Van Note Camp and Mount Misery Bogs

[Ben Ruset]

Today I needed to get out and clear the mind. I had been meaning to check out the bogs near Buckingham for the longest time, as well as finally visit Van Note Camp.

Whitingrider had been out there recently, and todays visit finally cleared up in my mind where he was. I was under the impression that the bogs that he had visited were near the Penn Central Right of Way, but no, they were the bogs that I went to. I was able to tell by finding a similar concrete water control device. (More on that later.)

I drove down the right of way, past Buckingham, until the main road swings left and then back straight. This is Glasshouse Road. I have driven past here plenty of times and never looked to see the ruins of Van Note Camp. You can see how disturbed the area is in the 1930 aerial photograph.



Today, the spot has been reclaimed by the wood. Coming down the road you'll see two large mounds and then some concrete ruins on your left. Presumably the large mounds are made up of decaying sawdust, as the one at Batsto is. The concrete are foundations for a steam engine.








The sawdust mounds

In Beck's time he noted that there was a "rusting boiler" there. I have a feeling that was carted out for scrap metal during World War 2.

Nearby you can see a tree farm. Somebody cut and replanted the forest with new pines. They replanted them in straight lines, so the result is eerie rows of pines. I normally would assume that the Van Notes did the replanting, but these trees are too young to date from around the time that the sawmill was in operation.





I then swung down Glasshouse Rd. to it's intersection with Mt. Misery Rd. If you hang a left, you'll parallel a very large system of bogs. These bogs were built sometime between 1907 and 1930. The Cook Atlas of 1897 shows the land in it's natural state:



The modern USGS map shows:



Using the 1930's imagery and that on HistoricAerials.com, I was able to locate where the packing house was. Since I can't do a screen grab of HistoricAerials.com without being sued, I'll post a link to my map instead. You can't see the building in the 1930's imagery, so plug 39.9235, -74.4641 into HistoricAerials.com and go for the 1963 imagery. That packing house was BIG.

I decided to come up to the packing house from the South side of the bogs. I came up and had hoped to drive across the causeway (yes, I'm brave.) I was stopped by this:




Here's my Jeep. Now I have to back up. Going forward was easy -- backing down the causeway was another. I made it out, although it was nerve wracking! Realizing that the only safe way to the packing house was via the North (which I know has some tight trails) I backtracked back to the Penn Right of Way and Van Note Camp. Near there a trail plunges into the wood - this was probably the main road in and out of the bogs.

The roads did get a bit confusing but eventually I found my way to the other side of the broken dam and the packing house. Sometime between 1972 and 1995 the packing house was destroyed. They did a VERY good job of it because there's just about nothing left to be seen.

If you drive down towards the causeway with the broken dam, there will be a road that leads into a clearing on the left, right before the causeway. This is where the packing house and it's various outbuildings were.



Further in you can see that some people have been dumping 55 gallon drums and paint cans, and burning them:





There's some big old dead trees around though:





The ruins are scarce. Here's a bit of foundation wall that I don't think was part of the packing house. It's very close to the bogs. I unearthed a bit of it with my heel:





Here's the only bit of masonry I think was left from the packing house:



Now, walking down the causeway towards the broken dam I found this:





which seems to match up to the similar one that Whitingrider found elsewhere:



There's also a causeway that runs around the length of the bog. I started walking up it with the intent of getting to the next big causeway, but it began to peter out. There were two duck blinds that I saw. Away from the packing house site there was very little trash, which is surprising given this part of the woods.

I still can't get over the size of the bog system. I think it'd make an interesting paddle one of these days.

[MarkBNJ]

Very cool, Ben. Thanks for the report. Irks me that I missed that yesterday when I was in the Buckingham area. Gives me a reason to go back .

[woodjin]

Nice report Ben. As I mentioned before, I have spent a considerable amount of time around that bog system. I know this area where the packing house was but did not realize there used to be a packing house there. I've kayaked the whole system and it is beautiful, however there are many difficult lift overs across the land bridges and there is alot of beaver activity as well, in the middle section. The lower (western end) often floods over in rainy seasons. That picture of me holding the pickerel, I posted in Whitings thread, was taken at that broken bridge. It is one of my favorite spots.

Did you see the sign near Van Note camp? I have mentioned it before but have to go back an document it. It describes that pine nursery in there and being some kind of hybrid pine. I think it was established in the 60's.

Jeff

[Ben Ruset]

No -- I didn't see any signs.

There's two clearings that show on the southern part of the bogs in the 1930's aerials. Both of them are now totally reclaimed by the woods.

I'm really amazed that there's pretty much nothing left of that packing house. Not even a foundation. I wonder if the state did that.

[TeeGate]

We have discussed this before in the Sawmill post I believe.

Jessica at the Sawmill






Bob at the tree farm.



And around the time Beck was visiting there (1935), the township of Burlington was placing monument #17 right along the road near the sawmill.





Guy

[TeeGate]

HistoricAerials.com and go for the 1963 imagery.

The 1963 aerials are the best of any. You can see the packing house quite well.

Guy