Search results

Piney Warden is completely correct, and he should know.

Nice post and nice discoveries. I am looking forward to seeing where these cellar holes are. I know of a grassy area on the Camden side of the old mill that I always suspected was the town center. It is common in cranberry bogs to have a series of canals that transport and bypass water...

Do we have a date on the cranberry operations there? I might have missed it.

Okay, interesting observation and lends credence to an alternative to my “water diversion for bog iron” theory. It is so tremendously typical to to have layers of different industries on top of each other. Making it far more difficult to decipher what was going on there. However, I can’t figure...

I’ve seen loam ore and seed ore, mostly loam, along the river banks along the mullica opposite the canal. There is documentation that at least during the Drinker era of Atsion furnace they would open the dam to drain Atsion lake for the purpose of bog iron extraction along the original river...

Definitely an unexpected spot.

Nice contribution Spungman. On the 1854 map; is there any depiction of another mill pond upstream from the one illustrated? I suspect there isn’t which would further support my theory that the upper most “mill” is a water diversion apparatus. Additionally, is Goshen pond campground depicted as a...

Structure spanning the width of the river is indicative of a dam so possibly a mill site. Or just a means of diverting the water. They would have had to have a pretty robust dam there to divert the water to the canal. Any indication of a pond having been above the dam? Given the length of the...

A

So, the canal diversion could have been seasonal. Just in the winter when the mills weren’t running. There must have been significant iron in that stretch. I wonder if lowering the water also aided in repair work to the mill components and the canal allowed easier passage for bog iron boats ...

Gee, wish I went there during the dryness of this summer, but it seems like I’m always working. Cranberry cultivation wasn’t a thing till the 1830’s in the pinebarrens so the cranberry operations were quite a bit after that.

Wow!! Fantastic

Great image you provided and thoughtful questions! I agree that the dam is older than the canal. Sawmills existing there as early as the 1720’s. Charles Read’s interest in bog iron was mid 1760’s. So the dam was very likely the predecessor. Providing my theory in the purpose for the canal is...

Inskeep

Nice report. I have a theory that the canal, given it’s unusual length, allowed bog iron collection from the mullica river bed by diverting the water and thus lowering the levels of the river. This probably would have been winter collection by Charles Read. I recollect that had an agreement...

I don’t know if this has been posted before. This is a pinelands commission meeting from three years ago that includes an excellent presentation from John Bunnell concerning ORV damage in wetlands/spungs. The presentation itself is free from opinions and political agenda which is refreshing. I...

This past weekend I was at a wedding in north Jersey. It just so happened, they had a “recovery” brunch at a nearby diner. I was surprised to find out that half of this diner was actually an old train car from the blue comet. Paul probably documented this somewhere, but it was a real surprise...

Lol I just referred to it as the illegal house because apparently it was built (or started to be built) after Wharton died and before the state purchased his estate. At a time when there was little enforcement to deter trespassers. Allegedly, someone thought they could build the house and no one...

Bob, I guess it comes down to what German was saying; every site is unique and subject to variables. Although, I think it’s great you have seen healthy growth without fencing! I was skeptical when I first heard about the state’s initiative on this but after considering why we have seen such a...

The ruins are still there. You somehow missed them but you were right there. The hotel, sadly burnt down in the ‘90’s and is mostly just some scattered bricks and some scant foundation. Yucca and buttonwood, and catalpa are around. But the glassworks foundations and the illegal house and the...