Snake Hill

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Snake Hill as seen from Laurel Hill County Park

Snake Hill (known officially as Laurel Hill and sometimes called Fraternity Rock) is an igneous rock intrusion jutting some 150 feet (46 meters) up from the floor of the Meadowlands in Secaucus, New Jersey, USA. It was largely obliterated by quarrying in the 1960s that reduced its height by one-quarter and its base area by four fifths.^[1] The graffiti-covered remains of Snake Hill are a familiar landmark to travelers on the New Jersey Turnpike's Eastern Spur, which skirts its southern edge.

Snake Hill has had a modest, if largely anonymous, impact on the popular consciousness. A New York advertising executive, passing the hill on a train, is said to have drawn from it the inspiration for the Prudential "Rock of Gibraltar" logo in the 1890s.^[2] Its rugged landscapes also feature prominently in artist Robert Smithson's 1968 work Untitled (6 Stops on a Section).

A view near the summit of Snake Hill.

The mineral Petersite was discovered at Snake Hill in June 1981 by Nicholas Facciolla, who took it to the Paterson Museum. In 1982 the mineral was recognized as a new discovery and named for Thomas A. Peters (1947-) and Joseph Peters (1951-), curators of minerals at the Paterson, New Jersey, museum and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, respectively.

The hill and the area between Snake Hill and the Hackensack River today comprise Laurel Hill County Park.

The rock most often referred to as Laurel or Snake Hill has also been called Fraternity Rock (because of the greek letters painted on it presumably by local college fraternities), Long Neck (because it is a volcanic neck) and Mt. Pinhorne by a 17th century owner.

[edit] History

USGS Map from 1900.

USGS Map from 1940.

From 1855 to 1962 there were Hudson County penal and charitable institutions on Snake Hill. The Almshouse, Penitentiary, Quarry and Hospital for the Insane, Contagious Diseases Hospital, and Tuberculosis Sanatorium, were all grouped on the north side of Snake Hill. Hundreds of people lived at Snake Hill at any given time. The Hudson County Burial Grounds is a Potter's Field associated with the numerous institutions, which had long been forgotten. They were unearthed during the addition to the New Jersey Turnpike for access to Secaucus Junction at exit 15X. When the graves were discovered, they were tested and found to have come from the facilities.^[3]

[edit] References

^ Sullivan, Robert L. The Meadowlands: Wilderness Adventures at the Edge of a City. New York: Scribner, 1998.
^ Quinn, John R. Fields of Sun and Grass. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1997.
^ Jones, Richard Lezin. 'Secaucus Journal; Humbled Mountain Offers a Mine of History, and Prehistory", The New York Times, March 31, 2002. Accessed October 10, 2007.