Monday, June 29, 2009

Fort Nonsense, a real place

This place is not as nonsensical as the name implies: Fort Nonsense in Morristown, NJ. Up on a hill overlooking the relatively (and relatively is here used in a US historical concept, not European or otherwise) ancient city of Morristown are the remains of a fort built by the revolutionary army in the late 1770s (1777 more precisely). All that remains are.... nothing. The outline of the defense system are marked with newer stones in the ground. The soldiers were told to build the fort by George Washington during a winter, but the British never came so the fort was never used. The name came later, possibly reflecting that Washington told his soldiers to build the fort just to keep them occupied during the long winter. Today it is a wooded hill and part of the US National Park System, and a great place for picnics. Back in the 1700s I bet there weren't so many trees around, since they had been cut down to feed the the iron furnaces in the areas. (Thanks to SK that showed me this place.)

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