Exploring part 2 of the Ride to Read course

Curious about why the journey from the Catherine D. Hofman Branch to the Northeast Branch is called Fifty Shades of Death? During one of my training rides, I stopped by the infamous Shades of Death Road in Allamuchy Twp, where I'll be riding during the second part of the Ride to Read.

To add to what I said in the video, the earliest mention of the name "Shades of Death" that I have seen is from the book Archaeology of Warren and Hunterdon Counties by Max Schrabisch and published 1917. The entry was about a cave called a "Fairy Hole" that is located "a few hundred yards west of a ravine known as "Shades of Death" (page 57).  Another archeology book, Archaeology of New Jersey by Dorothy Cross, published in 1941, describes that spot as being a "heavily wooded valley formed by the northern end of Jenny Jump Mountain and a small hill to the east" (page 143).

The Easton Express newspaper printed an obituary of a man named Bill Cummins who was murdered on Shades of Death Road in 1928. The obituary describes Cummins' home as being located "in the wild regions near Great Meadows known as the 'Shades of Death'", and it references a previous murder in the area from May of 1923 committed by Myrtle Carpenter. A second death notice, about Cummins' funeral, describes the place of the murder as the "Shades of Death" section of Independence.

We may never know exactly how that spot got its name, but there sure is a lot of interesting history to dig up about it!

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more updates on my training and for some details about the type of furnishings for the new building that I'm raising money for!