"Driverless" ATV seen on Route 18
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Here's to you, Joe Sapia, the Spotswoods' champion!
Ben,
I'm a proponent of Pine Barrens outliers, detached islands of sandy, pine-tree dominated terrain that exist beyond what is customarily considered "The Pines," even to Sayreville. Their plant-material component may not exactly match the core area, but it is close enough for me. Outlier surficial geomorphology is also remarkably Pinelands-like. In support I invoke the delineation map of botanists McCormick and Andresen (1963: The role of Pinus virginiana Mill. In The vegetation of southern New Jersey. N.J. Nature News. 18: 27-38). Originally drafted for the Audubon Society, it is better known from the reprint in Forman (1979: xl, Pine Barrens: Ecosystem and Landscape), and clearly shows outliers like the Spotswood and Alloway as part of the Pine Barrens' realm.
Spung-Man
Ben,
I'm a proponent of Pine Barrens outliers, detached islands of sandy, pine-tree dominated terrain that exist beyond what is customarily considered "The Pines," even to Sayreville. Their plant-material component may not exactly match the core area, but it is close enough for me. Outlier surficial geomorphology is also remarkably Pinelands-like. In support I invoke the delineation map of botanists McCormick and Andresen (1963: The role of Pinus virginiana Mill. In The vegetation of southern New Jersey. N.J. Nature News. 18: 27-38). Originally drafted for the Audubon Society, it is better known from the reprint in Forman (1979: xl, Pine Barrens: Ecosystem and Landscape), and clearly shows outliers like the Spotswood and Alloway as part of the Pine Barrens' realm.
Spung-Man
Very true. When i was in college, we took dendrology field trips to nearby East Brunswick to examine pine barrens vegetation.
Pine Barren Outliers
Folks:
I am in full agreement with Spungman and German. These outliers are found in many places. The Camden County municipality of Lawnside and the portion of Bellmawr Borough known as Guineatown are both discontiguous outliers. The Pine Barren nature of these two communities can be documented not only be a physical examination of the specific localities, but also by reviewing historical literature concerning them. As some of you may know, Lawnside formerly carried the toponym, Snow Hill. While many associate this name with the community of the same name in Maryland, Snow Hill received that name because sawmill operators had clear cut the top of the hill there, revealing a defoliated prominence composed of sugar sand, which offered the appearance of fresh fallen snow. Hence, the name. During the late seventeenth and into the eighteenth century, much of the area comprising present-day Lawnside was included in a 600-acre parcel known as “the Old Saw Mill Lot.” Modern aerial photographs of the area strongly suggest that the stub-ends of the sawmill dam still exist along Cooper River just west of the rear north corner of the Lionshead Plaza parking lot.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
Folks:
I am in full agreement with Spungman and German. These outliers are found in many places. The Camden County municipality of Lawnside and the portion of Bellmawr Borough known as Guineatown are both discontiguous outliers. The Pine Barren nature of these two communities can be documented not only be a physical examination of the specific localities, but also by reviewing historical literature concerning them. As some of you may know, Lawnside formerly carried the toponym, Snow Hill. While many associate this name with the community of the same name in Maryland, Snow Hill received that name because sawmill operators had clear cut the top of the hill there, revealing a defoliated prominence composed of sugar sand, which offered the appearance of fresh fallen snow. Hence, the name. During the late seventeenth and into the eighteenth century, much of the area comprising present-day Lawnside was included in a 600-acre parcel known as “the Old Saw Mill Lot.” Modern aerial photographs of the area strongly suggest that the stub-ends of the sawmill dam still exist along Cooper River just west of the rear north corner of the Lionshead Plaza parking lot.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
From what I remember of Marlboro (I grew up kinda/sorta in that area) the soil wasn't sandy at all, and there were few Pines.
Yep, I grew up around Sayreville/Browntown. Almost all scrub oak. The NJ GIS maps show that.
