On December 17, 1959 a meeting was held at the Chatham Fire House that would create what was briefly known as the Jersey Jetport Action Committee but would then come to be known as the Jersey Jetport Site Association. The meeting was called in response to an announcement by the Port of New York Authority proposing the building of a new, state-of-the-art jetport. The site proposed was 10,000 acres of land in southeastern Morris County, 4,000 of which comprised the Great Swamp with the remaining 6,000 acres to consist of surrounding residential areas. The jetport site was to be bounded by Summit, Chatham, Madison, Berkley Heights and New Providence.
The purpose of the meeting was to create an anti-jetport organization. A Steering Committee was quickly formed and was comprised of Congresswoman Florence P. Dwyer, State Senator Thomas J. Hillery, Somerset County Freeholder Harry L. Fetherston , Mayor James M. Henderson of Chatham Borough and Congressman Peter Frelinghuysen as its Chair. A Citizen's Advisory Council, headed by former Montclair Mayor George K. Batt, was also formed to work closely with the Steering Committee.
On January 15, 1960 the Jersey Jetport Site was officially incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation under Title 15 of the Revised Statutes of New Jersey. After moving into an office at 10 Park Place, the JJSA named William T. Smith, Jr. as its first full-time, paid Executive Director. A large pool of volunteers quickly assembled and the Jersey Jetport Site Association went into action by collecting money and circulating petitions and disseminating information. Soon committees were formed, each with their own purpose, functions and activities. Some were more active than others: The Public Relations campaign kept the issue in the minds of the public through newsletters, press releases and maps. Its members hired the firm Fulling and Douglass to aid in their activities. The Legal Committee researched what legal rights and protections both sides in the dispute had. Both the Women's Division and the Speaker's Bureau explained the JJSA's position and gathered in new supporters. The former did so through speeches to groups and clubs while the latter acted by sending out mailings and manning the phones. The Technical Advisory Committee was involved in commissioning technical studies including those concerning the economic and social impact of the jetport on the area as well as a study of the Great Swamp itself. Other Committees included Agriculture, Conservation, Finance, the Technical Advisory Committee, the Municipal Committee and Property Owners. In addition, satellite committees were formed in surrounding communities in order to better circulate information of local interest. By the end of the first year of its existence, the Jersey Jetport Site Association had well over a thousand members.
By December of 1961, it was clear that there would be no jetport in Morris County. The Jersey Jetport Association had waged an organized campaign to stop the Port Authority from building a jetport in Morris County. This campaign lasted two years and cost approximately $224,000. However, members of the JJSA were still ready to come to the aid of other communities battling the development of the jetport as when Solberg Airport in Hunterdon County was proposed in the mid-1960s. Many members of the Association had already gradually shifted their goal from stopping the jetport to the related goal of preserving the Great Swamp from any and all development. They did this as members of the Great Swamp Committee or of its 1964 successor the Great Swamp Conservation Foundation (or the North Jersey Conservation Foundation as it was renamed after a matter of months). Finally, in 1973, the Jersey Jetport Association closed its bank account and ceased to be.
The information for this history was taken from the collection itself. For further information see: Cavanaugh, Cam.
The Jersey Jetport Site Association Collection spans the years 1959 to 1976 with the bulk of the material falling between 1959 and 1965. The collection consists of correspondence, newspaper articles, maps, minutes of meetings, public relations materials, reports, speeches and photographs. The collection is primarily comprised of the material created by and utilized by the activist group and its members in its organized opposition to the building of a jetport in Morris County. Please note that certain series within this collection document the related and intertwined effort by the Great Swamp Committee and the North Jersey Conservation Foundation to preserve the Great Swamp first as a conservation area and then as a National Wildlife Refuge.
This series consists of organizational papers, including the certificate of incorporation and lists of officers, trustees and committee chairs, correspondence, financial records, maps, meeting minutes, photographs, public relations materials, speeches, reports, and research materials of the Jersey Jetport Site Association.
This series consists mainly of organizational material, correspondence, speeches, and reports of the Port Authority in its effort to find a suitable site for the jetport.
This series is comprised of correspondence, memorandums, newspaper and magazine articles, statements and announcements, and printed materials of the Great Swamp Committee of the Jetport Site Association.
This series includes the certificate of incorporation, correspondence, financial papers, maps, newspaper and magazine articles, and collected printed materials of the group that succeeded the Great Swamp Committee.
This series consists of the research materials of two individuals interested in the activities surrounding the fight to save the Great Swamp from development, notably Catherine Cavanaugh author of the book
Material in the Jersey Jetport Site Association Collection may be copied for use in individual scholarly or personal research, however, as with all materials in the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center, researchers are responsible for obtaining copyright permission to use material from the collection. Please note that some of the material in this collection was copied from the Frelinghuysen Papers at Princeton University and permission should be sought from Princeton before said material may be copied here.
The Jersey Jetport Site Association Collection was given to the North Jersey History Center by Mrs. Catherine M. Cavanaugh in 1979. Additional material were acquired from William T. Smith, Jr., Executive Director of the Jersey Jetport Site Association from 1960 onwards.
The Jersey Jetport Site Association Collection. North Jersey History Center, The Morristown and Morris Township Library.
Arranged and described by S. Christine Jochem, 2000. Reviewed and revised by Abigail Leab Martin, September 2001.