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Note how the Mullica and southern Rancocas valleys align, cutting a gap through hard cuesta, a chain of hills that are steeply sloped on one side and gently sloped on the other that reside just to the east of the New Jersey Turnpike. It may be that a long time ago the Mullica and the Rancocas...

Those are called ice needles or—as I prefer—pipkrakes. The thermodynamics behind their ice segregation are complex. Pipkrake production is a potent geomorphic agent in the Pines, especially during the ice age. They can kill vegetation and loosen soil, facilitating grain lift during ground...

AMF, Red Hill, perhaps capped by ironstone? That may be an older name than Berlin Hill, as Berlin itself wasn’t applied until 1867 (Wright 1979: 14). BTW, according to Petriman (2017: 14) the highest point in Camden County is a residential community in Voorhees Township at 215 feet...

Agreed, Bob, It would be great to pin down the Mullica’s source! Farr (2002: 113) has its headwaters as Atco Atco. In contrast the Great Egg Harbor’s head is well lauded, as in this newspaper account excerpt from the Kennett News and Advertiser (1879)— “Trip Through South Jersey” "From Egg...

Thanks Bob, I added the name to a figure for a slide made to explain the spung source of the Great Egg Harbor River at Lonaconin. That's Lenape for “where many waters meet” (Gannett, 1902: 189, Place Names in the United States). I place the GEHR-origin site in Berlin Township above Franklin...

Success has personal meaning to me. It’s where I proposed to Patty, worked! Heavens knows I needed all the help that could be mustered. We were renting a farmhouse in Cream Ridge at the time. Beck wrote of it in More Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey. The chapter is titled “Success: the...

...Six Chains to a pine Stump formerly Standing Tree old Marked Corner to Penn & Tomson by the foot of a Small Branch putting Into Indian pond... ...The third tract Begins at ye mouth of a large Creek opposite to ye Land of Israll wards & Arthur powell...

Yep, head of navigation like Mays Landing.

I grew up a farm in the Calfs Head at Buckhorn, a series of spungs where the Cape (Tuckahoe or Lake) trail intersected with the Boundary and other trails. Buckhorn's a Swedish settlement, where the Tomlins raised cattle and cut cedar. The trails followed the rims of spungs so as not to get your...

Tough choices in a changing world. How does everyone feel about hybridization between Southern and Northern highbush blueberries, which respectively require 150 vs. 1200 chill hours? On a lark I planted a Sunshine Blue Blueberry (Vaccinium X ‘Sunshine Blue,’—male is probably Sharpblue or...

As I understand, lignite seams can burn underground just like coal seams. That said, I highly doubt this could happen here. The Egg Harbor City material is probably Legler lignite, a lignitic clay named for the hamlet just above the Air Station at Lakehurst. It is a middle-Miocene Cohansey...

Ha, Centralia in the Pine Barrens? How 'bout this lignite article from January 03, 1885, excerpted from the May's Landing Record (p3, v8, n13)? https://www.atlanticlibrary.org/sites/default/files/Newspapers/MLRecord/MLR01031885.pdf S-M

Attached is a warrant of the area and its conversion from cursive to print. Unfortunately, few early accounts of the Dutch, Swedes, and Finns who came here first in the seventeenth century can be found. For example, John Stanaland on the attached warrant is a Dutchman who partners with George...

I think I see another one. They might be corrals? This one abuts the ferry access road— https://boydsmaps.com/terra/#39.418938/-74.721568/252/291/-1/289/-2/-469/1239/704/-1000/45/4/3d/shader40/0/0/z17 Note how the ferry causeway on the west bank correlates well to the Thompsontown road-cut...

It's hard to believe it today, but this stretch of land was probably used by the eighteenth century as horse and cow pasture—savannah, as in Demitroff 2024 (Soggy Ground). Just to the northeast Dowers had a ferry to Tompsontown that ran through at least the Civil War. This connected the Lower...

How ‘bout Goshen Neck? https://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/goshen-in-camden-or-burlington.2892/page-5#post-173425 It is easy to overlook the eighteenth century cultural landscape. In the early Pines there’s at least two Hells Necks, Canute Neck, Little Canute Neck, Broad Neck, Hoop-Pole...

There is a "Pestons Neck" in this warrant— TO: Samuel Richards 4 Sept 1833 FROM: SURVEY AND MAP. 3.43 acres. On the North side of Price's Branch; On the road from Longacoming; Pestons Neck; Waterford Township; Gloucester County. [Warrant Date: 26 Sept 1826]. (See also: Book GG, 200). OTHERS...

Good, the two surveys are of use. Way back, I do seem to recall a Pestle family on a document of some sort and making a mental note to Pestletown. Here's the raw drafts of the two surveys. I do a quick run through such documents, then correct the errors if a deeper dive is called for.

I've only skimmed this tread, so apologize beforehand if this information is a repeat. I think the resurvey map on this 1813 West Jersey record might have a Prestone (Pestleton?) Road. The NJ State Archive copy is hard to read— TO: Benjamin B. Cooper (Esquire) 15 Oct 1813 FROM: RESURVEY AND...

When I see a mulberry tree in the Pine Barrens, livestock first comes to mind. Garden farms here planted them as feed supplement to cut production costs. Smith’s (1953) book, Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture was a popular guide that was promoted by Soil Conservation Service. A copy resided on...