Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area was created in 1965 under the stewardship of the National Park Service. Located in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, it encompasses over 70,000 acres of land and 40 miles of the longest free-flowing river east of the Mississippi.

The park provides opportunities for resource-based recreation, including over 100 miles of hiking trails, three swim beaches, canoeing, fishing, and hunting. It also provides on-site, off-site, and virtual educational and interpretive opportunities. 

The park preserves and protects the natural, cultural, and scenic resources and values of the Delaware River valley – an area that has known human contact for over 10,000 years as the native land of the Lenape people.

It also includes a portion of the land that was acquired during the infamous Walking Purchase of 1737. Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is tied to a rich history of many overlapping stories, including but not limited to: the stories of the indigenous peoples of the land, the enslaved people forced to work on farms, those from the Revolutionary War, residents displaced through eminent domain, and environmental groups that fought back between 1955 and 1975 when the land was acquired the Army Corps of Engineers for the Tocks Island Dam project.