Cumberland County Stones

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,552
2,465
59
millville nj
www.youtube.com
headed out to the new state property at Sheppards Mill today and went looking for the stones I plotted off the deed. I found about half of them and the ones I found were scattered along the whole two plots I did so my plotting appears to have been right on but the ones I"m missing may have been under brush or buried.I know four stones were along a steep hill that by looking at the trees appears to be slumping big time along with organic trash being pushed over the hill by a farm along the top so those stones were most definitely buried.I managed to get an accurate POB from a stone I had found years ago that is along the Greenwich/Hopewell twp line.It is a large stone with G inscribed in one side and H inscribed on the other and along one side.This stone was the POB for both surveys I plotted stones along.I did not get to look for two tax corner picks because I forgot to put that file in the gps so i will be going back for those and to relook for a few that I think were in the brush.
All in all this is a nice piece of woods.very hilly with a relief of over 100 ft from the lake.Some very open woods but some with moderate briars and some dense laurel patches.Three small streams feed the lake with small waterfalls all along them.The southern section is quite piney and could pass for barrens but the streams are way different.Their deep ruts in clay with greenish water.The northern woods have a lot of big red oaks and tulip poplars.Not real piney looking up there.The stones were all imported and appeared to be Schist mostly with one a non native sandstone.
Saw two yaks and a boat on the pond.Not a soul in the woods.
 

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LOL! No, it's a science thing. I have a need to put something in the photo that denotes scale. BTW, that "ultra-lite" spade is made of special super-strong aircraft alloy and is manufactured in Bridgeton. Most of my published photos include "scale" tools of local provinance.

Is the spade from the outfit at the Pearl St / Rosenhayne intersection? How hard is it to sharpen?
 

ninemileskid

Explorer
Sep 14, 2014
218
138
Manumuskin - I'm trying to figure out what's going on in picture 4320. Is that three separate stones, one cut stone or am I just looking at it wrong? And why would someone do that?
 
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manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,552
2,465
59
millville nj
www.youtube.com
Manumuskin - I'm trying to figure out what's going on in picture 4320. Is that three separate stones, one cut stone or am I just looking at it wrong? And why would someone do that?
That is actually one stone.I did a double take when I seen it.I had been walking around a few minutes looking for ir though my plot was right on.It was hid down in the huckleberry.I was on an old human trail along a swamp that looked pretty much abandoned and as I did one more loop I noticed some old sap running down a pine tree and then noticed it looked like it was running from a hatchet scrape.I immediately looked down in the direction the scrape was pointing and then i saw it and I thought what is that? I thought it was concrete but then I bent down and looked at it and realized it was one stone.I don't know if it was cut like that or if a section popped out of it due to fracturing,that would be the cleanest right angle fracturing I"ve ever seen and in that case where was the rest of it?I thn looked up and seen another sappy scrape pointing at it from another direction.This stone appeared to be a fine grain sandstone.All the rest appeared to be a metamorphic schist with bands of calcite running through them.
 

Spung-Man

Explorer
Jan 5, 2009
976
656
64
Richland, NJ
loki.stockton.edu
Is the spade from the outfit at the Pearl St / Rosenhayne intersection? How hard is it to sharpen?

Yes, OJG, that is the place, the King of Spades. You can read the history of their landscaping products on the company's website. WW products are amazing. In a former life I was a nurseryman, and have a true appreciation for the workmanship. Some firms in China have tried to copy WW, but so far the Bridgeton product is unmatched. Their implements are pieces of art, steampunk art deco!

Better steel means a better hold on a sharper edge. In pursuit of geologic features I often dig through hard quartz gravel and dense fragipan, but the local tool blades keep a good bevel. Tree diggers like to sharpen the blades to make clean slices through roots, but for my purpose that extra step is occasional at most.

S-M
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,552
2,465
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millville nj
www.youtube.com
Went out to some private property near Cumberland Pond today with a friend who has access to the property and had some info on the corners.We were hunting for four known stones and a two pipes.What we didn't find was two of the four stones and one of the pipes but we found the other two stones and two more stones we did not know were stones and one which may not be a part of the property but is close,I have to check on that.We also found a couple concretes on the property and another near the odd stone.In all a good day.The two stones and one pipe we missed were all on the edge of a swamp and may have succumbed to mud and gravity. In any case IMG 5291 is the southwest corner of the property and right along a highway.Obviously stood up against that tree by the owner who said he did a perimeter recon recently.Still have to find out if he found the two stones we couldn't.5293 is the old oak stone which the old oak was lying quite rotten next to it,a pipe and plastic stake next to the stone shows it has been surveyed to at least twice since the stone was put in.The owner bought the property about 30 years ago.5294 would be the se corner and was next to a stake and monument and 5297 is the odd stone we found by walking north on a trail from 5294 ans had a monument and a tire around the stone for protection i presume.This monument may have been off property and I have to check.
 

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manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,552
2,465
59
millville nj
www.youtube.com
I have just set myself up for the winter.I went to the Cumberland County Clerk site to check for new deeds on State bought property or Nature Conservancy and Natural Lands Trust deeds and i discovered the site has been update it appears back to 1989.They had only went back to 2002 and I have went over all those deeds.I went through about 300 new deeds and anything with stones mentioned i saved and then started reading them.I have found the Manumuskin Preserve deed! It is 105 pages long and lists probably over 100 stones though many may be duplicates. I immediatley started plotting ones that I could establish a POB on and hopefully will be able to establish more POB"s as I find stones.I started out down at the southerly end of the preserve parked at the end of Barth Road and did about a 4 mile loop.My first stone destination was a semi success.In other words there was no stone but there was a monument at the exact coordinate I plotted with accompanying blank sign.This was on the deed as Anne Carrols Corner and the accompanying sign was probably put there by the Silica Sand Company before the Nature Conservancy bought it.I had noticed this monument in the past but had forgotten about it till I stood at it again.last time I walked by it was in my pre stone hunting days and pre GPS days so it held no interest for me back then. Here are a couple pics of Annes Corner
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I was expecting to have a lucky day since my declination of 6 degrees was right on the money I figured the rest of this plot would be right on the money.I knew that two stones i could not look for because they were on the very edge of peoples yards.These folks live back in the woods and me snooping around the edge of their yard may have been hazardous to my health but there were two i could look for,one with in sight of a house but far enough a way to avoid detection and i was on Nature Conservancy as well. Both stones were not found.This did not please me but I hiked up my britches and proceeded across a very nice dry vernal pond for a half mile to the Hoffman Back Line.I had searched this line before for stones since it was blazed open four feet across by surveyors in the past and I wandered into it a few years ago.I found nothing then but now i had a plot so i decided to try again.Again nothing other then the DL Stone i found years ago and I took a couple fresh pics today.The stone was planted I believe in 1831 by David Lore who was a store owner/operator in Port Elizabeth and a prolific land owner. This will not be the last we hear from David today.
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I now headed north to the Fries Mill area and searched for one stone along swamps edge that I did not have enough info to plot to but took an educated guess.I should learn that guesses don't work well in this business.It was a negative on that stone.I then headed up to Fries Mill and looked for two stones near the hole in Manumuskin Creek i learned to swim in at old Camp Hollybrook.Neither stone was there but I didn"t really expect them to be.Area was heavily disturbed in the past and over run by kids for years including me. Stones were of course gone or buried. I then headed for the high light of the day hopefully.This involved a circular route to avoid tresspassing on the property of a man I had run into in the past who gave me the third degree about what i was doing only a few hundred yards from his property each time.This man apparently feels like Manumuskin Preserve is his. but both times (he forgot me the second time) I informed Him that i was not on his property and new exactly where i was and whose property i was on then he suddenly became friendly both times.I found out He is an ex State Trooper so i guess He is trained to treat people like that and to get into others business when it's not his own.In any case my next search was on his line.It would have been very easy to get to if I had walked across his land but i would not have had cocky rights if he caught me on his own dirt so I did the legal thing and circled around through the swamp.It was not as bad as i thought but I did get ripped up getting out of said swamp by a different route trying to short cut back to the road.Short cuts are like guesses,they very seldom work or a price will be paid at any rate.I paid the price.In any case I told you we would hear from David Lore again.Here is what he said.Well at first he faked me out and I wandered into this.
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This monument really disappointed me.It told me my plot was on,well almost.It was 50 ft short of my point but it was not the stone mentioned.Something told me to go 50 ft more to my coord and i walked about ten ft and caught sight of something through the brush.Now this was more like it! Talk to me Davy!
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Flip side please!
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Shout it at me!
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I did a quiet stone dance because at this point shouting would have been heard by Mr. Nibnose if he was home and since I was on his line I couldn't blame him for asking me my business.Now that i was on a stone high I proceeded to head to Schooner Landing road and look for a stone Guy and i searched for off the hartman maps but could not find.Thgis plot fell a little off thatone so i looked but it was too close to the road and it was gone.I then decided to walk further down the road to visit a very nice stone on the Scott Line called Vanamans Corner.I did not have the coord on me since it was a last minute decision but I could remember where it was just out of sight of the road but as i approached the area my heart fell.The stone was actually on the border of NC and Ace Electric land which has been sold to a hunting club. They have logged the area obviously about five years ago by the size of the pine trees growing in the area.I could not find the stone though the old pull off was still visible that I used as a pointer to the stone.On returning home I put my track on the map and I passed within 12 ft of the stone.I am going back to search the exact coord in the small pines,they may have his it.It used to be a gorgeous open oak woods next to a sizable oak.That tree would be a stump now.I am afraid some logger saw the stone and took it or knocked it over with a truck? It was a large and very nice stone.I will have to send Guy the coords and see if he can pull a pic of it up.I no doubt have a pic but am so unorganized i would never find it.That was probably a good seven or eight years ago.
I then went to Schooner Landing road black top section down near Port Elizabeth to hunt one last stone and di not find it.I have a coupel Scott Monuments plotted out there to look for and if i can figure out more POB's then many more stones to plot as well.Plus many deeds of other areas.I should be busy this winter!
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,552
2,465
59
millville nj
www.youtube.com
I went back today to scour the logged area next to Schooner Landing Road.This time with the exact coordinates to Vanamans Corner stone (Point 81 on the Cumberland Furnace Survey) and the stone is gone.I cannot even find the hole it left when pulled out.Google Earth shows the area was logged some time between 2011 and 2014. It was a nice stone and someone with a brain the size of a pea decided that it would look better in their yard then where it actually performed a function.The stone was on the Scott LIne which is a hsitorical survey from far back in Cumberland County"s past and it still marked the line of Nature Conservancy property and Holly Ridge LLC which is the property that was logged.If I could find the hole the stone was pulled from I would plant a new one like i did the Bog Stone.The strange part is if the stone had actually been closer to the road it probably would have survived.It was about 70 ft off Schooner Landing road and not quite visible from it.The logging came to within about 50 ft of the road and just close enough to either destroy the stone or for a logger to steal it.I thought perhaps i would find it knocked over amongst the small pines and hidden but it was not to be.When I got home and put my first track on the computer I had missed the coord by twelve feet.My memory was that good after about ten years.There are several sizeable stumps near the coord and i remember the stone was about three feet north of a sizeable oak. I will have to see if I can come up with a pic of the stone.I know i have one but finding it will be a job because it was so long ago.
 
