Yesterday, I set out with the dog to find and photograph the area where the photo of Y-Buc Bill crossing a stream on his flathead HD was taken.
This was a stream crossing taking place in 1950.
If you recall from my post in the recreation forum, Bill had responded and said that the crossing was behind the Pleasant Mills Church and he described the area very well.
I spoke to Bill again Thursday night and he said it was definitely Sleeper Creek and again gave me good directions to the spot.
This is an area so close by and so well known that I can't believe I haven't been there before.
As I appproached the spot, I dropped down into the lake bed which is evidenced by a long, continuos berm that begins at the Mullica shoreline. The berm is to the right.
The berm continues throughout the woods.
As I closed in on the location using Bill's recollection I was shocked to find a new footbridge constructed on pilings.
Even more shocking, the bridge was built by the Meteor Motorcycle Club, a club founded in 1930 that Bill road with many years ago and a club still exists today in South Jersey.
Here is their signature on the bridge decking.
Well I looked at each perspective at the bridge and my guess is this is the perspective of Bill's 1950 photo. This is the Sleeeper looking east.
In the background and not visible here are high dunes that appeared as sandbars in the 1930 aerials.
The other perspective is looking west but the ground does not jump up as much as it appears in Bill's 1950 picture.
The water is about 30" deep at its deepest and little bars exist throughout, making a motorcycle still feasible today. Unfortunately the area is off limits to motorized vehicles.
I continued over the crossing and a marked trail turns north and my GPS said I was .69 from Constable and Bill said they used to cross wit the bikes and then run up between the Muliica and the Sleeper to Constable. That is still do-able today except for the prohibition on motorized vehicles.
The most interesting part of the trip yeterday was realizing that the crossing location was, at one time, under the huge lake created by the damming of the Mullica River that took place before or around the turn of the century.
If you look at the attached map from this site you can see the crossing area beneath the balloon.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.64690686598528&lng=-74.66075778007507&z=17&type=nj2007&gpx=
Change the date to the 1930 aerials and you will see the huge lake that existed at least until 1930 and the crossing is under the lake.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.64610553379836&lng=-74.65947031974792&z=17&type=nj1930&gpx=
Interestingly, you can pick up a bridged crossing on Historicaerials .com in the 1963 time window.
In 1940 the monster lake was still in existence.
I am attempting a screen capture from Historic aerials.com here that shows a bridge in 1963.
It was an interesting outing, all taking palce in less than an hour.
I am going back again to expolre the canal that linked the lake to the Nescochague. The canal is visible in aerials all the way to the present.
At the end, I walked to the northeast tip of the Pleasant Mills Cemetery, another area that I have never expored and this guy was resting peacefully under a pretty cool tombstone.
I just hope he meant old country.
Scott and Murphy the dog.
This was a stream crossing taking place in 1950.
If you recall from my post in the recreation forum, Bill had responded and said that the crossing was behind the Pleasant Mills Church and he described the area very well.
I spoke to Bill again Thursday night and he said it was definitely Sleeper Creek and again gave me good directions to the spot.
This is an area so close by and so well known that I can't believe I haven't been there before.
As I appproached the spot, I dropped down into the lake bed which is evidenced by a long, continuos berm that begins at the Mullica shoreline. The berm is to the right.
The berm continues throughout the woods.
As I closed in on the location using Bill's recollection I was shocked to find a new footbridge constructed on pilings.
Even more shocking, the bridge was built by the Meteor Motorcycle Club, a club founded in 1930 that Bill road with many years ago and a club still exists today in South Jersey.
Here is their signature on the bridge decking.
Well I looked at each perspective at the bridge and my guess is this is the perspective of Bill's 1950 photo. This is the Sleeeper looking east.
In the background and not visible here are high dunes that appeared as sandbars in the 1930 aerials.
The other perspective is looking west but the ground does not jump up as much as it appears in Bill's 1950 picture.
The water is about 30" deep at its deepest and little bars exist throughout, making a motorcycle still feasible today. Unfortunately the area is off limits to motorized vehicles.
I continued over the crossing and a marked trail turns north and my GPS said I was .69 from Constable and Bill said they used to cross wit the bikes and then run up between the Muliica and the Sleeper to Constable. That is still do-able today except for the prohibition on motorized vehicles.
The most interesting part of the trip yeterday was realizing that the crossing location was, at one time, under the huge lake created by the damming of the Mullica River that took place before or around the turn of the century.
If you look at the attached map from this site you can see the crossing area beneath the balloon.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.64690686598528&lng=-74.66075778007507&z=17&type=nj2007&gpx=
Change the date to the 1930 aerials and you will see the huge lake that existed at least until 1930 and the crossing is under the lake.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.64610553379836&lng=-74.65947031974792&z=17&type=nj1930&gpx=
Interestingly, you can pick up a bridged crossing on Historicaerials .com in the 1963 time window.
In 1940 the monster lake was still in existence.
I am attempting a screen capture from Historic aerials.com here that shows a bridge in 1963.
It was an interesting outing, all taking palce in less than an hour.
I am going back again to expolre the canal that linked the lake to the Nescochague. The canal is visible in aerials all the way to the present.
At the end, I walked to the northeast tip of the Pleasant Mills Cemetery, another area that I have never expored and this guy was resting peacefully under a pretty cool tombstone.
I just hope he meant old country.
Scott and Murphy the dog.
