History at Home: The Alonzo F. Bonsal Wildlife Preserve

There’s no better site to reconstruct the last Ice Age’s epic retreat 14,000 years ago. And here, in 1857, was discovered America’s most famous freshwater pearl – a 93-grain prize that would shape the fate of Charles Tiffany and the wife of Napoleon III, Empress Eugenie, not to mention a carpenter named Jacob Quakenbush. And then there’s its dramatic origin story followed by its recent rescue, thanks to avid activism and a five-million-dollar technological feat.

The Bonsal Wildlife Preserve Conservancy presents the best kept secret that the Montclair community loves to brag about!