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West Milford, an 80-plus square mile municipality located in Passaic County, NJ, sits in the "Heart of the Highlands." Its beautiful mountainous terrain, dotted with nearly forty tranquil lakes, is crisscrossed by narrow roads that run along its scenic valleys and ridges.
Most of its 10,000 homes surround its lakes. Many of these homes, once summer resort bungalows, have over the years been enlarged and converted into year-round residences. And over the past twenty years, many newer, larger homes on one- to four-acre lots, as well as two major condominium developments, have been built. With this development history, prospective homeowners can find a range of housing types and costs to suit their particular needs.
A major state highway, Route 23, that winds along its southern boundary, more or less paralleling the Pequannock River, provides its main transportation links to the outside world.
A community widely recognized for its commitment to youth activities, West Milford boasts perhaps the most popular teen center coffee house in New Jersey. But recreation programs are available for people of all ages. All family members, not just the younger set, can enjoy a wide variety of recreational, fun, and educational programs, sponsored not only by the Township's Recreation Department, but also its schools, the Police Athletic League, and local churches and civic groups.
Recreational sports, hiking, boating, and fishing, attract some hardy tourists, but West Milford's main attraction for local residents is its vast extent of largely undeveloped and state protected forests, nearly 2/3 of the entire municipality.
Despite its enormous size, West Milford is blessed with a small-town atmosphere, the product of not only volunteer and civic group activism and pride, but also a participatory citizenry whose debates fill the local presses and enliven locally televised council meetings.
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