Dams on Buckshutem Creek

[pinelandpaddler]

Check out these features on Buckshutem Creek:

boydsmaps.com

boydsmaps.com

boydsmaps.com

@Spung-Man I recall you discussing crude dams that were constructed to pond up streams in order to make them conducive for floating logs downstream. (I couldn't find the thread, so perhaps my memory is off). Is that what these are?

 

[bobpbx]

Have you thought of beaver?

 

[Boyd]

Talk about a leading question!

As I understand it, a beaver dam of logs and sticks wouldn't show on bare earth LIDAR imagery.

 

[bobpbx]

Yes, I think I recall you saying that a couple years ago..

 

[manumuskin]

https://boydsmaps.com/#17.00/39.341860/-75.053017/lidar2021bw/0.00/0.00 This here is an old road but the points you put up Gabe I know not what they are.This is within walking distance of my house and if you like I can check them out perhaps monday? I was also thinking beaver dams but yes your probably right,they wouldn't even show on Lidar.These are very twisty for a man made dam though.I have been all over that swamp but don't recall anything in those areas.yes I will be checking this out. Can't have stuff that close to my house I don't know about,ain't like this is way out in Boyd Country,this is my back door!

 

[manumuskin]

There was supposedly an old log cabin here a couple centuries ago that a recluse lived in.The area is open pine and appears to have been a field once with no huckleberry root layer. https://boydsmaps.com/#17.00/39.341719/-75.054262/lidar2021bw/0.00/0.00

 

[Menantico]

It may depend on the water level when those were created, for instance the one Al showed seems to align with a trail but the ones Gabe posted are not. Really interesting find Gabe.

 

[manumuskin]

The one I posted is a trail,there is often home made bridges put there that last a few years and rot or collapse.Last time I was there there was a very unsafe dilapidated log bridge.The ones Gabe posted Ihave never been to or I should say I"ve probably walked past them and never gave them a thought so I must check them and see,

 

[Menantico]

A recluse on an island in a river reached only by a dilapidated bridge seems like the life for me.

 

[manumuskin]

https://boydsmaps.com/#17.00/39.350174/-75.081808/lidar2021bw/0.00/0.00 a well defined side stream channel contrasts with the channelless Buckshutem.The LIDAR tells true,Buckshutem has no channel to speak of till you get to 555.A few feet here and there if running water playing peekaboo under the roots is about all you get.Can be a treacherous bit of swamp as you near the creek in places. below 555 a fairly well defined channel though for some reason it doesn't show below 555 either.

 

[manumuskin]

Buckshutem Swamp hasn't been near the great place to hang out it used to be.The Dirt Track and Race Track are literally so loud there on weekends that it can give you a headache.I don't understand why any wildlife would even stay there.The borders of the swamp are thick laurel tangles liberally sprinkled with catbriar.I have encountered many a spotted fawn in there in spring some of which ran away and others that laid there and let me pet them without moving a muscle. The kind of area you might not be found for awhile if you should check out there.

 

[manumuskin]

Do these features look more like ridges or trenches? I can't decide.

 

[Menantico]

There's an interesting section on Buckshutem in Margaret Louise Mint's "The Great Wilderness." Although mostly apocryphal and not providing adequate citation at all, it is a wealth of anecdotal information.

The following was from that book (pg. 133/134 "Iszard's Mill {Buckshutem}):

"On ebb tide the waters of the Great Menantico and the Buck and Shootem Water Point came together with such force that boats had to
either buck or shoot the water. As early as 1600 this was called "Buck and Shootem" Stream."

It continues with information about Native Americans and colonial mills in the area, as well as the founding of Laurel Lake, which I'm sure you could appreciate Al.

 

[manumuskin]

Are they saying that in the Maurice where Buckshutem and Menantico enter across from each other that the force was so great it created whitewater? There must have been a much higher water table ten today.neither of these streams today create more then a ripple as they enter the maurice.perhaps maybe the maurice was fresh Water and non tidal back then? menantico does have quite some force upstream of menantico ponds at times where it's fresh.I have also seen 555 flood the whole width of the swamp knee deep and must be forded carefully when that happens but even then they don;'t create hazardous condition on the Maurice which is several hundred yards wide where they flow in. The whole drainage must have changed considerably since then

 

[manumuskin]

Laurel Lake has been here for well over 200 years I believe and there is the remains of an old mill dam where gravelly run crosses battle lane (Would love to know how that road got it's name) As long as the lake has been there there are miraculously still cedar stumps under the dark waters. I aslso believe the hartman map shows a mill down near the dam at the lower end of the lake as well.

 

[manumuskin]

Interestingly as long as the lake has been here the settlement of the lake itself outside of the widely spaced dwelling wasn't undertaken till the 50's as a Shooby retirement/vacation home site.I live in one of the original bungalow and was originally owned by the parents of the shoobies who still own the house across the street from me and who come down on weekends in summer.We're friends with them two sisters and their husbands the youngest sister is my age. They have electric and running water,no tv and they turn their phones off when they pull up.Their from Philly and they think their camping.We laugh when we realized we're living in a campground and never knew it.They learned the hard way that there is trouble in paradise when the crack heads broke in stole their pump ripped out all their pipes and stole their dads memorabilia they had there from the 60's. My wife watches the place for them but I think Momma was asleep and i was at work that night. Such is tare the joys of laurel lake

 

[Menantico]

I'd have to assume the water table was higher before the intake of commercial, residential, and agricultural pursuits in the area.

On page 136 of the aforementioned book (printed in 1968), Mints' states "Laurel Lake is a development still under construction on the north edge of Buckshutem. Many modern homes are being built along this beautiful lake and many of the old homes are being remodeled."

The mention of "old homes" is probably what you are referring to Al.

 

[manumuskin]

North side would be the Millville side.I know the first homes this side were built in the 50's,the bungalows on millville side are identical so I"d assume same time frame over there.Now there were baileytown homes much earlier in what is now bevan and yes up and down the Maurice had older homes but the grid work I live on only begun to be built on in the 50's and closer to the lake first and then spreading south.The manor on the south side of spring garnden only had a few trailers when i was a kid in the 70's and then almost all roads were dirt except for battle,magnolia spring garden and doris.Now all are blacktop.

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Would you two shut up and kindly visit the sites and report back ?

 

[Menantico]

My exact thoughts about you two and Mordecai lol