Visiting the Monster

[stiltzkin]

These extraordinarily dry conditions made for a good opportunity to make a trek out to a location that is normally quite difficult to get to.

My brother and I entered at Rockwood yesterday in his well-equipped 4x4 and made it all the way to within a few tenths of a mile of our quarry, without encountering so much as a puddle. The land is parched and the only obstacle right now is deep and soft sand.

Follow the corduroy road...

As we approached, the beast slowly emerged from the swamp.

It is a thing of beauty. I am glad to see that it remains much the same as in photos I've seen in other posts here from 20 years ago. Remarkably, it still seems to contain at least a little bit of diesel fuel.

It is wild and gorgeous out there. I hope that I will be able to return and explore more of this swamp at some point, but I am not sure when that will be. It is only by virtue of the extreme drought that we were able to get here without making an entire day of it. Perhaps the access situation will improve in the near future. One can hope.

 

[Pan]

Is there any identifying writing on it? There are Utube videos of people finding old machinery and vehicles and managing to bring them back to life.

 

[smoke_jumper]

These extraordinarily dry conditions made for a good opportunity to make a trek out to a location that is normally quite difficult to get to.

My brother and I entered at Rockwood yesterday in his well-equipped 4x4 and made it all the way to within a few tenths of a mile of our quarry, without encountering so much as a puddle. The land is parched and the only obstacle right now is deep and soft sand.

Follow the corduroy road...

View attachment 23658

As we approached, the beast slowly emerged from the swamp.
View attachment 23654

View attachment 23661

View attachment 23657

It is a thing of beauty. I am glad to see that it remains much the same as in photos I've seen in other posts here from 20 years ago. Remarkably, it still seems to contain at least a little bit of diesel fuel.

It is wild and gorgeous out there. I hope that I will be able to return and explore more of this swamp at some point, but I am not sure when that will be. It is only by virtue of the extreme drought that we were able to get here without making an entire day of it. Perhaps the access situation will improve in the near future. One can hope.

Well, now I know where the kids and I are going to visit this weekend. We explored further down Rockwood road a couple weeks ago. We went right on by and explored further down Rockwood road. I don’t even think of going there then. Thanks for the idea.

 

[stiltzkin]

Is there any identifying writing on it? There are Utube videos of people finding old machinery and vehicles and managing to bring them back to life.

Yes, although Guy has already done most of the legwork in previous posts in identifying it and giving some backstory, so I did not bother taking a lot of detailed pictures of serial numbers. You can read his post here.

Some things still remain unanswered for me, though. I am not sure exactly what role this machine played in the logging operation. It could have been outfitted with a number of different attachments - it's not clear, because the whole front operative part of the machine is missing. I wonder who took that, and when? If it was a big lattice boom, that would not have been an easy thing to just make off with. The configuration could have been a shovel, or could have been outfitted as a lifting crane to move timber, or something else. Here's a video of what the monster likely looked like during its working life, although this particular example is equipped with a dragline. Maybe someone knows some more about this.

I am also not sure who owned it, although I suppose it was one of the contracted companies mentioned in the Citizens Gazette article. Finally, why did they choose to leave it out there in the swamp? Perhaps for some reason it would have been too difficult or cost prohibitive to extract from the area after the job was done; but then again, they did get it there in the first place. Maybe a mechanical breakdown occurred and a replacement part couldn't be obtained.

 

[Teegate]

I would have to assume it was removed by a helicopter as the wood was. And I would assume it broke down as well and could not be driven out. I had email conversations with the helicopter pilot but never ask all the questions I should have.

 

[Teegate]

I am unsure if my original post is still here. Don't have time to look right now. I will check tonight.

 

[Teegate]

The date we first visited the Swamp Monster was 3/14/2004. The late Bob Bruneau told us about the place and we met up at the Pleasant Mills Church and walked in from there. It was an 8.5 mile walk there and back. I looked through this site and at the time I did not post these photos.

This was taken by Steve Behren's camera showing everyone there that day. The first photo shows him setting us his camera on the stump.

Everyone. Bob Bruneau is in orange. He has been gone for 16 years. Bob Moyer, we need to come up with the names of some of the men there that I really did not know. I want to add them to my records.

Photo by Bob Bruneau so he is not in it. Stu is sitting in the front. I have to assume he has passed as well. Ed may know.

Jessica arriving for the first time. You can see the monster right ahead.

This is Steve Greer and Jessica.

 

[bobpbx]

Guy, it's been so long. The yellow is Steve (last name?), he passed away from cancer several years ago. He was a great photographer and a very nice man. The light green is Mike Baker. I will be with Mike tomorrow, he likely knows the two men on either side of you.

