Course
The Paulins Kill, is a tributary of the Delaware River, is fed by several mountain streams, many of which are unnamed, and several larger named streams.
The river was formed after the Wisconsin Glacier melted 13,000 years ago. As the glacier melted due to climate change, a lake formed just north of Newton. The hills in Newton prevented the lake from draining south, so the lake drained north. This new stream, the Paulins Kill, followed the slope of the Martinsburg Shale, and was fed by meltwater flowing from the glacier into other streams.
The main branch of the Paulins Kill begins to form immediately north of Newton, in the marshes that straddle the town. The headwaters start near Route 622 in Fredon Township. The headwaters are two very small brooks, west of Newton in Fredon Township. Moore's Brook is one of several small mountain streams, some beginning at small ponds, that enter the Paulins Kill near its source. The east branch of the Paulins Kill originates in Lafayette Township and flow northwest to meet the Paulins Kill river in Lafayette Township. The river flows northward into Lafayette Township before curving west where it meets the combined waters of the Culver Brook and Dry Brook south of Branchville. Culver Brook is fed by Culver's Lake, Lake Owassa, and Bear Swamp, all in the western portion of Frankford Township. The Culver Brook flows east through Branchville before the creek merges with the Paulins Kill just southwest of the Augusta Hill Road bridge.
After the town of Lafayette, the Paulins Killturns west around moraines left by the Wisconsin Glacier just south of Augusta.
The Paulins Kill flows southwest for the rest of its journey, through Hampton and Stillwater townships in Sussex County. Trout Brook, which rises on Kittatinny Mountain, flows into the Paulins Kill near Middleville in Stillwater Township. Swartswood Lake feeds Trout Brook through Keen's Mill Brook. The Paulins Kill continues its course southwest, entering Warren County, where it initially forms the border between Frelinghuysen and Hardwick townships. It enters Blairstown immediately after, where it is joined by Blair Creek, named (as is the town) for John Insley Blair (1802–1899), as well as Jacksonburg Creek, Susquehanna Creek, Dilts Creek and Walnut Creek. Yards Creek, which rises at the Yards Creek reservoir in Blairstown, enters the Paulins Kill near the hamlet of Hainesburg in Knowlton Township. Finally, in Warren County its waters enter the Delaware River just south of the Delaware Water Gap at the hamlet of Columbia in Knowlton Township.
A dam was built in the 1920s across the Paulins Kill in Stillwater Township, to create Paulinskill Lake, a narrow, 3-mile-long (4.8 km) body of water that stretches back into Hampton Township to the north. It was constructed in response to the 1914 establishment of Swartswood State Park, to provide seasonal (summer) housing and recreation for vacationers from the New York metropolitan area. At present, it is a year-round residential community managed by a homeowners association.
Today, several dams and mill races remain from the grist, saw, oil and fulling mills built along the river's banks during the 18th and 19th century, and continue to alter the course and flow of the river.
Read more about this topic: Paulins Kill, Geography and Geology