For twenty-six years, the small building on Powerville Road across from the Rockaway River sat dark. Locals drove past it on the way to the Tourne or the train, registered it as a shape, and kept going. In late July of 2026, a ribbon was cut in front of it, and the Valley Farm Stand at the Oscar Kincaid Home of History opened its doors for the first time since the final harvest of 2000.
That single change matters more than it sounds like it should. It restores the middle piece of a weekend that residents here have been assembling in fragments for years: a hike, a farm visit, a drive through Rockaway Valley, a stop for honey, and no obvious anchor to tie it together. The stand is that anchor. What follows is a full late-summer weekend built around it, with everything inside a 15-minute drive of 07005.
What Actually Reopened On Powerville Road
The building itself is modest and easy to miss. Oscar A. Kincaid Sr. put it up in the mid-1920s as a refreshment stand where neighbors gathered over root beer, then expanded it in 1938 into a "milk house" supporting his Hillside Dairy milk route. During World War II the family returned to general farming, and the stand became known as Valley Farm, selling locally grown sweet corn, tomatoes, peaches, apples, cider, Christmas trees and firewood.
It often operated on the honor system, with customers selecting produce and leaving payment in an unlocked cash box. The rehabilitation, unveiled at a ribbon-cutting attended by Morris County Commissioner Director Stephen Shaw, Boonton Township Mayor Bill Klingener, and members of the Historical Society of Boonton Township, was carried out by Jeff and Colleen Dowling, who will operate the stand going forward. The Historical Society owns and continues to preserve the Oscar Kincaid Home of History; the Dowlings run the produce side.
Why A 26-Year Gap Is Worth Paying Attention To
A shuttered farm stand is easy to shrug at. A shuttered farm stand on a specific corner in a specific valley is not. Powerville Road is the spine of Boonton Township's agricultural district, and the Kincaid site sits close enough to the Four Corners intersection that anyone circulating through Rockaway Valley on foot, bike, or car passes it. When it went dark in 2000, the loop lost its natural pause point. Residents kept doing the pieces separately. Hike the Tourne on Saturday. Take the kids to the petting farm on Sunday. Buy honey by appointment. The reopened stand collapses those into a single afternoon, and that changes how the weekend feels.
The Four Corners Cluster, Restitched
Four Corners is the informal name for the crossroads where Rockaway Valley Road meets Powerville Road, and it has quietly held onto a working farm identity that most of North Jersey has lost. The 36-acre Brookhollow tract at the intersection has been in preserved status since a 1998 easement purchase and remains in hay and livestock production under the Johanson family.
Across Powerville Road, border collies can be seen most days training on sheep, and a llama named Tony has his own mailbox for fan letters on the split-rail fence, kept as a working guard animal against coyotes and bears that come down out of the woods. The retail piece of the cluster is thin but real: Brookhollow's Barnyard at 301 Rockaway Valley Road is a family-run petting farm with tractor rides and train rides, open seasonally, and Gooserock Farm produces raw, minimally filtered honey from hives kept mostly in the Montville–Boonton Township area, with the added detail that Landi is a certified Master Beekeeper and an active member of the New Jersey Beekeepers Association. Powerville Farms at 545 Powerville Road is a family-owned cut-your-own Christmas tree farm carrying Norway Spruces, Silver Spruces, and Douglas Firs, which means the same road that hands you peaches in August will hand you a Douglas Fir in December.
Saturday Morning At The Tourne
Start early, from the McCaffrey Lane entrance. The Tourne is a 545-acre park spanning Boonton Township, Denville, and Mountain Lakes, opened for public use in 1960. The name comes from the Dutch word for "lookout" or "mountain," which is a fair description of what the summit gives you. On a clear day, hikers who climb to the top are rewarded with a panoramic view of the New York City skyline.
The path up is manageable for most fitness levels. The DeCamp Trail is broad and workable on a cantering horse, and more adventurous hikers can pick a steeper route up and around the glacial outcroppings. Layered underneath the hike is the kind of history plaques rarely capture. McCaffrey Lane itself was designed in 1767 by Samuel Ogden to haul iron ore from Hibernia's mines to his iron works in Old Boonton, and within this historic region cannonballs were manufactured for use by the Continental Army during the American Revolution. One caveat worth knowing before you drive over: you cannot cross from the west entrance to the east side inside the park, because a gate across the road is usually closed, so pick your entrance before you leave the house.