 

[stiltzkin]

Great photos, thank you for posting more of them. I had seen only a couple of these before. Incidentally it seems that most (all?) of the content that was hosted on "teegate.njpinebarrens.com" in years past is now gone, and largely was not publicly archived, which is unfortunate. Even photos posted as recently as 2018, such as your fascinating 1958 photo of Atsion, which I was able to view last year, now appear to be missing. There are many more things that I would like to see, if it's possible to restore some of these at some point. The historical record provided by this site is valuable.

The SM itself doesn't look to have changed much in the past two decades, except that it had more of its original orange paint visible back then. I like that it has gradually taken on a blue-green lichen tint, like the swamp around it. It's almost like it's turning into a cedar itself.

The surrounding area, on the other hand, is definitely different. You can clearly see how much more grown-up the trees are. And there is none of this water around right now.

 

[smoke_jumper]

The surrounding area, on the other hand, is definitely different. You can clearly see how much more grown-up the trees are. And there is none of this water around right now.

In 1999, I believe, we had a very dry summer and that whole area burnt in the Rockwood Road Fire. It burnt very hot and fast. Rockwood road was completely dry that year as well.

 

[bobpbx]

This is another. I think that is Phil Iapalluci next to Mike in the pink, and Alison and Bob Bruneau in the background. I cannot tell the date, but before those you have shown. Maybe 2001.

 

[Teegate]

Great photos, thank you for posting more of them. I had seen only a couple of these before. Incidentally it seems that most (all?) of the content that was hosted on "teegate.njpinebarrens.com" in years past is now gone, and largely was not publicly archived, which is unfortunate. Even photos posted as recently as 2018, such as your fascinating 1958 photo of Atsion, which I was able to view last year, now appear to be missing. There are many more things that I would like to see, if it's possible to restore some of these at some point. The historical record provided by this site is valuable.

The SM itself doesn't look to have changed much in the past two decades, except that it had more of its original orange paint visible back then. I like that it has gradually taken on a blue-green lichen tint, like the swamp around it. It's almost like it's turning into a cedar itself.

The surrounding area, on the other hand, is definitely different. You can clearly see how much more grown-up the trees are. And there is none of this water around right now.

If you see any photo of mine that is missing just send me the link to the thread or post and I will add it back in.

 

[Teegate]

Guy, it's been so long. The yellow is Steve (last name?), he passed away from cancer several years ago. He was a great photographer and a very nice man. The light green is Mike Baker. I will be with Mike tomorrow, he likely knows the two men on either side of you.

View attachment 23673

Bob, that is Steve Greer. The two men were from the Outdoor Club of SJ so Mike would know them.

 

[manumuskin]

I forget the year but I read some where that it's been there since the early 70's,I think 71?I smelled diesel last time I was there,maybe ten years ago. That stuff is forever.

 

[bobpbx]

Bob, that is Steve Greer. The two men were from the Outdoor Club of SJ so Mike would know them.

Mike has forgotten their names. I do though, recall the person between you and I, but not his name. I think he was at the first 3 PBX explores. I'll check back in my files.

He did though, tell me Steve's last name last night.

 

[stiltzkin]

I forget the year but I read some where that it's been there since the early 70's,I think 71?I smelled diesel last time I was there,maybe ten years ago. That stuff is forever.

It's possible, but I think more likely late 1977 or early 1978. It seems like the reason that it's out there was related to a project to extract about 120 acres' worth of dead cedar that partially burned in a July 1977 fire.

I think I can just barely see the machine on Boyd's really nice 1977-1978 "Tidelands" aerials. It's right in the middle of a big cleared-out area with downed trees strewn everywhere, and at the end of the corduroy road, which you can also make out. Also looks like a staging area on the road to the west, with maybe a trailer for the workers:

Earlier imagery is not as detailed as this, but comparing to some 1:78000 USGS photos from 1975, it does not look like this area was cleared then, so there presumably wouldn't have been much reason for a piece of heavy equipment to be there.

 

[Trailwalker]

Great post Guy and I cannot help to but to see a resemblance between yourself and the sadly recently departed Phil Lesh.

 

[ecampbell]

Some old info

 

[Teegate]

Great post Guy and I cannot help to but to see a resemblance between yourself and the sadly recently departed Phil Lesh.

Yea, I see it as well. I have been many times years ago confused with Bill Gates in a B&W photo. My wife and I were chased on the boardwalk once with people yelling I was him.

 

[Boyd]

I have a friend who lives in the Village in NYC and really looks like Howard Stern. But he leaned into it, wore a tee shirt around town that said "I'm not HIM" and became sort of a minor celebrity in his own right.