By Laura D.C Kolnoski
The current Colts Neck Library opened in 2000 after being built by?
For decades, the Colts Neck Library was located in the former Grange Building on Heyers Mill Road. To make a new, modern facility a reality at the municipal complex, then-Mayor Thomas McClintock put up $50,000 of his own money, challenging residents to join the effort. Local contractors, business owners, politicians and more answered the call, grants were obtained and rooms were added to make it a true community center.
What Founding Father traveled to Colts Neck along the Burlington Path (now Route 537) just to visit the local stage stop (now the Colt Neck Inn) to enjoy its famous libations?
Route 537, originally an Indian trail later called the Burlington Path in Rev- olutionary times, was a major route to Philadelphia during the period. Wash- ington u2013 and his troops u2013 not only enjoyed the u201cJersey Lightningu201d made by the Laird family at their inn, but eventually persuaded Samuel Laird to share the recipe with him.
What is commonly found in Big Brook Preserve?
Groups, local scouts, school children and avid fossil hunters from near and far obtain permits to wade into Big Brook Preserve to discover mostly Cretaceous fossil shark teeth and bone fragments that can be millions of years old.
Laird & Company, begun in the early 1700s and maker of the famous Laird's Applejack, holds what distinction?
Please select 4 correct answers
All of the above! Now located in the townshipu2019s historic Scobeyville section, Laird's has a rich history that can be viewed on its website. Its offices contain a treasure trove of historic artifacts and photos relating to the company and its founders.
Named for Rear Adm. Ralph Earle, Naval Weapons Station Earle was commissioned in what year?
The highly secure Colts Neck naval base is connected to its waterfront sister facility in Leonardo via a rail and road corridor. The entire project cost $51.8 million to build. Earle, primarily an ammunition and ordnance facility supplying and supporting the Atlantic Fleet and Expeditionary Strike Groups, demonstrated its strategic worth as the U.S. Department of Defense transshipment site for Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
What magnet program offered at Colts Neck High School has won multiple annual awards for national excellence?
CNHS, one of six high schools in the Freehold Regional High School District, began its ROTC program shortly after it opened in 1998, with impetus from local military veteran James Sfayer. The four-year course of study emphasizing leadership and naval science enables cadets to take part in orienteering, drills, visiting naval bases and more.
What famous singer/actress was known to shoot hoops with local youth outside her mansion off Route 537?
Queen Latifah, born Dana Owens in Newark, purchased her 9-acre Colts Neck estate in 2001 and sold it for $2 million in 2015. While there, she surprised and thrilled teenagers living across the street, and their friends, by engaging them in some street basketball.
What was the North American Phalanx?
Three renovated homes along Phalanx Road are all that remains of the once-vibrant fabled community on 600 acres founded by Albert Brisbane, who was influenced by the Socialist theories of Charles Fournier. The site included a school, shops, post office, barns and a cemetery. Writer Alexander Woolcott was born there. A suspicious fire destroyed it in 1972.
Who created the 9/11 Memorial outside town hall?
Jim Gary, who died in 2006, was internationally recognized for his colorful and often whimsical metal sculptures, exhibited at museums nationwide, in- cluding the Smithsonianu2019s National Museum of Natural History and the Boston Childrenu2019s Museum. He was friends with former mayor and current Monmouth County freeholder Lillian Burry and her husband Donald, who commissioned Gary to create something unique to honor local residents who perished in the attack on the World Trade Center.
Why is an old, large wooden mill wheel located on Bucks Mill Road?
The original four-story mill was built in 1854 by Joseph Probasco, a member of the area's historically significant Polhemus family and was part of a large farm. William Conniver purchased the mill in 1871.
This article was first published in the October 24 – 30, 2019 print edition of The Two River Times.
