The Laurel Hill section of Secaucus may be 200 million years old, but it is not forgotten. It has seen both historical and natural ups and downs, and is visited by fans young, old, and in between.
The composition of its rock is unique enough to have hosted its own rare mineral called Petersite, which has been verified by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. Mineral websites identify Petersite’s location as “Laurel Hill (Snake Hill), Secaucus, Hudson Co., New Jersey.”
“Every once in a while, people still come in search of mineral specimens,” said Town Historian Dan McDonough. “It is a super-special place for everyone, being rich in history, geology, plants and wildlife. I love that place.”
Named Snake Hill in the 1600s by Algonquin Indians or Dutch settlers, the appellation was changed in 1915. At one time, the hill housed an Alms House (for poor folks), a penitentiary, and an asylum for the mentally insane, as well as 50 other buildings.
McDonough, who lives in Harmon Cove, has a spectacular view of the Hill from his 16th floor residence. He goes to Laurel Hill to collect substances with his 7-year-old son Patrick. “People have no idea what’s out there.”
In the beginning…
Laurel Hill is in an area known to geologists as the Piedmont province. It is part of the Palisades, which are underlain by diabase (a type of dark or green rock) layers, and the Watchung Mountains, which are underlain with basalt (a type of gray or black rock) layers.
Due to continental collision from a billion years ago, volcanic activity created the igneous features of the province. The area was located under the ocean then. In keeping with the slow moving events of pre-historic time, the late Triassic-early Jurassic part (240 and 140 million years ago) of the Mesozoic era produced the volcanic activity necessary for the igneous features of the Hill.
Igneous rock is formed when melted rock, called magma, gets trapped in the earth’s small pockets. Igneous rock is also formed when magma erupts outward from a volcano (called lava) and cools.
Diabase is a black, dark-grey or green rock formed when slowly cooling pockets of magma were trapped below the surface of the earth. Erupting volcanoes formed basalt, a dense gray or black igneous rock, when cooling magma lava spilled over on the land.
“There are not many places made up of Continental Flood basalt in the world,” said geologist John Puffer. “In those days, Africa was next to Jersey City. You could walk from Mahwah to Morocco.”
Puffer is known as an igneous petrologist. He is a professor in the Geology Department at Rutgers University in Newark and has written extensively on the area. “Laurel Hill is an offshoot of the Palisade sill system,” he said. While the hill has always been quarried for rock to make crushed stone, it wasn’t until the early 1960s that major excavations for the NJ Turnpike were to reveal a unique mineralogical find.
Once-in-a-lifetime find
Nick Facciolla, 99, was a Secaucus resident when he first started exploring Laurel Hill in the early 1960s. He would hike in search for pockets in the rock where minerals could be found. Since specimens can often be microscopic, he carried a loupe – a small magnifier used by jewelers and watchmakers.
It was with this instrument that he found the first specimen in the world of a mineral called Petersite. In June of 1980, Facciolla, Jack Troy and the late John Durkos visited the Laurel Hill quarry in search of “fresh shots,” areas where quarry drills expose cavities deep in the rocks. When new construction begins, rock is blasted with dynamite. The open pockets left over are a mineral seeker’s delight.
“If you can get down there, it is unbelievable what you can get out of the earth,” said Facciolla. “You never know what you’ll find when prepared with a loupe.”
He said it is like mountain climbing in reverse. You need physical strength to carry yourself and the equipment into tight spaces. And have the endurance to focus over time on something so small.
“Guys like us go into the quarry looking for these small crumbs no one else wants to look for,” said Troy. “Mineral collectors are an odd breed.” Troy said he used a specialized camera with a fiber optic illuminator to take the photos of Petersite.
The new mineral was sent for examination to Thomas Peters, curator at the Paterson Museum at the time and his brother Joe Peters, then curator at the Museum of Natural History in New York. Traditionally, those who do the research on the mineral have the honor of giving it a name.
Petersite is a phosphate analog of mixite. It was found in a traprock quarry operated by the Gallo Asphalt Company. Harvard University brought the specimen from Facciolla and now houses it in their geology department.