At first glance
The feeling of being in this city is very strange. It’s unusually quiet there. You can hear only the chirping of birds and insects. There is blue sky over your head, and the air is strangely clean.
The view of the city
The view of the city is unsurpassed. Low mountains with grassy green slopes rise above the horizon. Destroyed by the winds and bad weather old trees grow on the roadside.
Impression
When you are in Wallpack, it seems that its residents went to work in the morning and will be back soon. But then you look in the window of one of the houses, and there is smell of dampness and mold, there is not a single living soul. The lock on the door long rusted, and there is a thick layer of dust in the house.
The history of the town
Walpack was founded in 1731, its name comes from Indian word wahlpeck, which means whirlpool. Once it was a city with a dozen yards of the farmers.
The beginning of the 60s
The beginning of the 60s: the US government decided to build hydroelectric power plant downstream of the river. As a result, all the surrounding land was flooded. Work on the project was led by the Engineering corps of the American army. All the local people were against the creation of hydroelectric power, but it did not help.
The threat of the government
The pressure began when the plan was approved. The U.S. army forced people to sell land and move to another place. The government threatened to discontinue the road service. One day the people could not even get to the house by roads.
The tipping point
The result of these actions was that many people left their homes, sold the land to the American government. Hard pressure of the military led to the fact that the tactics the government has been compared with the terrorist and the media gave the rapid response.
The contribution of environmentalists
The contribution of ecologists in this process cannot be challenged. The fact that at the construction site there are very unstable soils that can move. The environmentalists were able to prove that the idea of building of hydroelectric power in this place can lead to disaster.
The land of hippie
As a result, the project was frozen, and empty houses began to be occupied by hippies. By the end of the 60s they took all the houses. They created a huge hippie commune on the border of the States of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This place was called Cloud farm. Independent farming was organized on the territory of the township Walpack. The hippies called themselves the river people.
New problem
After the victory over the idea of building a hydropower plant on their land a new trouble came. Hippies are peaceful, but they had too much noise and dirt, and in addition, they devastated the local budget by leaps and bounds. So the local had to go to the army for help.
Eviction
American army and government quickly and easily solved this problem, having announced the order of eviction. It is, of course, remained unanswered, and the army decided to take the hippies by storm. Once on the territory of Wallpack was raided by an army of armed soldiers and used tear gas. Hippies were brutally thrown out outside and their houses were bulldozed.
Final decision
Officially the project of construction of the dam was prohibited by Congress in 1978. The land of the township Wallpack was given to a national Park. Nowadays you can not officially sell the land and settle there.
Wallpack today
Township Wallpack today is part of the National Park, so people clean there, trim lawns and trees.