Today Ro and I drove the paved road to the north off NJ72 just east of the sand pit and 72/539 intersection. After a few miles it ended as it ran - pine woods on both sides. Came home and checked some maps: one showed "Howardsville" at about where we turned west on a sand trail and got to 539. What's the story about this evidently abandoned town?
Howardsville
- Thread starter johnnyb
- Start date
Found this in the forums here...
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/whats-the-story-behind-howardsville-nj.279/
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/whats-the-story-behind-howardsville-nj.279/
Packing operation as far as I know. There are some old foundations, bits of pipe, and a truck or tractor chassis out in the woods. If you walk that large field you can find bits of pottery.
Howardsville is a very old cranberry operation that is now owned by the state. Almost all evidence of the town has been removed but there is at least one structure that can still be found deep in the woods. The property has been owned by various individuals and companies over the years, with the most recent one being the Penn Producing company. It is ironic that some of the property the Penn Producing company acquired was sold to them by the state, only to purchase it back in later years. Howardsville has some of the nicest property stones to be found and I found all of them except two that has been stolen. Lost Town Hunter has a photo of one of them in his collection which I have a copy of. I can't post that photo since it is not mine. Howardville is now maintained by the state workers in Colliers Mill. WaretownMike earlier this year found an underground tank in the field at Howardville, and I met with a man from Colliers Mill there early one morning to show it to him. He was going to find out if the DEP wanted it removed or to leave it there. The last time I visited it was still there.
Here are the stones of Howardville.
Here are the stones of Howardville.
Wow!
I never cease to be amazed at the detail, accuracy, and speed of answers to posts here.
We weren't dressed in bug/woods duds, so stayed in the car. We could see a lengthy clearing to the east.
And just how long did it take to find all those marker stones?
I searched for "Howardsville" before posting here, got nil, then after doing so found there was another thread with info. Sigh.
Boy, I sure wish I'd taken more time/pictures/notes when I was wandering the Pines with my son, looking for good pickerel spots, back in the 60's......
I never cease to be amazed at the detail, accuracy, and speed of answers to posts here.
We weren't dressed in bug/woods duds, so stayed in the car. We could see a lengthy clearing to the east.
And just how long did it take to find all those marker stones?
I searched for "Howardsville" before posting here, got nil, then after doing so found there was another thread with info. Sigh.
Boy, I sure wish I'd taken more time/pictures/notes when I was wandering the Pines with my son, looking for good pickerel spots, back in the 60's......
Was Told recently by an old timer I met that the entire town was bulldozed into huge holes that had been dug. Houses, equipment, contents of houses etc. If I Came with a friends GPR device it would be quite Interesting
I don't know of any other places where they bulldozed several homes into a large pit.
Thank you all for this post, I have been doing a lot of reading and learning a TON about the pines! It's great to know about all of the history here, since growing up right in Brick for the last 20 yrs, I had never heard of any of this. Now I'm hooked on reading about it all and can't wait until the weekend to go explore, enjoy nature and snap some cool pics with my DSLR!
Keep your eyes open for chiggers. The tall grass at Howardsville will be swarming with them.
Oh, thank you for the heads up, I'm hoping they won't be active/alive with the temperature dropping recently, but I'll definitely apply some bug spray to play it safe! I always make sure I wear jeans when going out in the woods, though even with that, I walked through some tall grass last weekend and the next night I found a tick still just sitting there on my ankle. He didn't bite into me (this was almost 24 hours later too!), thankfully, but he was just sitting there looking up at me, basta*d, lol.
Back to Howardsville, I noticed that Bryant Rd. right to the north of it seems to have a decent elevation (190-200ft.) as well and an easy to access clearing - should be good for astrophotography.
The top of Forked River Mountain is a great place to see the night sky. I live pretty close by and have taken wife and kids up there on nights of meteor showers or to see the International Space Station go by. Occasionally good Milky Way views.
Thanks, yeah I saw that spot on the map and that it has a decent elevation, I just have to figure out how I can get there. I only have a small FWD car and I usually hike out to wherever I'm going, but when I got late a night I don't always want to hike too far. Also, I heard that's a hot spot for off-roaders and kids hanging out partying, no? That's not something I'm trying to run into, too old for that scene, lol.
That's fine, I just usually try to drive as close as I can, especially when going out at night in the winter. But as I said, I typically end up hiking as I keep my car on paved roads. Thanks for the heads up though!
When I was going through my divorce I would often drive up to the Forked River Mountain and just stare at the sky when I couldn't sleep. I loved it up there.