john mcphees, the pine barrens

[Pan]

The lost town of Friendship, NJ. I remember the day I took the picture, the quiet country sounds of the farm animals. It was already more than half abandoned...

Duh, it took me 8 1/2 years to notice I had posted the wrong picture right above! Sorry, I'm a little slow. The picture right above is me in the ghost town of Gleeson, AZ by a gravestone that says, "Yee Wee born in China, died in 1962 (I think) - "I see you tomorrow". This picture was taken in, I think, 1992. By then Gleeson, like Friendship, was just a ghost town.

I think "I see you tomorrow" may have two meanings. Yee Wee owned a store in Gleeson and maybe that's what he said to people when they left, and maybe it means I'll see you tomorrow in heaven. I think it means both.

Thanks for the work on the Friendship picture, Ben, but I kind of favor my original slightly faded out version.

 

[Ben Ruset]

I've always wondered how to line up this photo. I guess that big white building on the right was in front of the packing house, and the house with the chimney is this building?

 

[Pan]

I've always wondered how to line up this photo. I guess that big white building on the right was in front of the packing house, and the house with the chimney is this building?

But the house with the chimney, the chimney was quite a bit in front of the foundation, no? In this one it looks like the chimney, if that's what it is, is behind the foundation.

Nature has erased almost all traces of the town of Friendship. Does anyone know how that town got its name?

 

[TommyP]

Friendship is still there, with ruins to see. They moved the schoolhouse, I think. Other towns are completely gone, like Washington and Mount.

 

[Pan]

Friendship is still there, with ruins to see. They moved the schoolhouse, I think. Other towns are completely gone, like Washington and Mount.

Back in the early 70's we camped at the site of Mount for three days. The weather was so beautiful we lolled around on the grass. Then we found our bodies infested with ticks. Never noticed or felt a thing. Got them out by dipping a rag into my VW gas tank and touching them with the rag. They backed right out. They go for the most obnoxious out of the way parts of the body.

The Barrens was so peaceful back then. I loved it, except for the ticks. No off road vehicles. Not many people even seemed to know about it. I don't think we saw anyone for those three days.

 

[Pan]

Friendship is still there, with ruins to see. They moved the schoolhouse, I think. Other towns are completely gone, like Washington and Mount.

NJPB, site of Washington, 50 years ago, Nov 1972.

 

[Teegate]

They had signs like that at Martha as well in 1974. The one at Martha was made by the Boy Scouts from Chalfont PA. My photo is really poor as it was taken with a Kodak Instamatic camera. I seem to remember the sign was on the left side of the road at the curve coming from Harrisville just before getting to the intersection by the fence. Someone had spray painted JIVE on it. I never saw it again.

 

[Pan]

They must have put those signs up shortly before I took that picture. It looked new in mine, but two years later when you took your picture the lettering was already worn off.

 

[Pan]

I was looking to see if I had any more pictures of those two ghost towns scanned on my computer and i came across this one...I used to see a lot of these around the Barrens back then. Deer hunters platforms I think Or was it TJ!?

https://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/missing-persons-search-underway-for-couple-who-took-atvs-into-the-pine-barrens-in-stafford.13917/page-4.

 

[Teegate]

They must have put those signs up shortly before I took that picture. It looked new in mine, but two years later when you took your picture the lettering was already worn off.

I suspect they were from two different origins because the Boy Scouts added the info about them at the bottom of the one at Martha.

 

[Pan]

I suspect they were from two different origins because the Boy Scouts added the info about them at the bottom of the one at Martha.

Yes, my sign has nothing written on the bottom.

 

[Teegate]

Both photos are quite interesting in the fact that if you look closely you can see how the pines were different back then. In the distance at Martha you can see the tree heights are low and in your photo they are small. The woods have changed in 50 years and are completely different than when I first started exploring.

 

[Pan]

Both photos are quite interesting in the fact that if you look closely you can see how the pines were different back then. In the distance at Martha you can see the tree heights are low and in your photo they are small. The woods have changed in 50 years and are completely different than when I first started exploring.

Oh yes. Look at my avatar picture. That's me in the dwarf forest, the Plains, 50 years ago. I have posted other old photos of the Plains here too. But when i was last back there, ten years ago, I no longer towered over the forest like Paul Bunyan. The trees are now much taller.

 

[Pan]

The Plains NJPB 1971-1990

(never mind...)

I had 13 photos of the old dwarf forest (that I first learned of in John McPhee's book) that I was going to attach but the attach files feature doesn't seem to be working for me now...and I saw an "attach multiple files" button before but now i don't. Anyway, I was disappointed to see that the dwarf forest is dwarf no more. Fire control I guess.

Speaking of fire, I remember a big one in the Barrens years ago, and then I went down there shortly after and was surprised to see how quickly the forest was regrowing. Green, yellow-green, all over. Those trees thrived on fire.

 

[Boyd]

Testing the attachment function.....

Seems to work for me with a .jpg file. What kind of files were you trying to attach? How large are they? Exactly what happened when you tried? I don't recall an "attach multiple files" function but there's an "insert multiple" function. However, you should be able to select multiple files when you click the attach button, and they should all upload. There may be some limit however, and 13 could be too many.

 

[Pan]

Boyd - JPG files, each about 500kb to 1 mb in size. Is that too big? At first when i tried, it only posted one picture - or was it two? But i remembered seeing a multiple something option so i deleted my 1 or 2 picture post and thought i'd try again with the multiple option, but when i did I cldnt fnd anythg at all, not even an attach files option. Maybe t thing was mad at me for trying to post too much. Anyway, it was just more of t same, like my avatar picture, me etc towering over the forest. I loved that old dwarf forest. It was so unique, and i hardly ever saw anyone down there either. So peaceful and different from the slums of NYC where i worked.

Where is that picture from that u just posted? Is that t PB?

 

[Boyd]

FWIW, the post you deleted has two attached pictures which are still there (I think these are just thumbnails because I don't see full images in the gallery)

nj-pb-avatar-jpg
plainslwf0-jpg

Don't know about file size limits, but will check later. I'd be willing to bet they were too big however. I think you first need to upload all your pictures, either one at a time or as a group. Then after uploading there should be a button to attach individual or multiple images. I'd just try again with files that are smaller and see what happens.

As for the picture... It was taken on June 16,2002 - wow, where did the last 20 years go?? Let's see how long it takes for somebody else to identify that. Should be an easy one.

 

[Boyd]

OK, looks like it wasn't the file size. That is set at 1.6 MB. There doesn't seem to be a hard limit on image dimensions either. I'd try uploading your images one at a time and see what happens.

 

[Wick]

FWIW, the post you deleted has two attached pictures which are still there (I think these are just thumbnails because I don't see full images in the gallery)

nj-pb-avatar-jpg
plainslwf0-jpg

Don't know about file size limits, but will check later. I'd be willing to bet they were too big however. I think you first need to upload all your pictures, either one at a time or as a group. Then after uploading there should be a button to attach individual or multiple images. I'd just try again with files that are smaller and see what happens.

As for the picture... It was taken on June 16,2002 - wow, where did the last 20 years go?? Let's see how long it takes for somebody else to identify that. Should be an easy one.

Cranberry pumping station on the Oswego. Was just there last month. The chute is quite overgrown and the bugs were horrendous

 

[Boyd]

Right!

I would post a map link, but maybe that isn't a good idea...