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manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,552
2,465
59
millville nj
www.youtube.com
I thought perhaps they knocked it over and it might have gotten buried but that is a big stone to get shoved under ground.I think someone must have stolen it.Either a logger or once they logged it was probably visible from Schooner Landing road and someone in a truck probably pulled up to it,yanked it and threw it in the back of the truck.Almost 200 years of history out the window just like that!
 
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manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,552
2,465
59
millville nj
www.youtube.com
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Have been having a hard time locating stones in the manumuskin preserve because I can't locate the starting points.I went to the 1931 aerials and located some old stage routes from Millville to Port Elizabeth and walked those the best I could follow them today which wasn't very well in spots.Nose to the gps but was probably out of the roads more then in.They left a very faint impression on the land and there was no vegetation change to help keep the roads,one still had moguls from where the cycles had ridden it before it disappeared and I could follow it by the moguls.I knew it wasn't just a cycle trail from my waypoints marking the road.I found nothing on the old stage routes but I also decided to follow what appeared to be an old road straight as an arrow from north to south which I believe to be the "Division Line".This road may have also served as a stage route but it did not wander and i believe it was a survey line first.It also left a very faint impression but with this road I knew if i toed the line so to speak I would stay in the road.About a third of the way along it's length before the sand wash destroyed the old track I wandered onto this.I thought it was an oak stump at first because i could see what i thought to be white wood under the lichen.I kicked it and it felt hard so i got down and touched it,still not sure so i took out my car key and scratched it.Stone! There is a stone almost identical to this one about 2000 ft NNe of this one which I happened onto whilst mushrooming with a friend of mine.Wonder if it could be part of the same tract?I am trying to build on these finds bylearning corner names and then plotting other tracts from known corners but it's very slow going.The woods are great though,very open.I walked past an old memory today.The beat up burnt out jaloppy that the manumuskin PBX hike found years back just south of the main sand plant drive way.Looks like late 60's early 70"s chevy? Probably an old pic of it still on the forum.The car is still there but the old road we walked to it is gone.Can't even tall it was there.That was part of an old stage route and I didn't know it back then.I followed it today using coords but it's invisible now whereas fifteen years ago you could follow it.
 
Went out to some private property near Cumberland Pond today with a friend who has access to the property and had some info on the corners.We were hunting for four known stones and a two pipes.What we didn't find was two of the four stones and one of the pipes but we found the other two stones and two more stones we did not know were stones and one which may not be a part of the property but is close,I have to check on that.We also found a couple concretes on the property and another near the odd stone.In all a good day.The two stones and one pipe we missed were all on the edge of a swamp and may have succumbed to mud and gravity. In any case IMG 5291 is the southwest corner of the property and right along a highway.Obviously stood up against that tree by the owner who said he did a perimeter recon recently.Still have to find out if he found the two stones we couldn't.5293 is the old oak stone which the old oak was lying quite rotten next to it,a pipe and plastic stake next to the stone shows it has been surveyed to at least twice since the stone was put in.The owner bought the property about 30 years ago.5294 would be the se corner and was next to a stake and monument and 5297 is the odd stone we found by walking north on a trail from 5294 ans had a monument and a tire around the stone for protection i presume.This monument may have been off property and I have to check.
I think this is my parents property that extends behind the fire house and the state maintenance yard. I can fine the stones bordering Lauren’s Branch easily. The one closest to the Manamuskin is in pretty swampy ground while the upstream stone is on higher ground. I’ll snap a few pictures next time I am in the area.
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,552
2,465
59
millville nj
www.youtube.com
We looked for the one closest to Manumuskin over near the wooden bridge and could not find it.I figured it sunk under the mud but it was on the edge of the swamp so if I was off by 30 ft one way it could have been on higher ground but we checked that as well.
 
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