Qualla: Ken Lockwood Gorge

Ken Lockwood Gorge: Introduction

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0. Kenneth F. Lockwood died on April 2, 1948, on his way home from his weekly radio program. He never saw the gorge that would carry his name. A short time after his death, New Jersey's Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife honored the outdoor journalist and conservationist by naming a 563-acre stretch of the South Branch Raritan River after him, a place he had spent years advocating to protect. The gorge has since been called "one of New Jersey's most beautiful places," a designation that, for once, does not feel like the overstatement such claims usually are.

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Image: Zeete | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ken Lockwood Gorge: The Columnist Who Saved a River

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0. Ken Lockwood was best known for "Out In The Open," a column that ran in the Newark Evening News, at the time one of New Jersey's largest daily newspapers. His beat was the outdoors: hunting, fishing, and the wild places that were disappearing under the pressure of suburban expans...

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Image: Zeete | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ken Lockwood Gorge: Water Over Stone

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0. The gorge follows a two-and-a-half-mile stretch of the South Branch Raritan River between Califon and High Bridge in Hunterdon County. Steep, wooded hillsides rise from both banks, creating a narrow corridor where the river narrows and quickens. The terrain is rugged enough to fe...

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Image: Zeete | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ken Lockwood Gorge: Trout Water

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0. Fly fishermen know Ken Lockwood Gorge the way surfers know specific breaks: by reputation, by the stories of what has been caught there, and by the particular rules that govern the place. The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife has designated the gorge as a Trout Conservatio...

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Image: Zeete | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ken Lockwood Gorge: A Landscape Worth the Argument

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0. Ken Lockwood Gorge is administered by the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, which continues to manage the property as a Wildlife Management Area. Conservation efforts have expanded the protected land around the gorge; in one notable acquisition, the New Jersey Conservatio...

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Image: Zeete | CC BY-SA 4.0