Rockaway Township is a township in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 25,341,
Rockaway Township was incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 8, 1844, from portions of Hanover Township and Pequannock Township. Portions of the township were taken to form Rockaway Borough (June 19, 1894), Port Oram (June 26, 1895, now Wharton) and Denville Township (April 14, 1913). Portions of the township were annexed to Boonton Township in 1906 and to Rockaway Borough in 1908.
The township shares its name with the Rockaway River and the neighboring borough. The name is derived from a Native American term, variously said to mean "place of sands", "creek between two hills" or "bushy" / "difficult to cross".
A large part of the township consists of Picatinny Arsenal, a United States Army base that covers nearly of the township (a portion of the facility is located in Jefferson Township), used mainly for the development of new weapons technologies.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 45.89 square miles (118.85 km<sup>2</sup>), including 41.73 square miles (108.09 km<sup>2</sup>) of land and 4.16 square miles (10.77 km<sup>2</sup>) of water (9.06%). Wildcat Ridge WMA, Mount Hope Historical Park and Splitrock Reservoir.
Portions of the township are owned by the City of Newark, Essex County, for their Pequannock River Watershed, which provides water to the city from an area of that also includes portions of Hardyston Township, Jefferson Township, Kinnelon, Vernon Township and West Milford. Newark's Pequannock Watershed is administered by the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation. The river keeper for the Pequannock River is the Pequannock River Coalition.
Two sites on the National Register of Historic Places are in Rockaway Township. Split Rock Furnace is a Civil War era iron ore furnace which is still intact. The Ford-Faesch Manor House, is a 1768 stone mansion that figured prominently during the Revolutionary War and in the 250-year history of Morris County iron industry.
Hibernia (with a 2020 Census population of 208), Lake Telemark (1,172), Mount Hope (2,930), and White Meadow Lake (with 8,710) are unincorporated communities and census-designated places (CDPs) located within Rockaway Township.
Other unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Beach Glen, Deer Pond, Denmark, Bowlbyville, Durham Pond, Foxs Pond, Green Pond (a lake and an accompanying residential community, though it uses a Newfoundland address in West Milford), Hickory Hill, Hilltown, Lyonsville, Marcella, Meriden, Middle Forge, Middletown, Picatinny, Spicertown and Split Rock.
Splitrock Reservoir is of wilderness in Rockaway Township that straddles the township's border with Kinnelon. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection spent $3 million in 2015 to acquire a buffer area around the reservoir, as part of an agreement under which Jersey City retains rights to use water from the reservoir and is responsible for maintenance of the dam at the site.
Rockaway Township borders the municipalities of Boonton Township, Denville Township, Dover, Jefferson Township, Kinnelon, Randolph, Rockaway and Wharton in Morris County; and West Milford in Passaic County.
Despite being the largest municipality in terms of area in Morris County and being the fourth-largest in population, Rockaway Township does not have its own designated ZIP code. The township is served by eight ZIP codes, seven from the surrounding municipalities and one of an unincorporated area within Rockaway Township. The ZIP codes for Rockaway Township are 07005 (Boonton), 07405 (Butler), 07435 (Newfoundland), 07438 (Oak Ridge), 07801 (Dover), 07842 (Hibernia), 07866 (Rockaway Borough) and 07885 (Wharton).