The Sauerland Outdoor Center (SOC) is the perfect choice for your nonprofit’s next outdoor adventure!. Tucked away in the picturesque Cushetunk Mountains of Hunterdon County, New Jersey, we are only minutes from historic Clinton, New Jersey, home to the famous Clinton Red Mill. Our site spans 82 acres of gently rolling hills, featuring open fields, forested hiking paths, and a natural shoreline along the Round Valley Reservoir. Numerous man-made structures, such as two horse rings, a large picnic pavilion, an outdoor sound stage, and multiple campsites with fire rings, make the Sauerland Outdoor Center an excellent location for picnicking, camping, equestrian events, and other outdoor activities.

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About the Sauerland Outdoor Center

In the early 1960s, Hunterdon County was about to be home to two new state reservoirs, Round Valley and Spruce Run. These reservoirs would not provide water or any direct benefit to Hunterdon County, so Paul Sauerland, a Hunterdon County Freeholder at the time, led the call to seek something from the State to help offset this loss. He was able to get the NJDEP to agree to lease 82 acres of what was then farm land within the Round Valley Recreation Area to Hunterdon County for $1 a year, with the agreement that this area could only be used by non-profit organizations and that Hunterdon County would maintain this site. This area was then fenced off from the recreation area and had its own entrance about 1.5 miles south of the main Round Valley Recreation Area entrance. This area, then known as the Round Valley Youth Center, opened its doors in 1962. At the time, Hunterdon County did not have a park system, so to manage and maintain this new county resource, Paul also established the Hunterdon Conservation, Education, and Recreation Council, Inc., in 1968. In 2020, we renamed this site to the Sauerland Outdoor Center in honor of Mr. Sauerland.