Documentary on Proposed 1950s JetPort Being Screened at Mayo Performing Arts Center Next Month

MORRISTOWN, N.J.– A free screening of the one-hour documentary film "Saving the Swamp: Battle to Defeat the Jetport" will be held on Dec. 3 at the Mayor Performing Arts Center.

The screening will air 57 years to the day of the announcement that the jetport project had been defeated, Morris County Communications and Digital Media Manager Larry Ragonese said.

On Dec. 3, 1959, the Port Authority planned to construct a 10,000-acre "jetport" in Morris and Somerset Counties, Ragonese said.

The battle to defeat the proposed "jetport" took "nearly a decade, a president and an act of congress to stop," according to Ragonese.

“We are honored to have this film premiere in the home county of those who led the battle to stop the jetport and who are responsible for the incredible preservation effort that subsequently created the unique natural marvel we have here in the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge,’’ said Morris County Freeholder Director Kathy DeFillippo.

According to Ragonese, the film provides an in-depth look at the events, people and politics "behind the struggle to preserve a way of life in the communities located near the Great Swamp in Morris and Somerset counties between 1959 and 1968."

Featured in the film are Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, authors Cam Cavanaugh and Jameson Doig, conservationist David Moore, the Fenske family, and more, he said.

The film was directed by Scott Morris and produced by Morris County Heritage Commission Vice Chairman Larry Fast.

"Reflecting on what the participants managed to accomplish in the face of prevailing attitudes about progress in the 1950s, they not only stopped a jetport and protected a valuable natural resource, but they also invented a new form of grass roots environmentalism which is now universally accepted,'' said Fast."The national environmental protection laws of the 1970s can trace their roots to this story. It was set of conditions and people unique to Morris County which allowed the effort to be successful here.''

Pictured: The Great Swamp

Images courtesy County of Morris