Aetna Furnace

[manumuskin]

I used to live in belleplain in the late 80"s early 90"s and spent all available time I could in the woods.I read becks books and a few others and was forever trying to find sites he talked about or just going out with a topo and huntin cellar holes.I worked belleplain forest,peaslees and head of the river over pretty good along with a lot of private property too!
shh!I thought I had found Aetna furnace when actually I hadn"t though I had past right next to it and didn"t recognize it for what it was.Downstream from aetna furnace theirs a nice big cellar hole in a grassy clearing with some outrageously big willow oak and sweet gum nearby and a few bricks bear a small hole closer to the river.I thought this cellar hole was the furnace because I had never seen a furnace other then martha and i knew they had covered that intentionally so while I could recognize human caused hills and disturbances I still didn"t have a furnace signature in my head.Well a few days ago while talking to Renee via e-mail she informed me that what I thought was cumberland furnace was actually the grist mill and that the furnace was a couple hundred yards away.So the next day i went and found it.Someone is apparently digging it up.Legally or not I don"t know.But I looked at the shape of the hills and ditches and so forth and said to myself this ain"t no cellar hole and i thought of etna.back to etna I goes today and found the old cellar hole and I was right,she ain"t no furnace.Then I went back down toward the old landing and i spied the furnace off to my right though I wasn"t sure at first.I climed the back of it and found some very small pieces of sandstone and slag down in the grass and saw the telltale canal along the upstream side of it and then walked along the spine north and there sure enough was a dip and then a smaller volcan shaped hill in front of the main bulk and on top was bricks galore and actually it appears part of the structure is barely visible on top eroding out.Whereas cumberland furnace is within the sound of traffic aetna is a really peaceful place.I had no doubt scrambled over it back in my early 20"s when I could still scramble and never knew what i was on other then some man made hills for some unknown reason.Also the site I was talking about adjacent to the millville clay works looks exactly like these two furnaces or darn near only it"s a half mile at least from the closes stream but their are old roads heading to the water.How close does a furnace have to be to water?Theirs old canals all around this area maybe they could have brought water in from the creek that far?I need somebody that knows what their looking at to check this site out.never heard of a millville furnace.
Al

 

[Ben Ruset]

I wouldn't mind checking that out one day.

 

[BEHR655]

I'd be intereseted in seeing it too. As far as it being dug up goes, I think you would see markers and grids if it was a legal archaeological (sp?) dig.

 

[manumuskin]

Cumberland furnace is being dug up as renee"s photos show.Aetna appears to be undisturbed.The one i found if it is a furnace appears also to be undisturbed other then having 20th century trash dumped adjacent to it.
Ben which one would you like to see?cumberland,aetna or my mystery hill?I can"t believe Millville had a furnace that i never heard about but it"s defimitely a furnace shaped man made hill all covered in the same type of grass that cover Aetna and it has this shiny looking slag stuff on it.
Al

 

[bach2yoga]

Aetna never really disappeared underneath the slag like Cumberland did. It was left standing, and has deteriorated, vandalized, etc. over time. Here's the link to Aetna:
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=1...&s=100&layer=DRG25&size=l&u=0
You have to drive in between two metal guard rails at a curve in the road. It's called Old Aetna Drive. 4WD recommended.
I hope no one ever messes with Aetna, because there are some pretty cool plants growing there.
Cumberland is not being legally excavated, and excavation was stopped until further notice.
I'm curious to see your furnace too!
Renee

 

[KARL]

aetna funace

al.....many thanks for the story......its nice to know that other young kids were mispending their youthful days hiking in the barrens.......i thought,as probably you did,that i was the only dysfunctional kid doing such crazy things.......i did love those beck books.........still dont have the full collection.....rutgers univ press keeps them expensive,even in paperback............read browns book on tracking......i suspect most of us piney kids could do the same.......although ive probably lost my touch.........was always looking for a vulture nesting area......never found one.......press on, karl

 

