I was too busy yesterday to go on the PBX Hike but I was able to get into the woods for a few hours. I wanted to investigate a few areas I noticed on historic aerials.
Here is a circular clearing that appears on carranza road near sandy ridge in 1931.
http://www.historicaerials.com/aerials.php?scale=1.6E-05&lat=39.75902304506&lon=-74.589958&year=1931
Here is that clearing today.
here is a blueberry field that appears a little north of Friendship in 1951.
http://www.historicaerials.com/aeri...7518887712125&lon=-74.5870300000001&year=1951
And now.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.75244445469969&lng=-74.58572030067444&z=17&type=h&gpx=
The blueberry bushes and rows are still there but very overgrown with mature pines.
Though not often mentioned, there was a extensive blueberry operation in friendship. The largest field came about in the mid '30's to mid 40's. Prior to that, the area was just swamp land with one unique uplands "island". When the fields were formed, the island remained. It was difficult to see structure existing on the island from the historic aerial photos, but logic would dicate that some sort of building of some sort would be placed there. I could also make out what appeared to be a pond on the island, and it appered in recent aerial photos. So, I was off to investigate.
Here is the island (it is the "island of upland within the blueberry feilds) in '51.
http://www.historicaerials.com/aeri...7432651486556&lon=-74.5881939999997&year=1951
Here it is today.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.74291679541459&lng=-74.5881450176239&z=17&type=h&gpx=
The blueberry bushes in the old fields are still holding on despite being very overgrown
The island is definitely uplands and pretty clear. The area with the trees growing out of it could be the location of what was once a packing house.
this shot shows the depression much better.
There were other depressions as well, but smaller. Perhaps from out houses.
It is possible that this was a borrow pit for the construction of the land bridges around the bog system that would have pre-dated the blueberry operation. But I don't think so, it was too shallow and wide compared to most borrow pits i've seen.
I also found this
and this
remains of the structure where the depression is now? I am inclined to think so. the nails still remaining in the boards were too flimsy for practical use in a tree stand. Also, this island is pretty well protected from fire.
I also found barbed wire. Almost reduced to total rust.
My hunch about the pond was correct. It seemed very odd to have a spung here, in otherwise very high dry ground. the water was stagnent and deep. Could they have dug out a bathing spot for themselves? Hmmm. Perhaps this was a much older barrow pit for the cranberry operation. Eitherway, I really am lead to believe it was dug by hand. There was even wool grass growing along one side. getting a clear picture was difficult because of the dense vegetation around it.
I found a tree stand at the edge of the island. It was about two stories high and accessable by spikes, up to a point, then you had to rely on branches. Climbing to the top with wind throwing the cedar back and forth was a little nerve racking. It was a long way down.
Some nice views from the top though.
I then hiked to one of the more remote bogs in the system.
What I like about this photo is that it looks like the end of the earth right over the tree line on the other side of the bog. Might as well be, it gets real deep, dark and beautiful beyond that.
Then I realized, Oh NO I forgot my fishing pole!!!!! Come on now, you know me better than that! Didn't catch any fish though......Gotcha again, who do you think this is?
another smaller one
Well, there you go. Hope you enjoyed the report.
Jeff
Here is a circular clearing that appears on carranza road near sandy ridge in 1931.
http://www.historicaerials.com/aerials.php?scale=1.6E-05&lat=39.75902304506&lon=-74.589958&year=1931
Here is that clearing today.
here is a blueberry field that appears a little north of Friendship in 1951.
http://www.historicaerials.com/aeri...7518887712125&lon=-74.5870300000001&year=1951
And now.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.75244445469969&lng=-74.58572030067444&z=17&type=h&gpx=
The blueberry bushes and rows are still there but very overgrown with mature pines.
Though not often mentioned, there was a extensive blueberry operation in friendship. The largest field came about in the mid '30's to mid 40's. Prior to that, the area was just swamp land with one unique uplands "island". When the fields were formed, the island remained. It was difficult to see structure existing on the island from the historic aerial photos, but logic would dicate that some sort of building of some sort would be placed there. I could also make out what appeared to be a pond on the island, and it appered in recent aerial photos. So, I was off to investigate.
Here is the island (it is the "island of upland within the blueberry feilds) in '51.
http://www.historicaerials.com/aeri...7432651486556&lon=-74.5881939999997&year=1951
Here it is today.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.74291679541459&lng=-74.5881450176239&z=17&type=h&gpx=
The blueberry bushes in the old fields are still holding on despite being very overgrown
The island is definitely uplands and pretty clear. The area with the trees growing out of it could be the location of what was once a packing house.
this shot shows the depression much better.
There were other depressions as well, but smaller. Perhaps from out houses.
It is possible that this was a borrow pit for the construction of the land bridges around the bog system that would have pre-dated the blueberry operation. But I don't think so, it was too shallow and wide compared to most borrow pits i've seen.
I also found this
and this
remains of the structure where the depression is now? I am inclined to think so. the nails still remaining in the boards were too flimsy for practical use in a tree stand. Also, this island is pretty well protected from fire.
I also found barbed wire. Almost reduced to total rust.
My hunch about the pond was correct. It seemed very odd to have a spung here, in otherwise very high dry ground. the water was stagnent and deep. Could they have dug out a bathing spot for themselves? Hmmm. Perhaps this was a much older barrow pit for the cranberry operation. Eitherway, I really am lead to believe it was dug by hand. There was even wool grass growing along one side. getting a clear picture was difficult because of the dense vegetation around it.
I found a tree stand at the edge of the island. It was about two stories high and accessable by spikes, up to a point, then you had to rely on branches. Climbing to the top with wind throwing the cedar back and forth was a little nerve racking. It was a long way down.
Some nice views from the top though.
I then hiked to one of the more remote bogs in the system.
What I like about this photo is that it looks like the end of the earth right over the tree line on the other side of the bog. Might as well be, it gets real deep, dark and beautiful beyond that.
Then I realized, Oh NO I forgot my fishing pole!!!!! Come on now, you know me better than that! Didn't catch any fish though......Gotcha again, who do you think this is?
another smaller one
Well, there you go. Hope you enjoyed the report.
Jeff
