History of NJ Cranberry industry?

[uuglypher]

Abandoned Cranberry Packing house and bog at Double Trouble.
A friend of mine from NJ (on a photgraphy forum) posted this image which I recognized as the packing house at the cranberry bogs at Double Trouble (where Joe Palmer sent his crew for both ditchwork and herbicide spraying in the summer of ‘60). I didn’t know who the owners were then, but my friend says they were last owned by Ocean Spray.

https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-564980-1.html

 

[uuglypher]

I have a question. Does anyone here have any personal knowledge of a cranberry bog...or bogs... abandoned in the early 1960s? I am more than a little curious about the degree and rate of overgrowth by adjoining woodlands or lower vegetation that might obscure their identification as once active and productive bogs. I have, over the past weeks, spent many hours pouring over the various maps to which you have kindly...and patiently...directed me but have yet to identify the “bog by the (Wading) river” or any bog elsewhere similarly topographically situated enough to correspond with the “bog of sharply perceived memory”...wherever that may be.

Dave

 

[bobpbx]

I imagine that the early ones without a lot of money backing 'em were not cut straight and may not have had all the ditches cut just so, and were quickly overgrown, and may be unrecognizable today. And even if cut straight, like this one below from 1930, can be almost recognizable in 2015 as shown in the second panel. Kudos if someone can identify where this is.

 

[Teegate]

I imagine that the early ones without a lot of money backing 'em were not cut straight and may not have had all the ditches cut just so, and were quickly overgrown, and may be unrecognizable today. And even if cut straight, like this one below from 1930, can be almost recognizable in 2015 as shown in the second panel. Kudos if someone can identify where this is.
View attachment 13085

I will take that challenge. That is the Emma Cramer/ Garfield Broom bog.

NJPineBarrens Maps

 

[Teegate]

I suspect her name is Emma Broom and she married a Cramer. Don't really know.

 

[bobpbx]

You and Ron. He emailed me with the correct spot too. He likes others to have a chance.

 

[Teegate]

I should have held off but was not thinking.

 

[Boyd]

It shows on the 1949 topo: https://boydsmaps.com/#15/39.6806/-74.5235/pines1949
But not on the newer 24k topo: https://boydsmaps.com/#15/39.6806/-74.5235/pines1999

 

[bobpbx]

Don't hold back Guy! Go for it. What about this amoeba. I always wondered what it is. Who knows where it is?

 

[bobpbx]

Here's a bog that was ancient in 1930, and disappearing (albeit slowly) in 2017. You won't guess this one.

 

[Teegate]

Don't hold back Guy! Go for it. What about this amoeba. I always wondered what it is. Who knows where it is?View attachment 13088

Picking away at them

NJPineBarrens Maps

 

[bobpbx]

Picking away at them

NJPineBarrens Maps

Ever been there Guy?

 

[Boyd]

That one goes all the way back to Vermeule and Cook.

https://boydsmaps.com/#15/39.9381/-74.4136/vermeule
https://boydsmaps.com/#15/39.9381/-74.4136/cook

 

[manumuskin]

I suspect her name is Emma Broom and she married a Cramer. Don't really know.

View attachment 13087

Guy is this one of the stones west of Martha Pond? I remember two that were inscribed and flat and had to be poked to find.

 

[bobpbx]

That one goes all the way back to Vermeule and Cook.

https://online.boydsmaps.com/#15/39.9381/-74.4136/vermeule
https://online.boydsmaps.com/#15/39.9381/-74.4136/cook

That's really interesting. I wonder what they were doing with it.

By the way, that's great you have those two maps in your system. I"ll add them to my favorites. I must have missed them.

 

[Boyd]

Glad that you like the historical maps Bob! They have actually been online for quite awhile.

BTW, Balcony Hill can be seen Southeast of that bog on the Cook and Vermeule topo's. The name does not appear on any of the other historical topo maps.
https://boydsmaps.com/#15/39.9242/-74.3940/cook

At least half of it is gone today.
https://boydsmaps.com/#16/39.9242/-74.3947/lidarHD

Here's a sixteen year old thread that mentions it and the Cook topo.

Webbtown

This entry from Vivian Zinkin's "Place Names of Ocean County New Jersey (1609-1849)" really intrigues me: Webbtown Pre-1845 (F. Reynolds) Because several families of Webbs once lived here; loc. near Balcony Hill, in the SW part of Manchester Tp. I'll have to study the...

forums.njpinebarrens.com

 

[pinelandpaddler]

That's really interesting. I wonder what they were doing with it.

By the way, that's great you have those two maps in your system. I"ll add them to my favorites. I must have missed them.

Cranberry bog, no?

 

[bobpbx]

Cranberry bog, no?

It would be interesting if so. I remember it was often said that Peg-leg Webb from Jackson area was the first to make bogs, but when we say that the Chatsworth boys protest that notion.

 

[pinelandpaddler]

It would be interesting if so. I remember it was often said that Peg-leg Webb from Jackson area was the first to make bogs, but when we say that the Chatsworth boys protest that notion.

It has the typical grid of ditches, so cranberry bog would be my best guess. Here's an old cranberry bog in Smithville with the same kind of ditches: https://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.50008961032519&lng=-74.4763373082962&z=17&type=nj2015&gpx=

 

[Boyd]

Cranberry bog, no?

Seems pretty clear to me, here is the legend from the Cook maps. Those maps contain a wealth of landcover information.

https://boydsmaps.com/docs/cooks-map-of-the-pines-hd.pdf