Rifle Camp Park

Rifle Camp Park is a 225 acre county park of Passaic County, New Jersey. It is located mostly within Woodland Park, but its eastern edge extends into Clifton as well. The park includes hiking trails, an observatory, nature center, fitness trail, amphitheater, a bird watching blind, and an overnight camping facility for local scout organizations.HistoryRifle Camp Park was established from the same land acquired for the creation of the nearly adjacent Garret Mountain Reservation. The land was originally part of the estate of Catholina Lambert, the owner of a silk mill in Paterson. After Lambert’s death in 1923, the estate was sold to the City of Paterson, which eventually transferred the land to Passaic County in 1928. In 1929, landscape architect firm Olmsted Associates, the successor to the practice of Frederick Law Olmsted, was commissioned with the development of the parkland, completing work in 1934.Ever since the division of the Lambert estate between Garret Mountain Reservation and Rifle Camp Park, it has been proposed to connect the two. As of 2011, the Borough of Woodland Park has been discussing ways to link the almost adjacent properties.Colonial PastThe area of Rifle Camp Park served as a location where Washington’s troops could observe British movements during the Revolutionary War in 1780. The name ‘Rifle Camp’ comes from the fact that Major James Parr’s rifle corps camped for a short time in the vicinity of the Great Notch, just to the south of what would eventually become the park. Parr and his riflemen (the rifle corps originally commanded by Colonel Daniel Morgan) previously achieved notice in the Sullivan Expedition in 1779. In October, 1780, Parr and his rifle corps had been assigned to protect the strategic pass at the Great Notch from British incursion, but ultimately stayed for just one week. On October 17, 1780, the rifle corps left the area, being ordered to join General Lafayette’s Light Corps in the vicinity of present day Goffle Brook Park on the opposite side of the Passaic River.

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