Editing Byram Township, New Jersey (section)

==History==
Byram Township was created by an act by the [[New Jersey General Assembly]] on February 5, 1798, from portions of the now-defunct [[Newton Township, Sussex County, New Jersey|Newton Township]], and was incorporated on February 21, 1798, as one of New Jersey's initial group of 104 townships.<ref name=Story/> The township was named for the Byram family, who were early settlers in the area.<ref name=Story>Snyder, John P. [https://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/enviroed/oldpubs/bulletin67.pdf ''The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606-1968''], Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. p. 229. Accessed October 25, 2012. A date of April 9, 1798, is shown as the date the township was formed, which appears to be incorrect, as the township was incorporated some six weeks earlier.</ref><ref name=History>[https://www.byramtwp.org/index.php/history Byram Township History], Byram Township. Accessed March 22, 2020. "Byram Township was established on February 5, 1798, having been separated from the vast area that was then Newton. The name honored the Byram Family, surveyors who had settled in the area before the Revolution. In 1798, the head of the family was Jephthah Byram, who is buried in the Sparta Cemetery."</ref><ref>Hutchinson, Viola L. [http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/356/nj_place_names_origin.pdf#page=9 ''The Origin of New Jersey Place Names''], New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945. Accessed August 28, 2015.</ref> Patriarch Jephthah Byram and his family, were believed to have emigrated to the area after the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref name=History/> Before being named Byram, the community had been called Lockwood, and the Lockwood Tavern continued to hold this original name until its demolition in 2015. In 1829, a section of [[Green Township, New Jersey|Green Township]] was incorporated into the township.<ref name=Story/> Portions of the township have been taken to form [[Sparta Township, New Jersey|Sparta township]] (April 14, 1845), Brooklyn borough (March 24, 1898, now called [[Hopatcong, New Jersey|Hopatcong]]) and [[Stanhope, New Jersey|Stanhope borough]] (March 24, 1904).<ref name=Story/>

There are many historical sites located in Byram. The town's oldest structure, the 1802 Leport House, stands by the Byram General Store on Sparta-Stanhope Road.<ref>[http://njherald.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=129546 Album Name: Leport House dedication & Kiddie Karaoke], ''[[New Jersey Herald]]'', May 13, 2006.</ref> The Lockwood Cemetery, established around 1818, consists of about 30 gravestones and the remnants of a church's foundation. The 1853 Roseville Schoolhouse was moved from its original location on Lackawanna Drive to Mansfield Drive, reopening in September 1986 as the Roseville Schoolhouse Museum.<ref>[https://www.nj.gov/njhighlands/sussex_county/byram/municipal_adopted/byram_OSRP_Final.pdf ''Open Space and Recreation Plan''], Byram Township, June 2020. Accessed February 7, 2023. "Roseville Schoolhouse Museum This one-room schoolhouse was moved from its original location on Lackawanna Drive (originally known as Roseville Road) to its current location near the Municipal Building on Mansfield Road and Beatrice Johnson Way.... The building was moved onto a new foundation, refurbished, and opened as a Schoolhouse Museum on Byram Day, September 13, 1986."</ref><ref>[http://byramtwp.org/upclose/history/byram_schoolhouse.htm Roseville Schoolhouse Museum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020626072305/http://byramtwp.org/upclose/history/byram_schoolhouse.htm |date=2002-06-26 }}, accessed February 12, 2007.</ref>

In 1911, the [[Lackawanna Cut-Off]] rail line opened through Byram Township, with a station stop near the current Forest Lakes neighborhood. The Cut-Off was part of the [[Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad]]'s mainline from [[Hoboken, New Jersey]] to [[Buffalo, New York]]. The railroad was important in providing transportation for mines in Northern Jersey. It passes through Byram for a long distance. It runs mainly along Roseville, but as Roseville veers north, the tracks continue west. The line was abandoned in 1980 and the tracks were removed four years later. There is a proposal to reactivate passenger service via [[NJ Transit]] in the future, with work underway at the [[Roseville Tunnel]].<ref>Higgs, Larry. [http://www.nj.com/traffic/index.ssf/2015/01/construction_underway_on_commuter_rail_line_to_sussex_county.html "Construction underway on commuter rail line to Sussex County"], NJ Advance Media for [[NJ.com]], January 14, 2015. Accessed October 31, 2016. "This spring, NJ Transit plans to take bids to build a station and high level platforms in Andover, and to do more track construction and work on the Roseville Tunnel, Smith said. Passenger service could start in four years, depending on factors such as how weather conditions affect construction, he said."</ref>

In 2001, then-mayor Richard Bowe called for an investigation of weather forecasters due to a snowstorm that had been forecast but never materialized, arguing that forecasters should be held responsible for the "excessive overtime costs" that the township experienced and for losses of local businesses shut in advance of the predicted snowfall.<ref>via [[Associated Press]]. [http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/news/2001/2001-03-08-njsnowinvestigation.htm "N.J. mayor wants investigation into snowstorm"], ''[[USA Today]]'', March 8, 2001. Accessed April 9, 2013. "Byram Township Mayor Richard Bowe, who is an attorney, is calling for a federal or state investigation in an attempt to determine if the forecasts of heavy snow and blizzard conditions were mistakes or a deliberate attempt to generate ratings."</ref>

===Mining===
<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:Roseville_cut.jpg|thumb|right|This shows one of the numerous 90 foot cuts in the rock at the Roseville Mine]]  -->Byram Township had a very large mining industry in the past. The largest mine, The Roseville Mine, is located on the current Roseville Road. The mine is in a quadrilateral plot of land, with the southwestern corner created by Roseville Road and Amity Road. The southeastern corner is created by an intersection between Roseville Road and the Lackawanna Cut-off. The Roseville Mine was first excavated in the early 1850s. It was well worked during its life, with production in 1880 alone documented as 67,000 tons of ore. Most of the work was done via a large open cut. This cut as it exists today, is water-filled, with vertical walls as much as {{convert|80|to|90|ft}} high. The Charlotte Uranium mine extracted [[uranium]] from the rocks of southwestern Byram. The mine closed in the 1950s, but many remnants are still visible.{{Cn|date=December 2024}}