The 25th anniversary ceremony at Hilltop Reserve in Raritan Township ends years of borrowed venues, on a farm hill where the smoke was visible 45 miles away.

At 8:30 this morning, 25 years after the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, Hunterdon County dedicated its permanent 9/11 memorial at Hilltop Reserve on Thatcher's Hill Road in Raritan Township.

For years the county held its annual remembrance at the courthouse and the Hunterdon County Justice Center in Flemington. For the first time, the ceremony takes place at the memorial itself, on the farm hill where residents watched smoke rise from the World Trade Center more than 45 miles away.

The hill is a working farm, 58.5 acres that Hunterdon County and Raritan Township saved from housing development in 2012 for roughly $1.49 million in county open-space money and state Green Acres grants, per the Hunterdon County Democrat's account of the purchase. The farm dates to 1806, established by the Ewing family and worked through seven generations, who sold it for preservation rather than development, the township's newsletter recounts. The preserve, open to the public, is a parcel of the Hunterdon County park system at about 700 feet of elevation.

"Part of the land is still actively farmed but it's preserved by Hunterdon County," Hunterdon County Administrator Brad Myhre said. "It's one of the highest points in Hunterdon County, in terms of the lookout."

Residents gathered on the hill on the morning of September 11, 2001. Smoke from the towers was visible from the hill for days. "In the evening, driving by, you could see clearly smoke rising from the towers," said Hunterdon County Sheriff Fred Brown. "And that was for several days that you could see it from this spot." "It was kind of spooky looking at it and seeing the smoke and knowing that's what it was from," he added.

Brown was Raritan Township's police chief on September 11, 2001. He has led the county's remembrance ceremony every year since 2017, according to WRNJ. "It's really hard to believe that 25 years have passed since the attack on America," he told the county commissioners in May. "It's important we remember and explain to today's youth what happened on that day." He has also recalled the weeks that followed. "There were no Republicans or Democrats. There were only Americans that loved our country."

The Board of County Commissioners approved funding and plans for the memorial this spring, planning board minutes show. The memorial itself fills a small section of the farm. A pavilion shelters four picnic tables near a central monument with two trees beside it, standing in for the towers. Raised beds form a pentagon whose outward-facing tip points directly at the World Trade Center site, planted with meadow grass native to the Flight 93 crash-site fields in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. An open field of native vegetation stands as a tribute to the Flight 93 dead, and a walking trail loops the perimeter.

A flagpole rises beside a large stone where the county will affix a bronze plaque carrying the names of the 15 Hunterdon County residents killed in the attacks. As of September 6 the plaque had not arrived. "There's been complete cooperation from everyone involved," Brown said. He called the site something residents need close to home, "a place that they can go for quiet reflection of what occurred that day."

Among the county's dead were brothers Andrew Clive Gilbert of Califon and Timothy Paul Gilbert of Whitehouse Station, and Alan Bondarenko of Flemington.

The guest speaker at today's ceremony, Mark Desire, is an assistant director of the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner and manager of its World Trade Center DNA Identification Team, which has spent 25 years working to identify attack victims from remains. In 2001 he was four years into the job and working a homicide case in Brooklyn when the planes hit; within minutes he was at ground zero, his four-man crew working a short distance from the south tower as it came down. "My left foot was shattered, and I had a concussion," he told the Asbury Park Press in 2021.

He reported for work the next day. His supervisor put him on DNA identifications, work he could do off his feet. "I got assigned to working with the families to make DNA identifications," he said. The assignment is still his. "We have finished it. All those remains have been attempted. What we do is, we advance the technology and then attempt again." He was speaking in 2021, 20 years on. The commitment holds at 25: "We're not going to quit. We don't stop." He served two terms as mayor of High Bridge, where he lives.

Brown said in May that the medical examiner's office had positively identified 1,650 of the 2,753 people killed at the World Trade Center. On August 24, New York City announced the 1,654th identification, the first to come through forensic genetic genealogy, which pairs DNA testing with family-tree research to generate leads confirmed by DNA. Of the dead, 1,099 remain unidentified. Desire will speak this morning about new identification technology.

More than 700 of the dead lived in New Jersey. Fifteen were Hunterdon County's. More than 150 September 11 memorials stand across the state, most raised within a decade of the attacks. Middletown, which lost 37 people, the most of any municipality outside New York City, opened its memorial garden in 2003, according to PBS NewsHour. Empty Sky at Liberty State Park, the state memorial, opened in 2011.

Hunterdon's own tributes were township projects: the Annandale Hose Company raised wreckage steel and marble in Clinton Township in 2012, and Lebanon Township dedicated 27-foot conjoined girders from the towers at Memorial Park in 2024. The county's own permanent memorial arrives this morning.

The county wants veterans, students, victims' families, civic groups and other members of the public there, WRNJ reported. Attendees should arrive by 8 a.m. at 214 Thatcher's Hill Road, where the county has built a new parking area. The program pays tribute to the dead and recognizes first responders, recovery crews alongside military personnel. County park rules apply, including carry-in, carry-out. The county's ceremony pledge: "We Don't Forget and No One Is Forgotten."

Sources

• Asbury Park Press, "'We don't stop': Rutgers professor still IDs 9/11 ground zero remains after 20 years" (September 8, 2021)

• Borough of High Bridge, "Mayor Mark Desire" (September 21, 2018)

• Hunterdon County, "September 11th Remembrance Ceremonies" page (accessed September 10, 2026)

• Hunterdon County Board of Commissioners, "Hunterdon County to Mark 25th Anniversary of September 11th with Commemoration and Memorial Dedication," via TAPinto North Hunterdon (September 1, 2026)

• Hunterdon County Democrat, "Hunterdon closer to buying landmark Ewing farm in Raritan Twp." (September 19, 2012)

• Hunterdon County Division of Parks & Recreation, "County Park Areas & Facilities Guide" (revised June 2026)

• Hunterdon County Planning Board, Minutes (May 7, 2026)

• Hunterdon County Sheriff’s Office, "Sheriff Fred Brown Announces Plans for 9/11 Memorial at Hilltop Preserve to Mark 25th Anniversary" (April 30, 2026)

• Middletown Township, World Trade Center Memorial Gardens facility page (accessed September 10, 2026)

• New Jersey Department of the Treasury, "New Jersey’s 9/11 Memorial in Liberty State Park" (page updated 2025)

• NJ.com, "In High Bridge, Coughlin again trying to replace Desire as mayor" (October 21, 2014)

• Office of the Mayor and New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner, "Mayor Mamdani and Office of Chief Medical Examiner Announce New Identification of World Trade Center Victim Using Breakthrough Forensic Technique" (August 24, 2026)

• PBS NewsHour, "Middletown lost the most residents on 9/11 after NYC" (September 7, 2021)

• PIX11, "New 9/11 memorial opening in Hunterdon County" (September 10, 2026)

• Raritan Township, "From the Desk of the Mayor" newsletter (2014)

• Rob Jennings, NJ.com, "A quiet N.J. farm witnessed history on 9/11 — and now it's being transformed into a memorial" (September 6, 2026; updated September 7, 2026)

• TAPinto Flemington/Raritan, "Sheriff Brown Speaks to Plans for 9/11 Memorial on Thatcher Hill Road" (May 26, 2026)

• WRNJ, "Sheriff Brown invites public to Hunterdon County 9/11 remembrance ceremony" (August 2, 2024)

• WRNJ, "World Trade Center DNA team leader to speak at Hunterdon County's 25th anniversary Sept. 11 ceremony" (June 10, 2026)