Ringwood, New Jersey, United States

🇺🇸 Ringwood is a borough in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the home of Ringwood State Park which contains the New Jersey Botanical Garden at Skylands (plus Skylands Manor), the Shepherd Lake Recreation Area and historic Ringwood Manor.

The Borough of Ringwood was incorporated by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 23, 1918, from a "portion of the Township of Pompton", as one of three boroughs formed from Pompton Township, joining Bloomingdale and Wanaque, based on the results of a referendum held on March 22, 1918. The first organizational meeting of the borough council took place in the existing Borough Hall on May 6, 1918. The borough was named for an iron mining company in the area.

History The Lenape, an Algonquian language-speaking tribe of Native Americans who occupied much of the mid-Atlantic coastal areas and the interior mountains including along the Delaware River resided in the area of present-day Ringwood when Europeans first entered the area. Some retreated to the mountains to escape colonial encroachment.

Colonists called the local band the Ramapough, and named the Ramapo River and other regional features after them. Their descendants and Afro-Dutch migrants from New York were among the people who formed the multiracial group known as the Ramapough Mountain Indians, recognised in 1980 as the "Ramapough Lenape Nation" Native American tribe by the state of New Jersey, though the federal government has denied their application for formal recognition.

Early in the 18th century, colonists discovered iron in the area. The Ogden family built a blast furnace in Ringwood in 1742. By 1765, Peter Hasenclever used Ringwood as the centre of his ironmaking operations, which included 150,000 acres (610 km²) in New Jersey, New York and Nova Scotia. Iron mining was prominent in the area from the 18th century until the Great Depression, and iron shafts and pits, landfills and other elements still exist. The London, Roomy, Peters and Hope mines were all originally opened by Peter Hasenclever's London Company.

A number of well-known ironmasters owned and lived at Ringwood Manor from the 1740s to the late 19th century. During the American Revolutionary War, Robert Erskine managed ironmaking operations from Ringwood, and became George Washington's first geographer and Surveyor-General, producing maps for the Continental Army. Washington visited the Manor House several times. Ringwood iron was used in the famous Hudson River Chain, and for tools and hardware for the army. One of the Manor's last owners was Abram S. Hewitt, ironmaster, educator, lawyer, U.S. Congressman, and Mayor of New York City. The Manor is part of a National Historic Landmark District.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, Ringwood had a total area of 28.49 square miles (73.8 km²), including 25.59 square miles (66.3 km²) of land and 2.91 square miles (7.5 km²) of water (10.20%).

Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the borough include Brushwood Pond, Cupsaw Lake, Skyline Lake, Conklintown, Erskine, Harrison Mountain Lake, Lake Erskine, Monks, Negro Pond, Sheppard Pond, Stonetown, Upper Lake and Weyble Pond.

The borough borders Bloomingdale, Wanaque and West Milford in Passaic County; Mahwah and Oakland in Bergen County; Tuxedo and Warwick in Orange County, New York; and Ramapo in Rockland County, New York.

The town is split by the Wanaque Reservoir, which provides water to urban areas in Northeastern New Jersey.

Demographics The 2010 United States census counted 12,228 people, 4,182 households, and 3,413 families in the borough. The population density was 485.0 per square mile (187.3/km²). There were 4,331 housing units at an average density of 171.8 per square mile (66.3/km²). The racial makeup was 92.58% (11,321) White, 1.36% (166) Black or African American, 1.24% (152) Native American, 1.74% (213) Asian, 0.02% (2) Pacific Islander, 1.18% (144) from other races, and 1.88% (230) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.78% (707) of the population.

Of the 4,182 households, 37.9% had children under the age of 18; 70.8% were married couples living together; 7.3% had a female householder with no husband present and 18.4% were non-families. Of all households, 14.5% were made up of individuals and 5.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.90 and the average family size was 3.23.

24.7% of the population were under the age of 18, 7.0% from 18 to 24, 23.7% from 25 to 44, 33.1% from 45 to 64, and 11.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42.1 years. For every 100 females, the population had 100.3 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 97.8 males.

The Census Bureau's 2006–2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $109,139 (with a margin of error of +/− $8,896) and the median family income was $117,793 (+/− $9,712). Males had a median income of $70,086 (+/− $9,303) versus $54,397 (+/− $6,682) for females. The per capita income for the borough was $39,931 (+/− $2,197). Estimates of families and population below the poverty line were not available.

Same-sex couples headed 37 households in 2010, an increase from the 26 counted in 2000.

Parks and recreation Ringwood State Park is a 4,444-acre (1,798 ha) state park located in the heart of the Ramapo Mountains. The Park consists of four distinct areas: Ringwood Manor, Skylands Manor/NJ State Botanical Garden, Shepherd Lake, and Bear Swamp Lake.

Tranquility Ridge Park is a county park covering more than 2,000 acres (810 ha) of wooded land on the border of Ringwood and West Milford that was acquired by the county to preserve the property from development.

The New Weis Center is an environmental education, arts and recreation centre located at 150 Snake Den Road.

Spring Lake Day Camp is an ACA-accredited summer day camp for children in Kindergarten through 10th grade. The camp was founded in 1989 and has been family owned and operated since its opening.

