Fort Nonsense: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Morristown National Historical Park
NPS Northeast Regional Office. 2025. Fort Nonsense: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Morristown National Historical Park. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 650047. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
The Fort Nonsense Unit of the Morristown National Historical Park is a 35-acre parcel on Mount Kemble near the center of Morristown, a small city located in the northern New Jersey suburbs approximately 31 miles west of Manhattan. This site of a Revolutionary War fortification has expansive views down to Morristown and east into the surrounding lowlands toward New York City. The Fort Nonsense Unit is centered along the ridge and upper slopes of the northeastern extremity of Mount Kemble. The high point of the unit is the site of the fort at an elevation of 595 feet above sea level and a mean elevation of 230 feet above the Morristown Green. Mount Kemble, which is part of the eastern edge of New Jersey's Appalachian Highlands region, is a long ridge with a number of rises that runs southwest to northeast. Built in 1777, Fort Nonsense was a minor earthen redoubt that was fortified by the Continental Army until c.1780. The site of the fort on a steeply-sloped hill overlooking the small village of Morristown permitted immediate surveillance over the Continental Army’s military stores and headquarters and more distant views east toward British-occupied New York City. Despite its strategic importance, the fort, which Washington referred to as the "upper redoubt," never saw military conflict. It is this aspect of its history that likely gave rise to the name Fort Nonsense. After the war, the fort was abandoned but its earthen walls survived in the landscape and the surrounding shady hillsides became a popular local retreat. The site remained largely undeveloped until the early 20th century, when the Town of Morristown created a public park there. The National Park Service acquired the site in 1933, and with the aid of the CCC built a complete reconstruction of Fort Nonsense in 1937. Today, the unit occupies a largely wooded, steeply-sloped site that features select open areas, a hiking path, picnic tables, interpretive markers, small parking lot, and a paved road. There are no maintained buildings or structures, and no aboveground remains from the 1777 Fort Nonsense or its 1937 reconstruction. The configuration of the original fort is outlined with granite blocks for visitor interpretation.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- NPS Northeast Regional Office
- Date of Issue
- 2025
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- MORR , NER
- Keywords
- American Revolution, Archeological Presevation, Architecture, Battlefield Preservation, Civilian Conservation Corps, commemorative, conservation archeology, continental army, Encampment, George Washington, Historic Preservation, historic site, Jockey Hollow, Kinney's Hill, Military, Morristown, Mount Kemble, New Jersey, Reconstruction, The National Trust for Historic Preservcation, The New Deal, Upper Redoubt, War in the Nroth, Washington's Headquarters