America's first cattle drive? Salem County's Great Cow Chase

New Jersey isn't especially known for its wide open prairies, ranches and cowboys. According to some, though, Salem County just may have been the sight of the nation's first cattle drive. And no, I'm not talking about a Saturday night rodeo in Cowtown, though the historic drive took place nearby, led by a brigadier general known as Mad Anthony Wayne.

Venture back to early 1778, when General George Washington's army was encamped at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Beset by desertions by February, Washington still had to feed more than 2000 men, as well as the horses they relied upon, even as the British conducted their own foraging expeditions and dealings with help from sympathetic Pennsylvanians.

This specimen would have fed a LOT of Continental soldiers.

Across the Delaware River was New Jersey, known as the Breadbasket of the Revolution for its plentiful forage for animals and food for humans. Washington sent Wayne with about 550 troops down Jersey to Salem County to retrieve the life-sustaining supplies. Starting from Wilmington, Delaware to avoid the British-controlled river near Philadelphia, Wayne and his troops made their way to Salem and to the area near present-day Pilesgrove, where they gathered about 150 head of cattle. Horses and wagons, however, were in short supply, meaning that the Continentals would have to drive the cattle on the hoof back to Valley Forge, rather than transporting butchered beef.

By this point, a local Loyalist had tipped off the British and more than 2000 Redcoats were sent to track Wayne and his troops down. After an initial stab at transporting some of the cattle to New Castle, Delaware to evade the British, Wayne led the procession northward and west along the Old Kings Highway on the 50 mile journey to Valley Forge, eventually crossing the river north of Philadelphia, somewhere between Burlington and Trenton. While some say that the herd was diminished to a mere 50 head by the time Wayne reached camp, the Jersey beef and hides undoubtedly made the difference for countless hungry and shoeless Continental soldiers.

The Great Cow Chase, as it's now known Down Jersey, has been commemorated a few times in recent years. Back during the Bicentennial, Cowtown founder Stoney Harris and friends drove 50 cattle up Kings Highway, with cheering spectators lining the road. And last year marked the first running of the Cow Run 10 Miler road race for humans, starting at Cowtown in Pilesgrove and ending 10 miles away in downtown Salem City. It may not be the running of the bulls, but it's a truly unique way of celebrating a little-known yet important part of our Revolutionary history!

Who knew you could hide a dairy farm? Visiting Lusscroft in Wantage.

Those Sussex county historical markers can be a boon when you're just wandering around, and we hit another good one in Wantage: Lusscroft Farm. The marker briefly told the story of Montclair stockbroker James Turner, who'd built a dairy farm there in 1914, with the goal of using the latest in scientific agricultural management principles. He later transferred the property and 250 Guernsey and Holstein cattle to the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (good old Cook College), which later added a forestry study program and 4H programming, too.

No gates blocked the entrance and the property was unposted, so we drove in. Odd that neither Ivan nor I had ever heard of the place, considering our combined knowledge of the state and what I thought was a pretty comprehensive understanding of NJAES properties. How did this one get past us?

We drove up the hill on a narrow country road until we saw what can best be described as a complete farm: barn, stable, house, you name it. Various signs indicated the property's last use as a 4H facility, and the vestiges of a summer camp, including an infirmary and staff housing, came into view. We parked next to one of the buildings and got out to take a look.

A nearby bulletin board told us that Lusscroft is now part of High Point State Park, but it still holds farming ties through an association with the State Agricultural Development Committee. As we looked around, the place got a bit less deserted looking -- a late-model pickup truck or two were parked near the buildings, and an occasional vehicle would drive by, perhaps on the way to another part of the state park. Plus, the bulletin board announced a winter holiday event to take place in early December. Clearly people were keeping an eye on the place, and hopefully doing something to revive activity there.

Later on, I visited Lusscroft's website and discovered there's a Heritage and Agriculture Association working to stabilize and ultimately restore the existing buildings. Their vision is to create a place where people can learn about farming, forestry and New Jersey's agricultural heritage, and I couldn't think of a better place to do it. The property is beautiful, with hills and dales, forest and meadow, and it would be a great place to spend a few days in the countryside. Equestrians can also take advantage of the stables there, it appears; the site notes that Lusscroft is the only state park facility to accommodate horses. Meanwhile, they're holding occasional events at the farm, including maple sugaring from the trees on site.

Who knows? The revived Lusscroft could also reclaim status as a productive research facility. Back in the '30's, the farm was the first place in the world where cattle were artificially inseminated in the hopes of improving dairy stock. Even if it just opens peoples' eyes to the history and future of farming in New Jersey, Lusscroft will have made a big impact yet again.