The Highlands Natural Pool is an Olympic size, stream-fed freshwater pool that was carved and founded in 1935 by The Nature Friends, a group of residents who enjoyed working on recreational projects for the local community.

Local government Ringwood operates within the Faulkner Act (formally known as the Optional Municipal Charter Law) under the Council-Manager form of municipal government Plan E, implemented based on the recommendations of a Charter Study Commission as of January 1, 1979. The borough is one of 71 municipalities (of the 564) statewide that use this form of government. The borough's governing body is comprised of a seven-member borough council whose members are elected at-large in partisan elections to serve four-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with either three or four seats coming up for election in odd-numbered years as part of the November general election. At an annual reorganization meeting held each January, the council selects a mayor and a deputy mayor from among its members.

As of 2023, members of the Ringwood Borough Council are Mayor Sean T. Noonan (R, term on council ends December 31, 2025; term as mayor ends 2023), Deputy Mayor Jaime Matteo-Landis (R, term on council and as deputy mayor ends 2023), Stephanie N. Baumgartner (R, 2025), Stephanie A. Forest (R, 2025), Michelle Kerr (R, 2023; elected to serve an unexpired term), Linda M. Schaefer (R, 2023), and John M. Speer (R, 2023).

In January 2022, the borough council appointed Michelle Kerr to fill the seat expiring in December 2023 that had been held by Michael McCracken until he resigned from office. Kerr served on an interim basis until the November 2022 general election, when she was elected to serve the balance of the term of office.

Emergency services Ringwood is serviced by a volunteer ambulance corps and three volunteer fire companies, with each fire company covering one section of the borough. The Erskine Lakes Fire Company covers Erskine Lakes, and Cupsaw Lake. Ringwood Volunteer Fire Company #1 (Stonetown) covers Stonetown. and Skyline Lake Fire Department covers Skyline Lake area.

Highlands protection In 2004, the New Jersey Legislature passed the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act, which regulates the New Jersey Highlands region. Ringwood was included in the highlands preservation area and is subject to the rules of the act and the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council, a division of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. All of the territory in the protected region is classified as being in the highlands preservation area, and thus subject to additional rules.

Education Students in kindergarten through eighth grade are served by the Ringwood Public School District. As of the 2020–21 school year, the district, comprised of four schools, had an enrollment of 1,045 students and 103.9 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.1:1. Schools in the district (with 2020–21 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Peter Cooper Elementary School with 228 students in grades K–3 (built in 1963), Robert Erskine Elementary School with 185 students in grades K–3 (built in 1960), Eleanor G. Hewitt Intermediate School with 246 students in grades 4–5 (built in 1937 with an annex built in 1952 and trailers added in 1959) and Martin J. Ryerson Middle School with 389 students in grades 6–8 (built in 1970).

Ringwood's public schools are supported in part with grants from the Ringwood Educational Foundation, a not-for-profit organization which sponsors, among other things, the annual Shepherd Lake 5K run.

Students in public school for ninth through twelfth grades attend Lakeland Regional High School in Wanaque, which serves students from the Boroughs of Ringwood and Wanaque. As of the 2020–21 school year, the high school had an enrollment of 924 students and 81.7 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.3:1.

Private schools used to include Ringwood Christian School, which was founded in 1973 through the Ringwood Baptist Church, serves 80 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, with part-time sessions available for pre-schoolers. St. Catherine of Bologna School, a regional Roman Catholic parochial school operating under the supervision of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson that served kindergarten through eighth grade, closed in 2018 due to falling enrollment.

Community Ringwood residents may be eligible to join one of several private lake communities, based on where they live: assorted lakes in Stonetown, Cupsaw Lake, Erskine Lakes or Skyline Lakes, each of which have annual fees and initiation fees.

Each year on the third Saturday in March, Ringwood holds its annual St. Patrick's Day Parade, the only such parade in Passaic County. Since 1990, the Parade Committee selects a grand marshal and a Citizen of the Year. These chosen outstanding citizens of the community are honored at a Unity Breakfast that precedes the parade. The parade includes bagpipe bands, floats, Irish step dancers, the county sheriff's department with their equestrian unit, local police, and fire and ambulance departments. Other marchers include Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops, local school groups and other recreational teams. The parade ends at the St. Catherine of Bologna Church Parish Center, where the celebration continues with live music and entertainment.

Transport: Road As of May 2010, the borough had a total of 87.52 miles (140.85 km) of roadways, of which 72.73 miles (117.05 km) were maintained by the municipality and 14.79 miles (23.80 km) by Passaic County.

There are no state, U.S., or Interstate highways in Ringwood. The most prominent roads are County Route 511, which follows the Greenwood Lake Turnpike, and County Route 692, which follows Skyline Drive. The nearest major highway is Interstate 287, and both CR 511 and CR 692 have interchanges with it in neighboring Wanaque and Oakland, respectively. Ringwood had no traffic lights until June 2013, when the town's first one was installed at the intersection of Skyline Drive and Erskine Road. The borough still has no sidewalks or street lights.

Transport: Public NJ Transit bus transportation is available at the Ringwood Park and Ride, located adjacent to Ringwood Public Library. The 196 offers express bus service to and from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, while the 197 route offers local service, including to the Willowbrook Mall and Willowbrook Park and Ride.