Secaucus ( )Wright, E. Assata. "Secaucus: How do you pronounce it? Development put town on map but newcomers don't know where they are" , The Hudson Reporter, February 22, 2009. Accessed December 1, 2011. "Therefore, the new neighbors may proudly totter about telling folks they live in Sih-KAW-cus or See-KAW-cus. However, natives prefer that the accent be on the first syllable, as in: SEE-kaw-cus."Page, Jeffrey. "Our towns challenge our tongues" , The Record, June 17, 2005. Accessed September 1, 2014. "You can always tell newcomers to Secaucus. Because most words are pronounced with emphasis on the next-to-last syllable, they say they live in see-KAW-cus – although the ones who fear their friends might recall that Secaucus used to be pig-farming country might say they live in South Carlstadt, which doesn't exist. If I said 'see-KAW-cus' to someone local, they'd think I didn't know what I was talking about, said Dan McDonough, the municipal historian. Of course it's SEE-kaw-cus. Everybody knows that." is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town's population was 22,181, an increase of 5,917 (+36.4%) from the 2010 census count of 16,264, which in turn reflected an increase of 333 (+2.1%) from the 15,931 counted in the 2000 census.Table 7. Population for the Counties and Municipalities in New Jersey: 1990, 2000 and 2010, New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, February 2011. Accessed May 1, 2023.
Located within the New Jersey Meadowlands, it is the most suburban of the county's municipalities, though large parts of the town are dedicated to light manufacturing, retail, and transportation uses, as well as protected areas.Archilla, Dylan M. "Taking a dip Hudson County towns offer swim fun", The Hudson Reporter, July 3, 2003. Accessed July 20, 2011. "Secaucus, being the most 'suburban' of Hudson's County's towns (and being closest to Bergen County), not surprisingly boasts the most spacious facility. Sporting four distinct pools (an Olympic-sized pool, a diving tank, a lap pool, and a wading pool for the kiddies the Secaucus Swim Center is open to non-residents)."
Secaucus is a derivation of the Algonquian words for "black" (seke or sukit) and "snake" (achgook; perhaps something like /axkuk/), or "place of snakes",Van Winkle, Daniel. History of Hudson County and of the Old Village of Bergen: Being a Brief Account of the Foundation and Growth of what is Now Jersey City and of the Many Advantages Now Offered the Inhabitants Thereof in the Newly Constructed Building of the Trust Company of New Jersey, p. 20. Bartlett Orr Press, 1921. Accessed October 2, 2015. "Secaucus was scarcely an island It was a strip of firm land surrounded by tidal marsh For some reason it was highly prized by planters. Its name was Indian for 'place of snakes' and it and Snake Hill or Rattlesnake Hill appear frequently in subsequent land transfers."Hutchinson, Viola L. The Origin of New Jersey Place Names, New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945. Accessed October 2, 2015. or from sekakes, referring to snakes.Gannett, Henry. The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States, p. 279. United States Government Printing Office, 1905. Accessed October 2, 2015.
History Sikakes, once an island, was part of the territory purchased by Director-General of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant in 1658. The territory was part of what is considered to be the oldest municipality in the state of New Jersey which was first chartered in 1660 as Bergen"NJCU: Jersey City A to Z: Bergen with map" . New Jersey City University. Accessed February 19, 2014. in the province of New Netherland and, in 1683, became Bergen Township.
Settlement had begun by at least 1733 by the Smith family, whose namesake Abel I. Smith Burial Ground is part of the lore of Secaucus.Greene, Richard Henry, et al. The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Volume 53, p. 12. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 1922. Accessed November 14, 2019. "Abel Smith took up land on Great Neck (Great Neck was also a part of Hempstead) prior to and during 1710 (H.T.R., II, 422-23) and removed there and lived on a large farm or 'plantation'.... In 1733 he and Deborah sold their farm on Great Neck to the first wife In 1733 he and Deborah sold their farm on Great Neck to Henry Allen for 1650 and removed to Secaucus, Bergen County, in New 'East Jersey' (near the present Jersey City) where he bought a large tract of land and built a mansion. 'This Jersey land has since its purchase been continuously possessed and occupied by the direct descendants of Abel Smith up to the present day.'"
Secaucus was originally formed as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 12, 1900, from portions of North Bergen.Honeyman, Abraham Van Doren. Index-analysis of the Statutes of New Jersey, 1896–1909: Together with References to All Acts, and Parts of Acts, in the 'General Statutes' and Pamphlet Laws Expressly Repealed: and the Statutory Crimes of New Jersey During the Same Period, p. 255. New Jersey Law Journal Publishing Company, 1910. Accessed October 2, 2015. On June 7, 1917, Secaucus was incorporated as a town, replacing Secaucus borough, based on the results of a referendum held on June 5, 1917.Snyder, John P. The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606–1968, Bureau of Geology and Topography, 1969. Trenton, New Jersey. p. 147. Accessed May 30, 2024.
