Editing Sparta, New Jersey (section)

===Tourism===
{{wide image|Sparta Station Panorama.jpg|650px|The former [[New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad]] station in Sparta, as viewed from a nearby business in November 2011. The station depot burned in an early morning fire on September 3, 2012.<ref name=spartaburned>Staff. [http://spartaindependent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120905/NEWS01/120909998/Sparta-Train-Station-burns-to-rubble- "Sparta Train Station burns to rubble; The 130-year-old station was the last of 15 built by NYS&W"], ''The Sparta Independent'', September 5, 2012. Accessed April 15, 2015.</ref>}}
The [[New Jersey Midland Railroad]] opened to [[Ogdensburg, New Jersey|Ogdensburg]] in 1872 for zinc ore traffic, but in 1882 the line was extended to [[Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania|Stroudsburg]], [[Pennsylvania]] and a station was built at Sparta, giving tourists easy access to the many boarding houses that served summer residents from the cities. Passenger service ended in 1935, but by then Sparta was well established as a summer destination. In 1926, the Arthur D. Crane Company along with developer and designer Herbert L. Closs constructed a {{convert|600|ft|adj=on}} dam across the [[Wallkill River]] to form {{convert|300|acre|km2|1|adj=on}} [[Lake Mohawk, New Jersey|Lake Mohawk]] in 1928.<ref>Benko, Dawn. [https://www.proquest.com/docview/439042555 "Simple times at boardwalk"], ''[[Daily Record (New Jersey)|Daily Record]]'', September 5, 2002. Accessed November 6, 2013. "On March 17, 1928, the valley filled and water ran over a spillway that had been built beneath the boardwalk."</ref> The private resort community created by the Crane Company consisted primarily of summer homes, but the homes began to be winterized in the 1940s and the current membership of 2,600 families are largely year-round residents.