Bear Swamp, Then And Now

As a third generation Realtor, and being active in Mahwah real estate for the past 45 years, I will try to give some real estate advice and town history though this blog.

Mahwah has many neighborhoods. One of my favorite sections of Mahwah is the Bear Swamp area. In the 1970's, we had a summer cottage on Bear Swamp Lake. It was 400 square feet and had one big room and a small bedroom. We had no electricity or phone service.

There were about a dozen houses on the lake. We all shared one phone that was in a box on a tree. Electric was supplied by a generator that was used to operate a pump that supplied water to a tank. We all ran pipes off the tank to our individual camps. Our house had propane gas lamps.

In the summer my wife Linda and our kids would live there and I would commute to "downtown" Mahwah. The Police Chief appointed me a Special Police officer so I had some limited police power in that area. I think the plan was that if there was an emergency I would be in charge until the regular police arrived. It would take about 30 minutes to access this area from the center of town.

In the winter we would take our snowmobiles, along with our friends, and race up and down the lake and over the many miles of trails. We would travel to the "goat" farm and have a campfire and lunch. Our cottage had a large fireplace that we made good use out of in the winter.

In the early 1980's the State of New Jersey decided to acquire all the cottages on Bear Lake by eminent domain. We fought their plan, but lost and the State demolished all the structures and prohibited motor vehicle access to the area. 

Next week I hope to write about another section of Mahwah. I welcome comments or suggestions