Byram Township — “The Township of Lakes” — is a township in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township’s population was 8,350, reflecting an increase of 96 (+1.2%) from the 8,254 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 206 (+2.6%) from the 8,048 counted in the 1990 Census.

Byram Township was created by an act by the New Jersey General Assembly on February 5, 1798, from portions of the now-defunct Newton Township, and was incorporated on February 21, 1798, as one of New Jersey’s initial group of 104 townships. The township was named for the Byram family, who were early settlers in the area. Byram Township was named in honor of patriarch Jephthah Byram and his family, who are believed to have emigrated to the area after the American Revolutionary War. Before being named Byram, the community had been called Lockwood. In fact, the Lockwood Tavern continued to hold this name until its demolition in 2015, to make room for a CVS Pharmacy. In 1829, a section of Green Township was incorporated into the township. Portions of the township have been taken to form Sparta Township (April 14, 1845), Brooklyn borough (March 24, 1898, now called Hopatcong) and Stanhope borough (March 24, 1904).

There are many historical sites located in Byram. The town’s oldest structure, the 1802 Leport House, stands by the Byram General Store on Sparta-Stanhope Road. The Lockwood Cemetery, established around 1818, consists of about 30 gravestones and the remnants of a church’s foundation. The 1853 Roseville Schoolhouse was recently moved from its original location on Lackawanna Drive to Mansfield Drive.

In 1911, the Lackawanna Cut-Off rail line opened through Byram Township, with a station stop near the current Forest Lakes neighborhood. The Cut-Off was part of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad’s mainline from Hoboken, New Jersey to Buffalo, New York. The railroad was important in providing transportation for mines in Northern Jersey. It passes through Byram for a long distance. It runs mainly along Roseville, but as Roseville veers north, the tracks continue west. The line was abandoned in 1980 and the tracks were removed four years later. There is a proposal to reactivate passenger service via NJ Transit in the future, with work underway at the Roseville Tunnel.

In 2001, then-mayor Richard Bowe called for an investigation of weather forecasters due to a snowstorm that had been forecast but never materialized, arguing that forecasters should be held responsible for the “excessive overtime costs” that the township experienced and for losses of local businesses shut in advance of the predicted snowfall.

Byram Township had a very large mining industry in the past. There are so many mineral mines in Byram that there is one almost walking distance from anywhere. The biggest mine, The Roseville Mine, is located on the current Roseville Road. The mine is in a quadrilateral plot of land, with the southwestern corner created by Roseville Road and Amity Road. The southeastern corner is created by an intersection between Roseville Road and the Lackawanna Cut-off. The Roseville Mine was first excavated in the early 1850s. It was well worked during its life, with production in 1880 alone documented as 67,000 tons. Most of the work was done via a large open cut. This cut as it exists today, is water filled, however its massive size was impressive, its vertical walls being probably over 80 to 90 feet high. Another popular mine is the Charlotte Uranium mine. The mine extracted uranium from the rocks of southwestern Byram. The mine closed in the 1950s, but many remnants are still visible.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 22.262 square miles (57.659 km²), including 21.073 square miles (54.579 km²) of land and 1.189 square miles (3.080 km²) of water (5.34%). It is divided into several sections. They include the neighborhoods of Forest West, East and West Brookwood, Forest Lakes, Lackawanna, Cranberry Lake, and the Lake Mohawk area.

The township is known as the “Township of Lakes” because of the community’s nearly two dozen lakes and ponds.

Byram Center (with a 2010 Census population of 90) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Byram Township. Lake Mohawk (with 1,824 out of the CDP’s total 2010 Census population of 9,916 in the township) is a CDP split between Byram Township and Sparta Township.

Other unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Brookwood East, Brookwood West, Cage Hill, Cranberry Lake, Forest Lakes, Jefferson Lake, Lake Lackawanna, Lockwood, Panther Pond, Roseville, Stag Pond, Tomahawk Lane, Waterloo, Wolf Lake and Wrights Pond.

• Lubbers Run runs through the township, intersecting Mansfield Drive. The run is monitored monthly by the Byram Intermediate School’s Environmental Club.
• Punkhorn Creek runs through the township, flowing southwest from Lake Bottom, on the north side of and parallel with Amity Road, to Roseville Pond.

Residents of Byram are served by adjacent post offices in Stanhope, Andover Township and Sparta Township.

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 8,350 people, 2,926 households, and 2,361.282 families residing in the township. The population density was 396.2 per square mile (153.0/km²). There were 3,207 housing units at an average density of 152.2 per square mile (58.8/km²). The racial makeup of the township was 94.35% (7,878) White, 1.47% (123) Black or African American, 0.12% (10) Native American, 2.14% (179) Asian, 0.01% (1) Pacific Islander, 0.62% (52) from other races, and 1.28% (107) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.99% (417) of the population.

Source: Wikipedia