Well, since it appeared that my friend Jay and I would be ill-prepared for the PBX hike today (slogging it in waist deep muck without chest waders didn't sound like too much fun - especially with the inlaws coming over tonight) I decided to continue on with my Beck hunting.
By now it should be obvious that I am working on following in Beck's footsteps and documenting what is left today, more than 70 years later. Today we set out in search of the Kinkora Railroad and the mysterious canal that attempted to defy gravity.
We left New Egypt and swung down through Dix to Mary Ann Forge. Since it's wintertime, I thought that it might be easier to see what might have been there. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it's cleaner than it was the last time I was there, although someone has dug firebreaks all over the site. I'm still not any closer to determining the actual site of the furnace.
The Greenwood Branch flows through the area, although there seems to be a manmade canal of some sorts that flows through the area as well. Thinking that we might be on to finding the elusive canal and sluice that Beck found in "More Forgotten Towns" that failed because water does not flow uphill we followed a path until we were dead ended by swamp. I'm not 100% convinced that I was in the right spot, however.
We then decided to find the Kinkora RR trestle over the Rancocas Creek. The Kinkora RR was completed in 1872, and this right of way near New Lisbon was the southernmost end of the road. A wanderer wrote to Beck regarding the ruined uprights of the trestle of a forgotten railroad in the woods. Beck, after some effort, was able to locate the trestle, although he came at it from the other side of the creek than we did today.
The rails and ties have been removed since Beck's time. All that betrays the fact that there was a railroad there is a mound running in a straight line through the woods - the right of way. It runs from the juncture of where the Penn Central crosses on it's way to Browns Mills up to the Rancocas, where it would have crossed and continued another 15 miles to Kinkora.
In Beck's time the trestle was more intact. All that is left today are a few pilings and one tie with a few spikes in it.
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=275
Beck came from the North, trespassing through a property known as "Fenwick Manor." We saw an interesting "birdfeeder" type device on the other side of the right of way, but the creek was too wide for us to cross. We backtracked back to my Jeep and took the road through Pemberton to get on the right of way from the other side of the creek. It's a road now - Fenwick Lane. Unfortunately it seems to pass right through private property - Fenwick Manor, complete with barns and what presumably was the dance hall. I imagine that it would be possible to get to the other side of the creek without trespassing. It's something I plan on doing sometime soon.
Photos are here: http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=275
By now it should be obvious that I am working on following in Beck's footsteps and documenting what is left today, more than 70 years later. Today we set out in search of the Kinkora Railroad and the mysterious canal that attempted to defy gravity.
We left New Egypt and swung down through Dix to Mary Ann Forge. Since it's wintertime, I thought that it might be easier to see what might have been there. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it's cleaner than it was the last time I was there, although someone has dug firebreaks all over the site. I'm still not any closer to determining the actual site of the furnace.
The Greenwood Branch flows through the area, although there seems to be a manmade canal of some sorts that flows through the area as well. Thinking that we might be on to finding the elusive canal and sluice that Beck found in "More Forgotten Towns" that failed because water does not flow uphill we followed a path until we were dead ended by swamp. I'm not 100% convinced that I was in the right spot, however.
We then decided to find the Kinkora RR trestle over the Rancocas Creek. The Kinkora RR was completed in 1872, and this right of way near New Lisbon was the southernmost end of the road. A wanderer wrote to Beck regarding the ruined uprights of the trestle of a forgotten railroad in the woods. Beck, after some effort, was able to locate the trestle, although he came at it from the other side of the creek than we did today.
The rails and ties have been removed since Beck's time. All that betrays the fact that there was a railroad there is a mound running in a straight line through the woods - the right of way. It runs from the juncture of where the Penn Central crosses on it's way to Browns Mills up to the Rancocas, where it would have crossed and continued another 15 miles to Kinkora.
In Beck's time the trestle was more intact. All that is left today are a few pilings and one tie with a few spikes in it.
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=275
Beck came from the North, trespassing through a property known as "Fenwick Manor." We saw an interesting "birdfeeder" type device on the other side of the right of way, but the creek was too wide for us to cross. We backtracked back to my Jeep and took the road through Pemberton to get on the right of way from the other side of the creek. It's a road now - Fenwick Lane. Unfortunately it seems to pass right through private property - Fenwick Manor, complete with barns and what presumably was the dance hall. I imagine that it would be possible to get to the other side of the creek without trespassing. It's something I plan on doing sometime soon.
Photos are here: http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=275
