by Anne Motto, F.M. Kirby Curator of Collections
July 14, 2026
This year marks the 100th anniversary of a major disaster that quite literally rocked Morris County. On July 10, 1926, lightning struck the Lake Denmark Naval Ammunition Depot, setting off an enormous explosion that destroyed the depot, much of the adjacent Picatinny Arsenal, and nearby communities. Compounding the disaster, shells continued to be set off by the fire for days, raining down on the area and threatening nearby residents and homes. Mt. Hope and Hibernia were worst affected with much of the area reported destroyed and many local residents displaced. 19 were killed in the explosion, most of them marines, and damage was spread as far as a mile and a half away from the epicenter. In the aftermath, photographs like those in MCHS archives were taken of the depot, by then a vast sea of twisted metal, rubble, and shells, that show the power of the blast.