Secaucus was originally an agricultural community specializing in flowers. It later became known for its pig farms in the first half of the 20th century. In the early 1900s the town was home to approximately 55 pig farms, which reached a peak of nearly 250,000 pigs in World War II, outnumbering humans 16 to 1.Cook, Joan. "Pigless Secaucus, 75, Points With Pride", The New York Times, April 29, 1975. Accessed November 14, 2022. "Actually, its swineries reached their peak during World War II, when the community's 55 farms boasted a total population of 250,000 pigs, dining on a trans‐Hudson line of garbage imported from Manhattan's hotels, restaurants and nightclubs.... The first heat came from a 1947 local ordinance that prohibited, new farms within the town borders. Then, in the early nineteen‐fifties, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority purchased 11 of the 55 farms for a highway right‐of-way. Some of the rest of the farms faded away, and the last few were put out of business by court order 18 years ago." These farms served the meat demands of Newark and New York, and made the farmers wealthy. Many of them were local politicians, most notably pork peddler Henry B. Krajewski, who ran for New Jersey senator, three times for governor and twice for U.S. President.Schwartz, Art. "Local mayor to magazine: Pig joke not amusing; Asks students to respond to New Yorker piece", The Hudson Reporter, February 16, 2014. Accessed September 1, 2014.Mullins, Michael D. "'Redevelopment' was the word in '07 Major projects, renovations continue despite national real estate downturn", The Hudson Reporter, January 8, 2008. Accessed November 14, 2019. "Once home to pig farms, this town on the Hackensack River now has its own major train station (Secaucus Transfer Station) and several massive developments under way." The town's pig farms, rendering plants, and junk yards gave the town a reputation for being one of the most odorous in the New York metropolitan area.Staff. "New Jersey: Moonbeam McSwine's Fate, Time, August 11, 1952. Accessed September 1, 2014. An ordinance passed in 1947 prohibited new farms, and in the 1950s the pig farms began to dwindle, partially after 11 of the farms were acquired for construction of the New Jersey Turnpike, which would carry tourists who would not appreciate the odor; the last farms were shut down by court order in the late 1950s.
In 1963, debris from the demolition of the original Pennsylvania Station was dumped in the Secaucus Meadowlands, including a set of statues that had been unceremoniously tossed away.Dunlap, David W. "Reclaiming 'Day' and 'Night,' Memories in Marble", The New York Times, February 9, 1998. Accessed December 10, 2025. "In 1968, Robert A. Roe saved the Day. And the Night. These two graceful allegorical statues, wrested from the facade of Pennsylvania Station, had been carted out of Manhattan and dumped into a trackside landfill in Secaucus, N.J." In later decades Secaucus became more of a commuter town. In a non-binding referendum in 1969, 90% of voters in Secaucus chose to leave Hudson County and join Bergen County, as that county was more similar in character and had lower taxes. However, only the state has the authority to change county lines, so it never came to fruition.Bonamo, Mark J. "The lost cause; Secaucus residents remember attempt to secede from Hudson County", The Hudson Reporter, August 1, 2006. Accessed November 14, 2019. "Encouraged by this success, Amico began to look across the Hackensack River. 'The makeup of Secaucus is very much unlike most of Hudson County,' he said. 'It's much more like Bergen County. We did some analysis about what taxes were like in other counties, and Bergen County had the lowest. Bergen County would have accepted us back in 1969.... We had a non-binding resolution that approved secession by 90 percent.'" Today it remains the most suburban town in Hudson County. Despite being geographically located within Hudson County, Secaucus Public Library is a member of Bridging Communities, Connecting Library Services.
On February 9, 1996, two NJ Transit commuter trains collided at Bergen Junction in Secaucus when a train operating on the Bergen Line ran a signal and sideswiped a train running on the Main Line. The accident occurred during the morning rush hour just south of the current Secaucus Junction station. With three fatalities, the incident is NJ Transit's deadliest accident and was the first to involve fatalities of the passenger and crew on NJ Transit.Higgs, Larry. "The deadliest train crashes in New Jersey history", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, November 27, 2017. Accessed February 16, 2018. "Two NJ Transit commuter trains sideswiped each other in Secaucus on the morning of Feb. 9, 1996, killing three people and injuring 168 of the 400 passengers. The near head-on collision happened after a Bergen Line train to Hoboken went through a stop signal and hit a Main Line train en route from Hoboken, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report on the crash."
New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Secaucus as its 182nd best place to live in its 2010 rankings of the "Best Places To Live" in New Jersey, after ranking the borough 11th in its 2008 rankings."Top Towns 2010", New Jersey Monthly, February 11, 2010. Accessed November 20, 2013.
Geography Secaucus is an island in the New Jersey Meadowlands. The Hackensack River runs along western side of town. Penhorn Creek and Cromakill Creek are its eastern borders.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town had a total area of 6.54 square miles (16.95 km2), including 5.83 square miles (15.09 km2) of land and 0.72 square miles (1.86 km2) of water (10.96%).