Calno VanCampen Cemetery

— This is an initial working draft. Not complete yet! —

Reactions to the Tocks Dam Threat

In the decades following the abandonment of the Tocks Island Dam project, strong feelings against the Federal government continued. Even in 2025, it is not unusual to encounter anger and disappointment at the National Park Service, which was left to administer the lands acquired by the Corps of Engineers around the unbuilt dam and its massive planned reservoir.
As the Dam project first loomed, and in the uncertain decades of the late 1900s when final legal resolution was still awaited, the response of impacted local residents and other observers took several forms:

Anger and resistance.
Resignation and efforts to move.
Efforts to document what had been before it was forever altered or went under water.
Identification of cemeteries and consideration of disinterring impacted graves to safe ground.

The quiet nature of the land and the people who had lived there for centuries did not make for sophisticated initial responses, but occupants and admirers of the area did try valiantly. Some of the efforts have been recounted here and here.

Among the stellar comprehensive descriptions of the properties and lives of the people who had occupied the valley are:

Elizabeth Menzies’ 1966 Before the Waters: The Upper Delaware Valley.
Four-County Task Force’s 1975 The Minisink: A chronicle of one of America’s first and last frontiers.
Nancy Shukaitis’s 2007 Lasting Legacies of the Lower Minisink.

Much has happened since then, and is described in part here.

A Positive Effort

But in the enduring aftermath of this misguided government action, it is happy to acknowledge an example of a positive, albeit necessarily limited in scope, action to respect the life that once was. The example is in the former Pahaquarry, namely at a cemetery that had fallen into disrepair and out of public notice.

In the decades when the construction of the dam threatened, there had been thousands of graves in the area slated to be under water, and at the time, some efforts were made to document them and even disinter remains for placement in safer locations. Archaeologist Herbert Kraft had even expedited searches for early Indian habitation close to the river.

Estimates varied, with some 6,000 graves suggested as possibly requiring relocation. But who was buried, who were their descendants, and who owned the cemeteries? Many of the cemeteries had evolved over several centuries, with little formal documentation or consideration of land ownership; many had simply started on farms for the benefit of occupants, descendants, and neighbors. With the substantial reduction in population in places like Pahaquarry, which dropped from 465 in 1860 to 6 in 1997, ownership and responsibility were unclear, and lists of graves were not always accurate.

The Cemetery’s Historic Maintenance

This isn’t Pahaquarry’s only cemetery, but it has special significance, dating back to the earliest years of the VanCampen settlement. Located a few hundred feet east from the Old Mine Road, it is east of the Abraham VanCampen house which was built in the first half of the 1700s, and not far from the Benjamin VanCampen home.

Over the years, with no family members living nearby, its maintenance became an issue. The surrounding woods and shrubs moved in. Despite periodic efforts, it reached a point where many could not even find it.

In 1990, Stephen B. VanCampen had obtained a court order, allowing him to serve as temporary trustee of the cemetery while a new board of trustees could be constituted. A newspaper report recounted: “A cemetery in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation area that dates back to Revolutionary War days will be saved from the ravages of vandals and weeds by a Warren County man whose ancestors are buried there.” It noted that “the last trustee of the cemetery had died in the 1950s, and nobody since then had maintained it.”

The 1993 obituary of Stephen’s father, Bernard VanCampen, recounted his VanCampen heritage, along with the fact that he had been chairman of the “Calno Cemetery Association.” Neither Bernard nor Stephen were buried at Calno.

Harold R. VanCampen, one of the last of the line living nearby, tried to maintain the cemetery, until his passing in 2001. He had also served as one of the last two Township Committee members of Pahaqarry Township, until its dissolution in 1997. Jean Zipser, last resident of the Abraham Van Campen house, and last Mayor of Pahaquarry and her friends also made periodic efforts to clear the plots, until her tragic death in 2006.

In 2008, Marc Betz made a heroic effort to walk through the brambles that had quickly overtaken and hidden the place, which he described thusly:

“At the worst of it I found myself nearly immobile. Vines stretched tightly across my chest, thorns dug into my forearms with every move, and my feet, down somewhere in the invisible nightmare below the foamy ocean of green in which I swam, were in the tangled clutches of evil flora with long, sinuous tentacles.”

Who’s Buried Here?

At least 50 VanCampens are identified and now interred among over 157 graves. Considering name changes after marriage, the actual number of VanCampens is likely higher.

Colonel Abraham VanCampen. The patriarch, having died in 1767. is reported to be buried on site, yet no record nor headstone indicates where. There are also unanswered questions about where slaves that were employed on his property in the early times were buried. And an Indian, in full dress, was exhumed nearby, but not from the cemetery, when accidentally discovered.

The Last Burial and a Very Special One:

Mallie Sutton VanCampen burial in 1954 was the last one known to have taken place. Mary VanCampen’s headstone, the second oldest in the cemetery, is very special.

–> Learn about Mary VanCampen <–

Several lists of burials are available:

Corps of Engineers. A list and location survey created in 1975, which is based on a physical survey. The available copy is somewhat fuzzy, but authoritative. References to reinterment appear to be simply making use of available columns in a standard template, as none are known to have occurred.

The Findagrave.com site. Click Search without making any entries and a list of 141 graves will come up.

Veterans. A number of those buried here served in different wars. Four served in the Civil War.

Do note that various genealogy sites sometimes provide conflicting information.

Before and After

In 2025, Kenneth deLodzia, then assisting the National Park Service as a volunteer, noted and became concerned over the condition of the cemetery, for itself, and as part of the story of the history of the surrounding properties. Noting its deterioration, he determined, as an individual, to make every possible effort to protect the cemetery from the predations of time and nature.

The challenge has been daunting. While receiving encouragement and limited volunteer help, neither the Park Service nor other similarly-minded organizations have either the resources or authority to take action. But what he has accomplished to date is noteworthy.

Clearing the cemetery initially involved determining its characteristics and rough boundaries, followed by laborious manual hacking of major vegetation, and then more precise clearance of accumulated debris around the individual headstones. Even as cleared, the ground is uneven, trees that have intruded remain, and the vegetation constantly threatens to grow back. But for now, what has been done is a major accomplishment. To the extent possible, headstones are being read and considered for adjustment, with names compared with available lists.

Here are representative views of how it looked before initial clearing and after (click it for larger view):

Seen below are some focused samples, bearing in mind that the “before” in some cases was after initial clearance of major obstacles.

What’s needed next

Work is far from complete. More work needs to be done, and much is not a one-time job.