Development in Mt Misery??

[Teegate]

All,

Since the Live Maps on this site now used topo maps from MyTopo.com, there is a slightly different look to them with some added goodies. I was looking over the topo maps of the Mt Misery area and the new topo's show this apparent possible development.

So I checked out HistoricAerials.com and it shows up as far back as the 1940 aerials.

I don't believe this has been mentioned before so lets see if we can come up with some conversation about it.

Guy

 

[Ben Ruset]

That's not on the regular USGS tops?

 

[Boyd]

Guy, those are also on the USGS 24k DRG maps that I downloaded awhile ago. The map coloring is different and this screenshot renders the WGS84 projection differently, but the features are the same. You can see them on the Garmin map that I posted here: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/270/

MyTopo seems to have a cleaner scan. If you have ever seen the National Geographic topo maps, they are also the same USGS 24k maps, but are scanned at much better quality than the old Terraserver maps. Perhaps they are the same as MyTopo?

No sign of it on the NJ 1930 aerials

I downloaded tax parcel data from the County, and they are not shown there either. Also looked my the NJ openspace files. Sometimes they include all the little parcels that make up a state forest, but not here. It is usually the newer state acquisitions that have that kind of detail.

 

[Teegate]

I did a quick look for my topo maps and could not find that one, and I did not remember that being there. Obviously, it was. In any event, I need to get there and look over some of those corners.

Guy

 

[manumuskin]

Guy I snuk into that area maybe ten years ago and checked those grids out while I was scoping out rattlesnake Ace's den area and there are pipes still sticking up out of the ground in that grid work.I saw no foundations but they obviously had or were going to have water or gas or something.Perhpas it was a campground and they were electrical hookups? A neat little gridwork it was.Nice swamp too but I saw nary a rattler but seen sandstone outcropping in the spagnum moss so definitely a potential den area.I hear Ace cleaned it out though.maybe so maybe not.
Al

 

[Teegate]

Thanks Al. I did pick all the corners and have them in my GPS. They show up as still being well cleared as late as 1962. You can still actually see them in the 2007 aerial also. I will check them out soon.

There are snakes in the Mt Misery area. I found a small building in that area and someone had written in marker to watch out for them.

Guy

 

[Gibby]

I wonder if this could have some relationship to the military? The U.S. Army Signal Corp had a bivouac in the area for a detached training regiment. This could be a camp area that never came to be. The time frame is right.

http://cecomhistorian.armylive.dodlive.mil/2011/03/11/pigeon-delivers-morning-report/

 

[Teegate]

I wonder if this could have some relationship to the military? The U.S. Army Signal Corp had a bivouac in the area for a detached training regiment. This could be a camp area that never came to be. The time frame is right.

http://cecomhistorian.armylive.dodlive.mil/2011/03/11/pigeon-delivers-morning-report/

It certainly well may have been. I was looking over the aerials on HistoricAerials and the 1963 aerial look like the squares had recently been cleared again or still kept cleared. So it may have been of importance for some reason for 20 years.

Guy

 

[Boyd]

Here's the LIDAR DEM 1/9 arc second imagery of the area. You can still see the ghost of some of those lines. But look at all the other lines running North-South. Are they firebreaks, or maybe something related to tree farming?

BTW, just a note about Historic Aerials. I recently purchased one of their images and had a good experience. They have a forum and very quickly answered my pre-purchase questions there. After the purchase, I received a personal e-mail from the owner thanking me and inviting me to contact him with any problems or questions - he even gave me his personal cell phone number. They are not cheap (cost me $20), but the image quality was excellent as was the service. OTOH, it's pretty easy to rip the imagery off their site for free, georeference and stitch it together if you don't mind the logos.

The image I bought is for a new mapping project I've started and I will post about it here in a new thread before long.

 

[Teegate]

I suspect they are fire breaks. Maybe trying to protect Mt Misery especially since children are always staying there.

As for HistoricalAerial, he is a member here and when we first were discussing the site he posted a few times. Seems like a good company.

Guy

 

[Teegate]

We were out this morning by 7AM and first visited Mt. Misery to check on the topic of this thread. We did find the pipe Al mentioned and walked some of the roads. I would have to call them roads because I suspect they were. Exactly why they were there is a question it would be nice to have an answer for.

Guy

 

[manumuskin]

I was just getting ready to state they were roads after reading an earlier post about them being ditches but I see you just went there Guy.Yes i do remember a pipe sticking out of the ground and an old road gridwork.I thought perhaps an old campground with electric hookups?or perhaps a development in the making that never got past the preliminary electrical work.naty a cellar hole did I see or much ground disturbance other then the roads.

 

[Teegate]

I did not walk far because that is something I will save until the fall when I can see more. But it looks to me to just be roads cut into the woods with nothing else. If not for them it would be like any other parcel of woods.

Guy

 

[Ben Ruset]

Looks an awful lot like a proposed development to me.

The LIDAR image that Boyd posted is puzzling. I've never seen firebreaks put together so closely. They also seem too close to be cleared for roads.

 

[Teegate]

Because of the firebreaks motorcycles have used them extensively.

Guy

 

[Boyd]

I think they are strange too, but I see similar lines in other places. For example, this is just west of the other image

And here's another one from Wharton. There are many others. That's the cool thing about the LIDAR imagery, it shows surface features that aren't visible on aerial photos.

 

[Ben Ruset]

That makes no sense. Are the lines just cuts in the trees or geology? Where's Spung-Man when you need him?

 

[Boyd]

I think they are trails, or maybe the ditches that they plow for firebreaks. Interesting the way they run North-South. Definitely man made.

 

[Ben Ruset]

Well, I don't see them being used for trails. That leaves them for firebreaks or logging. I just don't understand why they'd put firebreaks so close to each other. The firebreaks I have seen in the woods have been more substantial and not so closely spaced.

Maybe it was an earlier technique of fire fighting.

 

[bobpbx]

PBX also went straight through there about 7 years ago on our trip Lebanon Crossing. We went 7 miles in a straight line from Gum Swamp Branch on route 70 to Pasadena Road. I'd say a long-ago abandonded development plan. It was surreal.