Throughout the 18th century, immigrants from the Rheinland Palatinate in Germany and Switzerland fled religious wars and poverty to arrive in Philadelphia and New York City.

[24] By the 1750s, residents of this area began to petition colonial authorities for a new county to be formed; they complained of the inconvenience of long travel to conduct business with the government and the courts.

[25] After several decades of debate over where to hold the sessions of the county's courts, the state legislature eventually voted to divide Sussex County in two, using a line drawn from the juncture of the Flat Brook and Delaware River in a southeasterly direction to the Musconetcong River running through the Yellow Frame Presbyterian Church in present-day Fredon Township (then part of Hardwick).

[34][35] Shortly after his death, two companies were created to exploit the iron and zinc deposits in this region; they acquired the rights to Fowler's holdings in Franklin and nearby Sterling Hill.

Around 450 million years ago, the Martinsburg Shale was uplifted when a chain of volcanic islands collided with proto North America.

Pressure from the collision, created heat in the bed rock which folded and faulted the Silurian Shawangunk Conglomerate that was under the shallow sea.

[42][46] The watersheds within the Highlands provide fresh water resources for millions of residents in New Jersey and the New York City Metropolitan Area.

Many of the mountains in the Highlands are not part of a solid, linear ridge and tend to randomly rise from the surrounding land as the result of folds, faults and intrusions.

In this case, the most recent glaciation (i.e. the last ice age), the Wisconsinian continental glacier, deposited a till plain composed of ground and recessional moraines.

High Point, located at the northernmost tip of New Jersey in Montague Township, is the highest natural elevation in the state at 1,803 feet (550 m) above sea level.

[70][71] During winter and early spring, New Jersey in some years is subject to "nor'easters"—significant storm systems that have proven capable of causing blizzards or flooding throughout the northeastern United States.

[74] According to the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service soil survey, the area receives sunshine approximately 62% of the time in summer and 48% in winter.

[citation needed] As of the 2006–2010 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, 3.6% of county residents were living below the poverty line which the government defined as an annual household income under $22,350 for a family of four.

[83] The Bureau of Economic Analysis calculated that the county's gross domestic product was $4.6 billion in 2021, which was ranked 20th in the state and was a 3.9% increase from the prior year.

[88] This decrease is total acreage is due, in large part, to "suburban sprawl" as farmers capitalized by converting to commercial and residential development.

New Jersey wines have grown in stature due to increased marketing and quality, recent successes and awards in competitions, and appreciation by critics.

However, as this became unwieldy in the late 19th century during the era of Boroughitis and the creation of hundreds of new municipalities, the State Legislature chose to reorganize the size of county freeholder boards to an odd number between three and nine members.

Police Departments are located in the municipalities of Vernon, Hardyston, Sparta, Byram, Hopatcong, Stanhope, Andover, Newton, Ogdensburg, Franklin, and Hamburg.

As of 2012[update], Sussex County's sole operating railroad line is dedicated to freight service in Sparta, Vernon and Hardyston townships.

[144][page needed] Service is available directly to Hoboken Terminal or via the Kearny Connection (opened in 1996) to Secaucus Junction and Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan.

[143] NJ Transit is planning to re-open commuter service through the Lackawanna Cut-Off Restoration Project will allow train transport through Andover and Green Townships in the southern part of the county.

Service from a planned station in Andover into New York City and Hoboken is scheduled to begin in 2019,[145] marking the first time Sussex County has seen passenger trains since 1970.

The portion of the Cut-Off route west of Andover heading toward Scranton, Pennsylvania has not been funded or scheduled,[145] however Amtrak has announced plans for its restoration.

[147] The county government's Office of Transit also operates a ParaTransit bus service on weekdays to local senior citizens, veterans, people with disabilities, and the general public.

[163] Prior to this reorganization, these schools competed under the auspices of the Sussex County Interscholastic League (SCIL), a now-defunct county-wide conference affiliated with NJSIAA.

In 1978, the land known as "Twin Ponds Farm" had been donated by Wallace "Wally" Wirths (1921–2002), a former Westinghouse Corporation executive, author, local newspaper columnist and radio commentator.

Many Sussex County farms offer corn field mazes, "u-pick" or "pick your own" fruits and vegetables—especially for apples, strawberries, pumpkins and Christmas trees during their respective harvest seasons.

[186] The county's six libraries supply residents with e-books, audiobooks, downloadable audio books, magazines and newspapers, DVDs, videogames, CDs and databases that cover subjects from alchemy to zoology.

[190] Roscioli, who admitted a lack of experience in sports management, then sold the facility to Al Dorso, who operates the annual State Fair Meadowlands.,[191] Dorso bought the facility with the intention of bringing baseball and other activities back to the stadium, which he achieved in late 2014 with the announcement of the Sussex County Miners, who began playing the following year.

[citation needed] In 2006, Skylands Park became the home of the Sussex Skyhawks an affiliate of the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball (or Can-Am League).