Life in the Park
Earlier and current park residents
The Lenni Lenape people, the pre-European inhabitants of the Lehigh Valley, lived along the Monocacy Creek. Opportunities for gathering and cultivation abounded, as the area receives abundant rainfall and the growing season is relatively long.
After the arrival of Moravian and other European settlers in the mid-1700s, farming methods recognizable to today’s park visitors began. Several bank barns had already been built on properties Johnston purchased and were actively used by farmers cultivating the fields of Camel’s Hump Farm.
Santee Mill (no longer standing), on the northeast corner of Township Line/Altonah Roads and Santee Mill Road, was the last operating grist mill in Northampton County, with Johnston ensuring the millrace paralleling Monocacy Creek was free-running.
As shown on the 1929 map in the inside front cover, a truck (vegetable) garden provided seasonal vegetables for the Johnston families. The map also shows two orchards: an “old orchard” (today on private property) and another planted on the east side of the Johnston Mansion. Visitors pass the active orchard on the way from the parking lot to the mansion. With several varieties of apples and pears as well as a few straggling grape vines, the property continues to fruit, all untreated by pesticides. Deer graze directly from the trees and eat the “windfall” fruit that falls later in the season.
Birds and animals are abundant in Housenick Park. Visitors are likely to see at least one deer during their visit. Rabbits, chipmunks, and groundhogs are in evidence in all seasons. Red-tailed hawks glide over the creek, watching for prey below. A bald eagle’s nest was recently seen within park boundaries.
Park visitors new to the area with an interest in birdwatching would do well to consult the recently-published second edition of the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society’s work, Birds of the Lehigh Valley and Vicinity (2nd Ed.), ISBN 978-0-9721409-6. More than two densely packed pages of this guide point the reader to the species likely to be seen while on park walks.