brushy thickets, seed-bearing trees and weedy grasslands.

first appeared: 8/27/2006

Anne Donovan of Ridgewood (pop. 24,936) was a three-time basketball All-American at Old Dominion University and also a three-time Olympic team member. The 6-foot-8-inch center led the Lady Monarchs to a national championship in 1980 and two more Final Four appearances.

first appeared: 8/13/2006

In 1767, London's Royal Society of the Arts recognized two New Jersey vintners for producing the first bottles of quality wine derived from Colonial agriculture. Today, more than two dozen wineries are in operation across the state. The Renault Winery, established in 1864 in Egg Harbor City (pop. 4,545), is one of the nation's oldest continuously operating wineries.

first appeared: 7/30/2006

The A.J. Meerwald, New Jersey's official tall ship, is a typical oyster schooner, specifically designed to meet the needs of local oyster fishermen. Launched in 1928, it was one of hundreds of schooners built along South Jersey's Delaware Bayshore during the heyday of the shipbuilding industry.

first appeared: 7/16/2006

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