Belcoville munitions storage

[eelfisher]

Last week I took a walk in a tract of land just recently acquired by the state from a private hunting club just south of Stephens Creek and the Atlantic County Park on Rt. 50 in Estelle Manor. Upon hiking down one of the "woods roads" I noticed that it was made up of a material similar to RR bedding. When I got home I researched the area on Historic Aerials and realized I had walked part of a "road" that went straight through the Atlantic County Park to the ruins of the old munitions factory there. Further research told me that this "road" was actually a railway that the munitions factory used to transport the ammo to a holding facility some distance away to the south. The 1931 image on Historic Aerials shows a series of rectangular buildings laid out in a grid style with RR tracks running along side of each of them.

Today I went back to explore and find any trace of these storage buildings. This time I noticed the RR bed had footprints of every timber laid to support the tracks. I don't know if the timbers were taken out or just rotted away where they were. Blown over trees made the hike challenging at times, but I eventually found what I was looking for!

 

[eelfisher]

 

[eelfisher]

This is the side facing the RR bed. The wall was around 5' tall and was made from formed concrete. There are rusted nails sticking out of the concrete. Inside was a concrete floor that was as high as the walls. Notice all the trees growing on it!

 

[eelfisher]

Here is a close up shot of a wall. Notice the wood grain imprinted in the concrete apparently from a wooden formboard used to construct it.

 

[eelfisher]

These were on the floor in pairs every 8' or so, I'm assuming to bolt down support beams for the roof

 

[Teegate]

I believe it is Boyd who can tell you quite a bit abut his finding at the ruins.


Guy

 

[eelfisher]

Yes, I would like to hear what he has to say about his findings.

What I thought made my findings today interesting was the fact that it was on private property and inaccessible to the public up to 2 months ago when the state bought the land. The property was previously owned by a private hunting club. I wonder if the state will do anything to preserve them and make them part of the display they have at the adjacent county park?

 

[Boyd]

Actually we have a long thread on this. Funny, because the question came up just before the State bought the land, which we had no idea was happening. http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/tuckahoe-wma.8673/

Haven't made it out there to explore yet myself. Thanks for the photos - they look very much like the other ruins of belco. However, the real gems are hidden deep in some heavy thickets up in the Atlantic County Park to the North. If you go to the Nature Center at the entrance you can look at the original site plan, which was the source for the plans I posted in that other thread.

That will give you some idea of where to look for more ruins, some nice ones are located along the roads and trails while others are hard to find. You might also find my map helpful, it has all the park trails on it: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/294/

 

[eelfisher]

Thx Boyd, that thread talks of exactly where I was at. I was at the Nature Center earlier that day, and looked at the original site plan there on the wall inside the doors and saw where the buildings were labeled as storage...that's when I finally decided to go look for them.

I really like looking for things that haven't been seen or visited for some time. I've been exploring on old aerials and in person the area around the WMA in Corbin City, looking for old forgotten woodsroads. Some were used in the making of the dikes, others I suspect were used for salt haying. Do you have any info on the WMA or the old CCC camps?

 

[Boyd]

Sorry, I don't have any special knowledge of the Tuckahoe WMA. I am pretty familiar with the Atlantic County Park though. As I said, there are some real gems in the park out in the woods that have not been seen or visited for a long time. They are hard to find, and you will be bleeding after going through all the thorns and holly thickets. I will not post any specific information on them because I want them to remain unseen and unvisited.