Berlin Peak

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,693
4,863
Pines; Bamber area
Interesting. Never noticed it before. Quite a mass for this area (used Boyd's lidar)

1730510483635.png
 
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Rooftree

Explorer
Mar 24, 2017
397
636
79
Haddon Township
I have no clue on its history there. Other then its the highest point in Camden county.
The only fact I can say is that the springs of water that comes to the surface in this area finds its way to the Delaware River from the western slope by way of Timber Creek, Cooper River, and Rancocas River, and on the eastern slope the Great Egg Harbor River and Mullica River and their tributaries empty into the Atlantic Ocean..
 

Spung-Man

Piney
Jan 5, 2009
1,000
729
65
Richland, NJ
www.researchgate.net
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 Avenue, as per Farr (2002: 65, Waterways of Camden County). Lonaconin resided in a bowl of relict plateau that as best as I can make out from old deeds was called Pond Swamp.

Pond Swamp is a very old landscape of inverted topography, with remarkable paleopotamology.

Screenshot 2024-11-02 at 1.10.24 PM.png
S-M
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,693
4,863
Pines; Bamber area
Very interesting Ron and Mark. I've been meaning to check out the plants at the very source of the Mullica next to route 73, SW side, about here, if my figuring is right.

1730582305364.png
 
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Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,984
8,737
I beat you there Bob. Here is a blurry photo there showing the late K.C. Mahon on the left and me on the right. Developed in 9/1975. And again on 9/18/2002. The homes nearby were being built at the time of the second photo and some were occupied.

9:75.jpg


Berlin_1.jpg
 

Spung-Man

Piney
Jan 5, 2009
1,000
729
65
Richland, NJ
www.researchgate.net
Very interesting Ron and Mark. I've been meaning to check out the plants at the very source of the Mullica next to route 73, SW side, about here, if my figuring is right.

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 Harbor we drove to May’s Landing; stopped at the American Hotel, an excellent house. May’s Landing is the county seat of Atlantic county, and is situated at the head of navigation on the Great Egg Harbor river. It is about one-third of a mile wide at the Landing. Near Berlin, about thirty-two miles from here, I saw the source of it, a little run, not more than two feet wide. The water is almost as red as wine, receiving its color from the numerous cedar swamps through which it passes."

Judging by the above account and confusing early deeds, the Berlin Pond Swamp apparently was stocked with Atlantic whitecedar.

Near your Route 73 modern Mullica source, the c. 1931 aerial photomosaics display several oval-shaped dark stains that appear to be spungs. Such a ponded drainageway pattern is commonplace at stream-heads in the Pines. I suspect the ancient historic Mullica’s source to be further upstream of today's. In the Great Egg Harbor’s case, about a third of a mile of the ancient upstream has be obliterated. The current GEHR font is a storm-water basin at Minck Avenue & Route 73, as determined by "Watershed Fred" Akers of GEHWA.

S-M
 

amf

Explorer
May 20, 2006
155
50
Swedesboro
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.


S-M
That was always my guess... there was a lot of ironstone as I recall.
Looking at your high point reference, its kinda sad when so many of the highpoints are on landfills!

amf
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,984
8,737
I am late getting to this because I could not find my book concerning this subject.

We discussed this before a long time ago and I believe the photos are no longer on the site. So I will repeat.

In Maurice Horner's book titled "The History of Evesham Township" he calls that hill "Stoney Mount" and you can see it on his map below. That map is what peaked my interest to this hill after my mom took me to Mr. Horner's house and his daughter (Edna Wirth) who my mom taught Sunday school with had Maurice sign it for me. I stayed in the car and saw Maurice Horner in his farm field digging and my mom just walked to the door and collected the book and we left. I took the book home and decided to search for it after seeing the map and my photo above at the monument was that moment when we found it. It was April of 1975 as I had just purchased my Land Cruiser in March. We parked along Kettle Run Road by the Aero Haven Airport and walked straight through the woods to the hill. It was later that I realized it was easier to come in off of Cooper Road.

With that said, I have a feeling that Maurice Horner made a mistake with the name of the hill or that was a name he called it. I believe that Stoney Mount is actually on the Golf Course property along Hopewell road just across the border and in Medford shown here. I have multiple maps that show that called Stoney Mount but I can't find them right now. I have not viewed a map that shows Maurice Honer's Stoney Mount actually called Stoney Mount.

Click this link to see the location



Stoney Mount.jpg


I have a photo on the golf course at the Medford Stoney Mount that I took after climbing the hill from Hopewell Road back around 2003 or so. And as before I can't find that photo but as soon as I do I will post it. Jessica stayed in the car and refused to climb up the hill. I ran up, took the photo and ran back down.

Also, I walked right through the location on the map that says "Cold Spring" but I did not have an interest in that like I would today so I did not look for it.
 
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stiltzkin

Explorer
Feb 8, 2022
540
807
Medford
I have been up "Stony Mount" (to clarify, not the same thing as Berlin Peak) several times. I believe it's located on hole 8 on the blue course.

Part of the pathway up:

DSCN2146_s.JPG


These guys are all over the place up there in the summertime, sunning themselves on the rocks:

DSCN2145_s.JPG


And here is a tree that was hit by lightning at the top:

DSCN2149_s.JPG


It is a very nice panoramic view from up there, but I can't seem to find a photo of that. These photos are from 2005.

On a different hole, Little Mill also has some part of the structure of Branin's Mill (the namesake "Little Mill") which was a part of the Taunton Forge operation. I always assumed that the mill was completely a reproduction, but at least according to this, some part of it is original.
 
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Teegate

Administrator
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Sep 17, 2002
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It looks different than I remember it. I wish I could find my photo.
 
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