Jerseyman, I'm glad you brought up lawnside as part of an outlier....There is one section by the woodcrest speedline heading towards Lions Gate that definetely has a little bit of a piney feel. I've also found species back there that are more commonly found in areas along the perimeter of the pine barrens. Nice little population of coyotes right there too.......there is a dead one right now by the lawnside exit on 295. Where is the portion in Bellmawr located?
As for the pine barrens outlier up near the cooke campus at Rutgers, up until say 20 years ago there was pine barrens tree frogs and carpenter frogs near there.
As for the pine barrens outlier up near the cooke campus at Rutgers, up until say 20 years ago there was pine barrens tree frogs and carpenter frogs near there.
Chris:
Once the home to manumitted slaves, Guineatown stood behind the old Montecello Motor Inn (now a Ho-Jo Express). A sandpit that became known as Lake Campanell destroyed a goodly portion of the small community that once existed there, but you can still catch glimpses of the area’s Pine Barren heritage.
If you take Browning Road (a.k.a. Sandy Lane or Gloucester Pike) from Lawnside west towards Bellmawr, you will come across two streets extending south from Browning:
1. Old Kings Highway
2. Campanell Avenue
Old Kings Highway is a short section of the Irish Road that once led to Irish Hill in Runnemede. The second road laid in present-day Camden County, the 1795 straight road we know now as the Black Horse Pike supplanted the Irish Road. The construction of the New Jersey Turnpike truncated the roadway to the small section that exists on the landscape today extending south from Browning Road. Campanell, of course, takes its name from the family that operated the sandpit.
The land given to the slaves during the opening years of the nineteenth century there in Guineatown is typical of the lands upon which most South Jersey antebellum black enclaves began. With few exceptions, you will find small hills of sugar sand where these settlements occurred. Whites viewed this land as marginal on several levels:
1. The land was agriculturally marginal, since the poor soil would only support meager subsistance crop production with little surplus yield for the market place.
2. The land was economically marginal, since the land had little value due to its poor quality and location and the low crop production provided the residents with no income.
3. The land was socially marginal because it usually stood outside of main population centers.
4. The land was geographically marginal, forcing the black residents to live “on the edge.”
There are many examples of these communities, but Lawnside and Guineatown certainly serve as two good archetypes.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
Chris:
I forgot to provide you with the description of the horned snake on Irish Hill that I mentioned to you sometime ago. Here is that short article:
The Friend, Seventh-Day, Eleventh Month 14, 1846, page 64.
Horned Snake.
Joseph Cook, living near Mount Ephraim, Camden county, N. Jer., a few weeks ago killed a snake of the horned species, about four and a-half feet long, and more than three inches in circumference. Its tail was armed with a horn which opened like the bill of a bird, and exhibited a sting which the reptile was capable of protruding when it stuck anything, and which is supposed to have contained its poison. The sides and belly were white, interspersed with dark spots about the size of half a cent and some smaller; and the bone of the back approached a salmon colour, and was also spotted. It was found on Irish Hill.
This herp sounds very strange!
Best regards,
Jerseyman
I forgot to provide you with the description of the horned snake on Irish Hill that I mentioned to you sometime ago. Here is that short article:
The Friend, Seventh-Day, Eleventh Month 14, 1846, page 64.
Horned Snake.
Joseph Cook, living near Mount Ephraim, Camden county, N. Jer., a few weeks ago killed a snake of the horned species, about four and a-half feet long, and more than three inches in circumference. Its tail was armed with a horn which opened like the bill of a bird, and exhibited a sting which the reptile was capable of protruding when it stuck anything, and which is supposed to have contained its poison. The sides and belly were white, interspersed with dark spots about the size of half a cent and some smaller; and the bone of the back approached a salmon colour, and was also spotted. It was found on Irish Hill.
This herp sounds very strange!
Best regards,
Jerseyman
Jerseyman, can't say I know of any species with the description. Sounds pretty far fetched two skinny given the length to be anything from our region. Thanks for the information though....certainly interesting.
