Black's Stone Updated
- Thread starter Teegate
- Start date
Stomach is healing up nice.should be ready for the woods in a couple weeks.I notice the huckleberry is making it's springly debut.Looks like stone season is about to be shut down.
Pretty close. Some of the Thomas Black stones are in cedar swamps so they can still be looked for. I may make a quick search again this weekend for the B stone I have been trying to find.
Guy
All,
Fifty feet off the road as we started our day I found this critter slithering through the brush.
Tomorrow is the Forked River Mountain clean-up, but today the inmates were working on one particular propery slated for attention. By 10:30 this morning they were already gone having filled a dumpster.
All but two of the Southern Pitcher Plants have been stolen. This means they did come back for more of them. In any event, the two there are holding their own.
I was tipped off to this place by a member of this site.
There were two.
Guy
Fifty feet off the road as we started our day I found this critter slithering through the brush.
Tomorrow is the Forked River Mountain clean-up, but today the inmates were working on one particular propery slated for attention. By 10:30 this morning they were already gone having filled a dumpster.
All but two of the Southern Pitcher Plants have been stolen. This means they did come back for more of them. In any event, the two there are holding their own.
I was tipped off to this place by a member of this site.
There were two.
Guy
Incredible! Very cool find!
It does remind me of the W.P. Stone with its "other" inscription. I always thought it was a propery marker but was never sure until I checked this sie. (In fact, that was the reason I started coming to this site....I googled "WP stone" and came up here.
I always assumed on that stone (which had JM and a date inscribed on the other side) that it had actually laid on the border of WP and JM's properies.
Guy, am I correct on this?
(BTW, I found out...I think...who WP is but never investigated further into JM)
Gipsie-
I believe the W.P. is William Pancoast, who had holdings in Bass River Township at that time, and his surveys were bought by a John Mathis (J.M.) of Burlington county. Mathis, apparently, was a great land owner during that time period.
John-
I believe the W.P. is William Pancoast, who had holdings in Bass River Township at that time, and his surveys were bought by a John Mathis (J.M.) of Burlington county. Mathis, apparently, was a great land owner during that time period.
John-
Yeah, the name William Pancoast is what I came up with too, but I never did get Mathis. Thanks John! It is a very cool stone isn't it?
I think the JM 1742 is an actual real time date when Mathis bought the land.The WP 1700 date I believe was back dated possibly to when Pancoast bought it???? There is a Pancoast Mill down near Ricland.Wonder if it is the same person? Might be more stones in Deep Run swamp??? 
I think the JM 1742 is an actual real time date when Mathis bought the land.The WP 1700 date I believe was back dated possibly to when Pancoast bought it???? There is a Pancoast Mill down near Ricland.Wonder if it is the same person? Might be more stones in Deep Run swamp???
hi manumuskin.....................glad to see such good research on the old name pancoast...............i live a few yards south of pancoastal road in ocean county where it hits the gsp toll booths at exit 67...........always assumed it was a fancy term for an old highway of sand, crossing to the coast.............hence the name,pan-coastal.......................but i have since heard as you discovered ,that there was an actual person named pancoast.......................keep up the great studies...............strom
I used to work in Richland and at lunch occasioanlly would drive down and park at Pancoast pond.Actually I never did the research on that area but remember a posting on this site about it.Not sure it was either by Spungman or possibly Jersyeman.a search on this site may bring up more.
Somehow I missed this post, Guy. Great find, and nice report. I remember a time a number of years ago when we visited the ruins at asterdaten and we stopped near Black's stone to search for others. I remember you had a lead on one but we couldn't locate it. I guess it has come to a (near) conclusion now. congratulations.
Jeff
Jeff
All,
With the vegetation starting to thin out Jessica and myself continued today to search out more of the Thomas Black stones. I actually had looked for two of them about a month ago but realized it was way too early for that. Even today things were not optimal. In any event, we revisited the locations and came up empty. I had changed my declination from around 6 degrees to 5.45 degrees after thinking I was slightly off on my calculations, and I was slightly disappointed and concerned about finding anything further up the line. If I was off with them I would certainly be off with the rest of them. But we continued on and eventually came to a cedar swamp where a stone should be awaiting us. And sure enough with the help of a pipe placed there sometime in the past I found one. The stone was broken in various pieces but what was underground was at one time pretty substantial.