Holy Cow! The Phil Rizzuto Museum in Hillside

Part of our visit to the Eaton Store was a delightful conversation with a volunteer who shared her lifelong passion for baseball. Fittingly, our next stop was to a barn just behind the store, where Hillside residents honor one of their own: Yankee shortstop and broadcasting legend Phil Rizzuto.

Loyal Yankees listeners will remember that the Scooter often talked about living in New Jersey, and his dedication to his adopted hometown showed in his friendly demeanor around town. According to locals, he was always willing to stop and talk, and he was as genuine in person as he was on TV and radio.

The Phil Rizzuto Museum takes up a relatively small space on the Woodruff House/Eaton Store property, but it's chock full of Scooter memorabilia. During our visit, Ivan and I were regaled with stories from a local resident who was 10 years old when he met Phil, starting a friendship that spanned the rest of Rizzuto's life. He walked us through a comprehensive exhibit of newspaper clippings that chronicles the Yankee legend's playing and announcing careers. Nearby a "Holy cow!" banner is posted, a memento recalling the six buses of Hillside residents who made the trip to Cooperstown to witness Phil's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Other baseball and cow-related memorabilia are displayed on the wall and museum cases, many of them gifts from Phil or his wife Cora.

I'm a Met fan, but I found the museum to be both informative and fun, so I imagine that Yankee fans would enjoy it a lot. Don't be a huckleberry - check it out sometime!

Searching Cowtown for cattle egrets and freakishly big mammals

Before we left on our southbound excursion to points dinosaur and elsewhere, Ivan checked the birding bulletin boards for unusual sightings.

"There are cattle egrets at Cowtown Rodeo in Salem County. And a Eurasian collared dove on Route 40."

Cowtown?  COWTOWN? I've been looking for an excuse to get there, well, forever... and with the hadrosaurus already on our itinerary, I couldn't resist the opportunity to add two oversized mammals to the list of inanimate creatures to visit.

I'd heard about Cowtown eons ago but have only driven past it once. Located in Pilesgrove, it's New Jersey's only stop on the professional rodeo circuit and the country's oldest weekly rodeo. You can't miss it on 40: you're greeted by a muffler man dressed as a cowboy, and a statue of some sort of oversized bovine (Steer? Cow? It's got both udders and horns, so your guess is as good as mine.) I'm not much of a rodeo fan, but the lure of mammoth, non-anatomically-correct creatures is too great to resist.

We got there to find the place deserted, as the sign said that the rodeo is only open Tuesday through Saturday. Not a soul was there, but for some cattle lounging in the adjacent pasture. I took a bunch of pictures as Ivan began scouring the area for egrets and doves. He saw plenty of cowbirds and gulls, but the egrets were nowhere to be found, so we continued our wanderings around Salem County farm country. At least one of us had found our quarry.

The egrets? We finally found them not far away, in a grazing area on Sharptown-Auburn Road. Four of 'em were doing what cattle egrets do -- hanging out in the field with the cows. Another life bird for Sue, another year bird for Ivan. The dove, however, eluded our search.

The Disappearing Newark Holsteins

We have a mystery on our hands. Cows are appearing and disappearing in Newark.

Yes, you read that correctly. Cows. In Newark.

Here's the story: on occasion, I travel into or through Newark by train, and as most people do, I often stare absentmindedly out the window at the world going by. On a trek in about a year ago, I noticed a cow statue on the rooftop of a building in the Ironbound area, which would be the right side of the train as you're coming in from the west. It was probably about as big as a live adult cow, just tall enough to be seen over the roof ledge. Smiling to myself, I tucked the vision away for future reference, expecting to see it every time I traveled through the area by train.

Only thing is, you can't count on the cow. Sometimes she's there. Sometimes she's on another part of the roof. And sometimes there are two cows. There's nothing visible to explain the presence of the cows, or lack thereof. Perhaps they're moved from time to time, and they're just not visible from the train, but it still begs the question: why? Or maybe the better question is, 'why not?'

I'd be inclined to go to the building and root out the story of the cows, but in some ways, it's more fun not knowing.

Check it out yourself the next time you take the train in or out of Newark Penn Station. The building is brick, about three or four stories tall, and rather old, with the name "Crane and Co." in concrete near the top. It's visible a few blocks after the train gets past the McCarter Highway viaduct at the edge of the city. The address is 90 South Street, and if you get the satellite view from Google Maps, you can clearly see the two cows on the roof, one being in the upper left corner.

Any ideas why the cows are there? And why cows, and not sheep or pigs or giraffes?