Jerseyman,
I am frustrated I could not find the post I wanted to use here, however, this will have to do for now. I was able to visit the location of the sawmill on the Cooper River in Somerdale/Lawnside a few hours ago, and here is a stitched photo of the oxbow. There is no evidence as far as I could see of the sawmill. I was not able to explore the complete area because unfortunately there were teenagers in the woods there doing what might have been something I wanted to stay away from. I was not sure so I stayed away from them. I will have to go back very soon or that area will be impossible to get into and see things. The banks are quite high there and I suspect it was a very impressive sawmill.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.857832951480326&lng=-75.01552283763885&z=18&type=m&gpx=
http://teegate.njpinebarrens.com/05012011/oxbow.jpg
Guy
If anyone is interested, they are building a massive project right along Evesham Road by this oxbow location. Evesham Road in this area is starting to really change.
Guy
Guy
Guy,
If you look at the historical topo for this site (I got it from Ben's awesome LiveMaps, I don't know what year the historical topo is from), you see "Lawnside Lake," which Bill Farr wrote about in his Waterways of Camden County. Farr writes that the stream that you see in the historical topo was called "Long Meadow Branch," and it was dammed to create Lawnside Lake. Two observations:
- no Coopers Creek oxbow in the historical topo
- those guys have got to be building in the former bed of Long Meadow Branch, or awfully close.
Dave
If you look at the historical topo for this site (I got it from Ben's awesome LiveMaps, I don't know what year the historical topo is from), you see "Lawnside Lake," which Bill Farr wrote about in his Waterways of Camden County. Farr writes that the stream that you see in the historical topo was called "Long Meadow Branch," and it was dammed to create Lawnside Lake. Two observations:
- no Coopers Creek oxbow in the historical topo
- those guys have got to be building in the former bed of Long Meadow Branch, or awfully close.
Dave
I hope I am not confusing everyone. They are building along Evesham Road at the shopping center. The oxbow is right behind it.
The oxbow
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.857870012803225&lng=-75.01585006713867&z=15&type=topo&gpx=
They are building here.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.85824062493134&lng=-75.0180172920227&z=17&type=h&gpx=
Guy
The oxbow
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.857870012803225&lng=-75.01585006713867&z=15&type=topo&gpx=
They are building here.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.85824062493134&lng=-75.0180172920227&z=17&type=h&gpx=
Guy
It's the same place, I think: a hundred yards or so southeast of the intersection of Charleston Ave and Evesham Road.
1891 USGS 15 Minute Series, Southeast section, shows the Long Meadow Branch (dammed in two places) flowing into the Cooper, just a touch southwest of where Evesham Road crosses the Cooper on its way to "Ash Lane Station." Link here.
1898 USGS 15 Minute Series, Southeast section (i.e., the same version that shows up in the "Hist. Topo." layers of LiveMaps on this site), shows pretty much the same picture: the Long Meadow Branch (dammed in two places) flowing into the Cooper, just above the word "Greenland." Link here.
1891 USGS 15 Minute Series, Southeast section, shows the Long Meadow Branch (dammed in two places) flowing into the Cooper, just a touch southwest of where Evesham Road crosses the Cooper on its way to "Ash Lane Station." Link here.
1898 USGS 15 Minute Series, Southeast section (i.e., the same version that shows up in the "Hist. Topo." layers of LiveMaps on this site), shows pretty much the same picture: the Long Meadow Branch (dammed in two places) flowing into the Cooper, just above the word "Greenland." Link here.
It most likely is the same place, I just am thinking the oxbow is closer to Evesham than the maps show. Here is a good view of the oxbow.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.85746645509862&lng=-75.01568913459778&z=17&type=nj1930&gpx=
Guy
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.85746645509862&lng=-75.01568913459778&z=17&type=nj1930&gpx=
Guy