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Now, when I purchase deeds at the State Archives, they are posted for all to download. Here's the deed citing the cripples. https://www.state.nj.us/state/darm/EarlyLandRecordsPDF/PWESJ004_1758_Leeds_Abraham_Survey_60711.pdf I've attached a draft translation of the deed for those who have...

Yes, those ditches were intended to drain “worthless” swampland into yet another marketable product rived out of barren land. First, in post contact exploits, the tract was lumbered for whitecedar and kilned in naval store production. Then this was coaling land for Cumberland Furnace, with a...

Retta Heights, and I’m pretty sure Longwood Gardens too, are DeCarlo Tract lots. These were speculative-boondoggle subdivisions promising cheap land on lots too small and/or wet to build on by Christopher DeCarlo of Newark. Retta Heights was active during the 1960s when I’d walk through it along...

Fascinating, so roasting the ore would have been advantageous, yet I don't recall mention of a roasting step addressed in the various papers on ore raising here in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Is there a reference to roasting ore in South Jersey?

I was almost five when the drilling occurred near Milmay, but the stories lingered through my youth of the exploits. Everyone thought they would become rich and the area at the time was impoverished. The father of my best friend clipped several articles on the topic. One from the Vineland Times...

That is a delightful account of what bog or meadow ore digging was probably like. I wonder if Pine Barrens furnaces used a similar process at their industrial-scale meadow ore grounds, or is this just a small-scale bloomery procedure?

Is it possible that there was an even older, curvier alignment to an old Atsion Road, with a corresponding older tavern? That is apparently the case with Doughtys Tavern in Milmay and the Blue Bell Tavern above Downstown. A long time ago Budd Wilson was asked about the location of the original...

...err, Applepye Hill in 1759. TO: Tanton Earl; Thomas Earl, Jr. 19 Jun 1759 FROM: SURVEY AND MAP. 2 acres. Near Little Egg Harbor Road; south east of Applepye Hill; Burlington County. OTHERS NAME Daniel Ellis (Deputy Surveyor) (Signatory) LOCATIONS: West Jersey; Burlington; Applepye Hill...

Mary-Ann Thompson of the Birches pointed out side channels at her bogs dug for the purpose of flood-water accommodation. These were overwhelmed by 2004 flood event that breached her dams.

Oh my, channeling Robert & Dorothy's legacy is quite a feat. Assuredly, both remain milling about. Again, it would help if we knew the chronostratigraphy and morphoscopy of the sediments. Send me an email as the conversation is going beyond what is published.

Scroggy, You make wonderful observations. The remarkable preservation of undisturbed terrain and its degradation is easily seen on lidar imagery. Dating and characterizing these sediments might make for an interesting story in light of new information. How do you account for the flat spots...

A good place to go is the Searchable Databases and Records Request Forms at Early Land Records, 1650–1900s. Goshen Neck properties listed there seem to be on the Burlington County side. https://wwwnet-dos.state.nj.us/DOS_ArchivesDBPortal/EarlyLandRecords.aspx Also, in Glimpses of the Past...

Woodjin, that is interesting. It would make sense to collect ore from places away from pesky tree roots like savannahs and drained lake-beds. Cripples, too, were often sparse in tree roots, as apparently was the case along the "Ore Road" south of Deep Run. Weymouth ore beds west of what is now...

Great work! If we know where Old Goshen is and where Goshen Gap is, then perhaps this would be Goshen Neck— The gap is the lowland area between higher relict plateau.

In 1970 hydrogeologist Rhodehamel estimated that about 2% of the Pine Barrens was then occupied by spungs, and their extant has decreased since then due to degradation. Given their ecological and cultural importance, and a limited footprint, are true spungs expendable?

True paleodunes–parabolic and transverse—are limited in extant to small dune fields near wetlands and waterways. Their integrity is important to the sustained health of adjacent wetland habitat. Having grown up in the Pines I take middle ground on the off-roading issue. In youth I couldn't wait...

Wow, It's nice to see dear Wayne Newell getting due recognition for seeing a strong periglacial (cold, non-glacial) signature here. He spent summers on his grandfather's farm along Stop-the-Jade east of the PPA's Bishop House, working the family cranberry bogs toward New Lisbon. I argue that our...

This paleohydrology is from the cold, dry, and windy Pleistocene. We are looking at a Pleistocene alluvial fan where snowmelt flooding occurred over frozen ground. Stewart et al. (1985) first noticed the stream pattern, which Marsh (1985) thought might be flooding across South Jersey caused by...

S_J, Judging by river-meander structure, there appears to be much fill added to your site at the red arrow and its corresponding bank to the south. Note the cripple just to the east of the cross-hairs on your lidar imagery. Judging by the surrounding land-surface structure, the new Goshen Pond...