Saturday Afternoon: The Powerville Road Drive
Come off the Tourne hungry. Powerville Road runs north from McCaffrey and is the direct route to the Valley Farm Stand and, a mile or two later, to Powerville Farms. The road threads through the iron district known as Powerville, past the old Powerville Hotel and the abandoned locks of the historic Morris Canal, before opening into Rockaway Valley and the crossroads at Four Corners.
This is the section that used to require a plan. Now it is a stop. Pick up whatever the Dowlings have on the table that week, take a slow lap through Four Corners to see whether the border collies are working, and consider whether the kids are up for Brookhollow's Barnyard before dinner. The Barnyard is open seasonally from late April or early May through October, which means a late-August Saturday still catches it. Save Gooserock for a phoned-ahead pickup rather than a drop-in.
Sunday At Tripod Rock
The second day of the weekend belongs to Pyramid Mountain. Technically the visitor center sits at 472 Boonton Avenue in Montville Township, but the trail network reaches across the line, and for anyone living in Boonton Township it is a 10-minute drive. Pyramid Mountain Natural Historic Area features over 1,600 acres of rugged trails, fields, forests, rock outcroppings, and wetlands, and hikers can easily see the unusual glacial erratic boulders deposited by the Wisconsin Glacier over 18,000 years ago, such as Bear Rock, Tripod Rock, and Whale Head Rock.
The classic loop is short enough for a family and interesting enough for adults who have been up it before. The Tripod Rock loop is a 3-plus mile forested walk with rocky footpaths, stream crossings, overlooks, and memorable glacial erratics. Tripod Rock itself is an estimated 160-ton boulder delicately balanced on three smaller boulders. Bear Rock, meanwhile, is one of the largest glacial erratics in the state. Two practical notes for anyone who has not been in a while: a park-wide re-blazing was completed in March 2021 and trail colors have changed, so it is worth photographing or printing the current map before you start, and this is the most popular hike in the park, so an early morning weekday or an early Sunday start is the difference between quiet woods and a queue.
A Two-Day Route For The 07005 Weekend
For anyone who wants the sequence in one place:
- Saturday 8:00 a.m. Coffee at home, drive to the Tourne, park at the McCaffrey Lane lot on the east side.
- Saturday 9:00 a.m. DeCamp Trail to the summit for the skyline view, back down by 11.
- Saturday noon. Drive north on Powerville Road. Stop at the Valley Farm Stand at the Oscar Kincaid Home of History.
- Saturday 1:00 p.m. Slow lap through Four Corners. Watch for the border collies and Tony the llama on the Powerville Road fence line.
- Saturday 2:00 p.m. Brookhollow's Barnyard if you have kids under 10, or a call ahead to Gooserock Farm for a honey pickup if you do not.
- Sunday 8:30 a.m. Coffee, then Pyramid Mountain visitor center parking at 472 Boonton Avenue.
- Sunday 9:00 a.m. Blue to Blue Dot to Tripod Rock, out via Bear Rock, back by lunch.
- Sunday afternoon. Cider and produce from Saturday's farm stand haul, back porch, done.
What This Actually Says About Living Here
Most towns market themselves on what is being built. Boonton Township, quietly, is worth paying attention to for what is being kept. A 100-year-old refreshment stand rebuilt as a working farm stand. A hay and livestock easement locked in since 1998. A hiking corridor that connects a 1767 iron-ore road to a boulder dropped by ice 18,000 years ago. The reason people who own homes here tend to stay in them longer than the county average is not one big amenity. It is the accumulation of small, specific things that a weekend like this makes visible.
The other thing worth naming: this is the texture that shows up in a listing photograph and a listing description when a home eventually sells. Buyers who tour houses on Powerville Road, Rockaway Valley Road, or the streets off McCaffrey are not just buying square footage. They are buying proximity to this loop. Owners who understand that tend to price and present accordingly.
If you are thinking about what your home might be worth in this market, or what a move within Boonton Township could look like, the team at Matt Weiss works this corner of Morris County closely. Schedule a Free Consultation and we can talk through it without pressure.
