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Cool. I'd love to hear more about the "frog war" that occurred where the two lines crossed, only one of three in the State that I know of. The legend is that when the Philadelphia & Seashore Railway line was first run in 1890 (today's Cape May Branch), its operators were planning to sneak in a...

Now if it's a genuine Pineland's crop circle you fancy, that world-famous feature was through the woods right outside my front door: http://www.timesunion.com/news/slideshow/Pi-Day-World-s-most-famous-circles-40484/photo-2619464.php

The technical term is "scratch circles." A colleague wrote about them. The abstract says, "The present paper provides a report on the formation of scratch circles on the drift sands during the deposition and deflation phases of sand dune formation. Observations were carried out on dune fields in...

Is it a plant bulb?

Ironstone comes in a wide variety of shapes and sizes (see below links) https://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/about-difference-in-nj-stones.5534/#post-64755 https://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/bog-iron-can-you-dig-it-or-what-is-the-marl-of-the-story.7299/#post-86086...

I am under the impression that the West Jersey & Atlantic Rail Road was all double-tracked. The ultimate Richland railroad sensory experience was when east- and westbound WJARR trains crossed the trestle at the same time that north- and southbound Cape May Branch trains passed beneath them. W...

Teegate, A railroad official offered to construct such a barrier, but I thought it unfair to punish others by blocking road access just because of the stupid actions of a rogue entity (my municipality). Neighbors have had a right to enjoy the woods via an adjacent ROW road as they have for over...

Guess who's back on my property today? At least the railroad workers left as soon as I asked them, without State Trooper intervention. I need some big ole survey stones... S-M

Shazam! That’s a surprise. Sorry Manumuskin, but Millville is just a hipper place than first-place Vineland. It must be the banana custard at Blinkers that civilized your haunt, which I argue is the best soft-serve in the whole state. Technically Vineland's border is three miles away from my...

NJCH, Gardening really unites Pineys to the weather and associated seasonal changes. It was the lure of cheap land and the romance of self-sufficiency that brought many homeseekers to the southern Pines. In war-torn Europe, foodstuffs were often in short supply. Pine Barrnes ethnic settlements...

Picked the last of the okra, luffa, peppers, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and beans today. I'll cover a frying pepper and a sungold cherry tomato with a mover's blanket to hopefully steal on extra week's worth of growing season. It's a little unusual to go right to a hard freeze without a light...

Here's an old reference to very early German laborers in the Pine Barrens. At the head of Hospitality Branch, near Williamstown there was an early eighteenth century settlement at a series of spungs referred to as the “Hospitality Ponds.” Surveyor John Clement (1888) writes about this place in...

According to an agricultural survey, Germans were Hammonton's farm labor force until 1877 when they simply didn't show up, and Italians replaced them. It was thought that the Germans had by that time established themselves on their own farms so no longer needed to hire out as laborers. Germans...

Tracker Jim, it would not surprise me that an existing settlement was missed by cartographers, perhaps being too marginal for mention. For example the charcoal settlement of Berrys (New Kuban) is occupied from c.1790–1950 with only a single map citation from 1812, although Clement (Volume 3...

Oriental. thanks for pointing out the symmetry. What is the oldest reference to Middle Road? I looked back at old posts and see I misread Pinelands Paddler's use of Middle Road, thinking it was contemporary to Shinn. LiDAR images indicate the Beers' Middle Road never extended as improved roadway...

DC, Really enjoying the thread! So in 1895 the name Middle Road is used for the Dutchtown portion of Route 206, and Middle Road begins at a suspected tavern near Desolation Pond. Wouldn't that course just about put the roadway in the middle of the Atsion Lands?

Here's my favorite, Vanaman's Thick n' Hole Tract where the ethnic settlement of New Italy began. Several ancient trails converged at the Oasis spung. I believe the settlement's eighteenth century origin lies in naval store production (tar kilning), later becoming a charcoal station. Note the...

Folks, Stockton University is launching a new history, culture, and geography periodical that is much in line with our interests at NJPB. Here's a great opportunity to get that story in print! reproduced with permission of SJCHC Call for Articles SoJourn: Journal of South Jersey History &...

Great thread! There is a tiny third lot shown too. My hunch is that all three lots are within Fruitland but are older exceptions. Left to right, the first two property lines somewhat match the rectilinear railroad-era metes and bounds (red dashes), but are better aligned to Shamong/Washington...

JD, 'Hole' is an incredibly elastic term in the Pine Barrens. In old usage, it can have the same meaning as hollow, like in Appalachia. Lincoln's descendants at Imlaystown lived at Buckhorn manor along the Buck Hole, a small valley. Equally old is its use to describe an intermittent pond like...