Located just 10 feet into a cedar swamp along a very old long unused road.
Then to the next location. Looking this location over on old aerial maps I could see that there was what must have been a gun club there as far back as 1931. The 1956 aerials show what appears to be a small building but by 1972 it was huge. Then as usual they quickly disappear, and today this is all that remains.
The stone is no further than 50 feet from these ruins well hidden in the woods. Again, my calculations were very accurate and I was easily able to find it.
My GPS had me 12 feet off.
Then a strange thing happened. As the photo shows above it was 11:05 AM and the earth began to shake and rumble and I yelled to Jessica asking if she felt it. She did not hear me. Tonight on the internet there were many reports of this occurrence.
While at this location we watched what appeared to be two bald eagles fly over us continually.
These are the best I could do.
Then to the final stone of the day. I was excited about this one because if I found it I obviously would find another Thomas Black stone, but I also would be finding a Ferrago Tract stone at the same time. At this location they met, and with two substantial tracts of land I was expecting a large stone. The 1856 description says it was at the "point of upland" meaning it was right where the upland angles out of the swamp. Down the hill we went until we reached the described area and the search began. Round and round we went until I saw this.
As the crow flies I was over 3000 feet from Black's Stone and I was 14 feet off on my calculations.
Guy
With the vegetation starting to thin out Jessica and myself continued today to search out more of the Thomas Black stones. I actually had looked for two of them about a month ago but realized it was way too early for that. Even today things were not optimal. In any event, we revisited the locations and came up empty. I had changed my declination from around 6 degrees to 5.45 degrees after thinking I was slightly off on my calculations, and I was slightly disappointed and concerned about finding anything further up the line. If I was off with them I would certainly be off with the rest of them. But we continued on and eventually came to a cedar swamp where a stone should be awaiting us. And sure enough with the help of a pipe placed there sometime in the past I found one. The stone was broken in various pieces but what was underground was at one time pretty substantial.
Located just 10 feet into a cedar swamp along a very old long unused road.
Then to the next location. Looking this location over on old aerial maps I could see that there was what must have been a gun club there as far back as 1931. The 1956 aerials show what appears to be a small building but by 1972 it was huge. Then as usual they quickly disappear, and today this is all that remains.
The stone is no further than 50 feet from these ruins well hidden in the woods. Again, my calculations were very accurate and I was easily able to find it.
My GPS had me 12 feet off.
Then a strange thing happened. As the photo shows above it was 11:05 AM and the earth began to shake and rumble and I yelled to Jessica asking if she felt it. She did not hear me. Tonight on the internet there were many reports of this occurrence.
While at this location we watched what appeared to be two bald eagles fly over us continually.
These are the best I could do.
Then to the final stone of the day. I was excited about this one because if I found it I obviously would find another Thomas Black stone, but I also would be finding a Ferrago Tract stone at the same time. At this location they met, and with two substantial tracts of land I was expecting a large stone. The 1856 description says it was at the "point of upland" meaning it was right where the upland angles out of the swamp. Down the hill we went until we reached the described area and the search began. Round and round we went until I saw this.
As the crow flies I was over 3000 feet from Black's Stone and I was 14 feet off on my calculations.
Guy
Guy, are the stones that you found the whole tract? Was Beck's memory wrong or could there still be a T.G. Black 1858 stone out there hiding as large as a crouching man? I'd like to believe that there is, although I think the stone that Beck wrote about was the large one we know of. Maybe by chance there were two tracts?
I can say with confidence there are no other T Black stones like that one. I have the complete 1856 survey of that location. There was other B stones but I have not found it and there is a good chance it is gone. The stone and location Beck describes is without a doubt the one just across Black's Bridge.
These stones are the hardest to find because I have to figure out the bearing, convert all distances from links and chains to feet, and try to read the chicken scratch on the survey. For example, I was not sure what this says and had to make guesses until I found a stone. This says N 24.5 E. The words "Large Stone" are upside down above it, and the 5.00 chains (330 feet) below it.
Guy
These stones are the hardest to find because I have to figure out the bearing, convert all distances from links and chains to feet, and try to read the chicken scratch on the survey. For example, I was not sure what this says and had to make guesses until I found a stone. This says N 24.5 E. The words "Large Stone" are upside down above it, and the 5.00 chains (330 feet) below it.
Guy