[manumuskin]

no karl your not the only one that wanders the barrens.I"ve had a lotta people assume that I"m a hunter cuz I"m always in the woods and where camo.a fair assumtion I guess but so far untrue.I have nothing against hunting or hunters matter of fact I was raised by one I just like to spend time exploring more so then sitting stock still for hours hoping at a shot.I"m into wilderness survival so I"ve brain tanned deer hides and made bowstrings outta sinew and such so a deers innards are no stranger to me.It"s always amazed me that once people find out i don"t hunt that their at a loss as to why I would be in the woods then.It seems theirs a mind set that if your in the woods you have to be there to take something or too make money otherwise why would you be there?I"m also a caver and people aske me all the time why would you crawl into a cave?For gold?hidden treasure?Well gold doesn"t form in limestone and I loved Tom sawyer but after all it was just a story.I f I had to explain why I crwal thru caves or swamps to remote islands then that person I don"t believe would understand.I personally don"t understand many peoples obsession with TV sports but i don"t ask why anymore because when I did I just got blank stares,much like I give people when they ask me why i cave.so I guess I understand that I just wouldn"t understand
Al

 

[bach2yoga]

their at a loss as to why I would be in the woods then.It seems theirs a mind set that if your in the woods you have to be there to take something or too make money otherwise why would you be there?I"m also a caver and people aske me all the time why would you crawl into a cave?For gold?hidden treasure?Well gold doesn"t form in limestone and I loved Tom sawyer but after all it was just a story.I f I had to explain why I crwal thru caves or swamps to remote islands then that person I don"t believe would understand.I personally don"t understand many peoples obsession with TV sports but i don"t ask why anymore because when I did I just got blank stares,much like I give people when they ask me why i cave.so I guess I understand that I just wouldn"t understand
Al

You know, there is nothing that compares to true bushwacking. I'm not talking about walking a half a mile through some low shrubs and getting caught by one or two briars or some such--that's a walk in the park --I mean hours through dense, heavy growth, attacked on every step by branches and briars and spiderweb after spiderweb, or crawling under or through them, or escaping a solid wall of briars, or sinking in muck to you hips with every step while walking upstream. One of my summer outings took me upstream, and at one point I had to make the decision to hang my backpack and camera on a tree and swim across the Manusmuskin to get back to civilization as it was too deep to continue walking. I returned later that evening (in the dark no less, by the time I got done work, and kayaked across to get to my backpack. (It was going to rain and I didn't want the camera to get rained on, otherwise I would have waited til morning) But its just you, nature, and a compass and a map. Nothing can compare to the challenge and the elation on making it out in one piece! That's not to say that it is the only way to enjoy nature, or that it is for everyone, certainly--not all of us are that nuts! :lol: But unless you've been there and done it--particularly alone, so that you have the satisfaction of knowing that YOU can do this on your OWN, no one needs to help you out of a tough spot, then you just won't understand. It's such a feeling of accomplishment and independence.

As for why to crawl through caves or swamps, the answer seems quite obvious to me: because they are there!

Renee

 

[manumuskin]

see now Renee would never ask me why I do it because she already understands.I"m glad to know theirs some people out there who do.I had to leave my canoe on springer creek one when I was 16 because i thought I had put in on batsto creek and was wrong.that was before i found out about topo maps and all i had was parnes book about canoeing the barrens.we made it almost to where the creek dumps into the batsto and it was getting dark so we walked out to high ground and since i didnt have a map we walked south on roads following the river and 4 hours later stumbled into batsto where I called my dad who raised holy hell because i left my canoe.he came to pick me up we went all the way home and borrowed a 4by 4 from his friend and by the time we got back to the barrens it was 1 am.I took him right to the spot and totally amazed him.i had left a small teepee of sticks next to where to go in at and he never knew it.i had no map but even then i had developed a good memory for landscapes and terrain and the teepee helped a lot.since then he thinks I"m a woods wizard.i guess i am compared to the average person.anyhow thats one of my barrens misadventures like renee had on my namesake river.I"ve crawled and slithere out of many of a jam but can"t ever remember swimming out of one
Al

 

[bach2yoga]

and borrowed a 4by 4 from his friend Al

Ha! I read that a couple of times before I realized you meant a 4 wheel drive--you talked about your dad raising holy hell and I thought he borrowed a piece of lumber to tan your rear, lol!!!

Renee