Lebanon State Forest Project

Teegate

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All,

Our goal today was to search in a few locations trying to improve my accuracy in finding stones. Manumuskin and myself will be making an outing soon, and I wanted to give ourselves the best opportunity to come up with a few stubborn incised stones. So after heading out this morning Jessica and I at first came up with one state monument broken along a road. However, during our search I "may" have found one of the DEP camera's. This one was somewhat in the woods pointing at a dumping area along a road. Anyone who dumped there would have been on camera. I am hoping if I am correct someone from the DEP will send me my photo :)


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We then went looking for monuments. I have survey notes from the early 1930's where there are blurbs about multiple incised stones in the particular area I am interested in. In order to find them I need to get my bearings to find their locations. After arriving at our first stop I wandered along the edge of a swamp near a road without any luck. I decided to expand my search area and as I moved back closer to the road I came upon this.


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Could this be one of the incised stones just 25 feet from a major road? The side I was facing did not show any evidence of this, so I set my sights on the back. This side was tilted down and the stone was as solid in the ground as they come. So I took out my camera and took a few shots. You are looking at the Sykes stone with the initials I x C.N.S. That is a capital (eye) and the initials CNS for Sykes and not a 1 which I have on the photo. It was too much trouble to change.



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I will return at a later date and get better photo's.



On our way to the next location we found a place where the camera should have been,


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Our last stop was the one I was most interested in. There is a little tributary off of the Pole Branch near Route 70 called Taylor's Run which I now believe was named after someone with the last name of Taylor. In the survey notes I have they tell me I need to look for a small stone with another one leaning against it with the letters TT on it.


This is from 1936/1937 which is 77 and 78 years ago and they did not have the ability to pass along the GPS coordinates. All they did was tell how far away from trees the stone actually was. In this case they were 2 and 6 inch pitch pines.


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So with very limited info on this stone I made a few guesses, and we ended our day crashing through 500 feet of briers. Just before giving up Jessica noticed something. Remember, a small stone with one leaning on it.



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And after scraping off the years of moss we have Mr. Taylor's initials.



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Hopefully, Manumuskin and myself will soon be adding photo's to this collection of important stones.


Guy
 
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Teegate

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I only saw it because I was looking around. On thing I always look at when stone searching are trees because they give more clues than any thing else. If I was dumping trash I would have pulled up and tossed it and been on my way and would have never saw it.

We are assuming it is a DEP camera even though I can bet you it is. On state land along a road looking at an open clearing. No hunter would put a camera there.
 

manumuskin

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you'd think the state would have better and smaller technology.I'd think they would be hiding cameras in pine cones.I wonder if their camera gets stolen if they refuse to investigate because it was abandoned on public property?
 

Ben Ruset

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I bet it's big because it's got to have some decent battery power to run those IR lights. Plus I wonder if it has a cellular modem to upload the video/still pictures somewhere for the state to review.

I am definitely surprised that they're not camouflaged.
 
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Teegate

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I was at work today thinking that I took a piss right there the weekend before. I wonder if they have that? :D Man...they have to send them to me ... I want to see them.

Update: Jessica disagrees that we were there the weekend before. She says I am confused.
 
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Teegate

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I made a slight mistake when telling you the name that the initials represent in the below photo. The initials stand for I. Shreve and C. