I just came back from walking the gated Snow Hill rd that runs from the laurel lake shooting Range north to Battle Lane rd.I walked it south to the range.I had walked it last week and noticed they had bulldozers at the range and had knocked down some of the Russian Olive thickets that bordered the field.I had no idea how far they were going to go .A pproaching the gate from the north today I saw before me a desolate waste land.I could see all the way to Ackley rd.Normally this isn't possible because of the trees that surrounded the cellar holes of several Baileytown foundations..Normally I would turn around at the gate but now I had to see what had happened to the cellars in the now desolate waste land.as I approached the Smith ( before that it was the Enos Bailey )house. http://www.baileytown-nj.com/images/johnsmap.gif I seen the cellar was gone.This cellar was visible while walking down the road and was not very big but had a small section of the original stone masonry visible in the hole.There was a five foot high grassy hill next to the hole.This hill is still there.I believe the Hill (the only green thing left in a sea of mud) is probably the stone pile from the chimney that has collected dirt and turned into a hill.It sat right next to the house where a chimney would be and since the dozer left it there I assume it could not push it over because it was full of rocks.It looks as if the tried. I then crossed Snow Hill rd and headed toward where I knew the knew the Brady (formerly Harrison bailey) house sat. http://www.baileytown-nj.com/images/BaileytownAreaFarms89.gif This was more in the woods and sat about forty feet north of Ackley Rd. There is nothing left of what used to be a three feet deep 10 by 10 hole with original stone masonry visible.Now there is a slight dip in the field around which are huge sandstone rocks,pieces of concrete,slate and busted up red brick.If you didn't know the cellar was there you might think someone had dumped some rubble there once. I have posted pics of both these holes on this site in the photography section.They were some of the smaller less impressive holes but were still a reminder of a time when people lived,worked,raised kids and crops here before the state threw them off their land so they could play war games in their fields.Thats why these fields are here.they were peoples farms before they were state deer gardens.You would think that whoever is running Bevan would be somewhat interested in protecting these reminders of a day gone by.I doubt they even knew they were there.It's ironic that the people we depend on to protect the historical and natural resources of an area are often the very ones to destroy it.I wonder what other plans they have for the other foundations in the area.This intersection where these two houses were rubbed out is THE center of what was Baileytown.It shows on all old maps of the area.How can you not know something was here?Those patches of woods in the middle of the field are not some freak accident.They were there because they used to be peoples yards.because there was a foundation there that would have been very hard to run a plow over.That is back before the age of Bulldozers and uniformed state workers and even more uniformed state managers. Whoever ios managing Bevan,Thanks!You just wiped out one more piece of South jersey History that the pickup truck driving foundation thieves had over looked.Who needs thieves when they have WMA Superintendants? Right?
When I started working on Baileytown I realized that all my maps were based on 2008 aerial imagery that didn't show the track(s). So I used the 2015 aerials to update that area - I'd post a link to NJPB maps, but the 2015 aerials aren't loading for me at the moment (as discussed in another thread).
