RIVER TALES: A view of the Delaware River from Goat Hill Overlook in Lambertville, part of the mobile and virtual tour of sites along the waterway, currently available from D&R Greenway Land Trust.

By Anne Levin

Linda Mead drives over the Scudder Falls Bridge between Pennsylvania and New Jersey nearly every day. But until “Seldom Told Stories of the Delaware River,” a mobile tour currently available from D&R Greenway Land Trust — of which Mead is president and CEO — she had never heard of its namesake.

“That was just one of the things I learned from working on this project,” said Mead, who directed and edited the self-guided 40-mile driving tour. Richard Betts Scudder was an early settler who purchased a parcel of land along the Delaware. In 1776, his grandson, Amos Scudder, helped guide General Washington’s troops to Trenton after crossing the river.

Scudder’s history is among the little-known facts included in the audio tour, a partnership between D&R Greenway and TravelStorysGPS. The tour guides travelers, via vehicle or armchair, along a route between Bordentown and Lambertville.

“This is the sixth tour we’ve done. We’ve had walking tours and tours by kayak, among others. But this is the first driving tour,” said Mead. “It was, frankly, a much bigger challenge than we expected, because there were so many places to talk about. We had to figure out not only which ones to feature, but the easiest routes to reach them.”

Among the sites along the tour are Joseph Napoleon’s Point Breeze Estate in Bordentown, recently preserved by D&R Greenway, the State of New Jersey and City of Bordentown; the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum in Skillman, on the National Historic Register; Lewis Island in Lambertville, where fishermen have been pulling in shad for generations; and the Goat Hill Overlook, also in Lambertville, from which George Washington surveyed the Delaware to make sure the boats his men had stashed on an island were hidden from sight before the historic crossing of the river.

The stories were researched and written by Susan Charkes, Brad Fay, Amy Martin, and Maria Stahl; and narrated by Mead, Martin, and Heather Callahan. All include photography, videos, artwork, and weblinks.

“If you’re taking the tour, you can start anywhere,” said Mead. “But ideally, you’d start at the south end in Bordentown or north end in Lambertville. As you drive along, it will give you directions. The story will talk to you about what you’re seeing, and how that relates to the Delaware River.”

Among the stories Mead and writer Amy Martin found particularly interesting was “Saved by the Marbleheaders: The Real Delaware Crossing,” in which they discovered that Washington’s 1776 crossing took place with the crucial support of a multi-racial regiment from Marblehead, Mass.

To download the free TravelStorysGPS app and take the mobile tour, visit travelstorys.com/tours/. To access the tour from home devices, visit travelstorys.com/tours/the-delaware-river.

“This tour will enrich everyone’s understanding and love of the Delaware River,” said Story Clark, founder and CEO of TravelStorysGPS,” in a press release. “Linda Mead and her team at D&R Greenway deeply understand the connection between people, land, and nature, and have an impressive track record for conserving land and interpreting it in ways that matter to communities and people.”