Ramapo River

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Map of the Passaic/Hackensack watershed.

The Ramapo River is a tributary of the Pompton River, approximately 30 mi (48 km) long, in southern New York and northern New Jersey in the United States.

It rises in a mountainous area of central Orange County, New York, near Monroe and flows southeast to Harriman, then south into western Rockland County, then into northern Bergen County, New Jersey. In New Jersey, it flows SSW, along the east side of the ridge of the Ramapo Mountains. It flows into Potash Lake in Oakland and officially ends at Pompton Lake in Pompton Lakes, although the river which flows out of Pompton Lake is still called the Ramapo River until it makes a junction with the Pequannock River, whereupon the two tributaries are then called the Pompton River.

The river is a popular destination for fly fishing of trout. The New York State Thruway follows the valley of the river in Orange County.

There are areas noted along the Ramapo that were inhabited by the Lenape tribes of the area. Of particular note was a large "encampment" of the native tribe across from what is now Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey.

There are also many smaller archeological sites in Oakland, New Jersey that were inhabited by the early tribes, areas of Oakland also contain many areas where fossilized crustaceans can be found along the banks of the river. In Oakland there are areas that border the river where there has been residential development, it should be noted that some of these areas have been built on what are ancient burial grounds of the Lenape tribes. These developments on the burial grounds encompass streets named Ramapo River Terrace, Crooked Hill, Winding Ridge and Sky Top Ridge. The development area known as Falling Waters has been built on ancient caves that both Lenape and perhaps earlier native peoples inhabited.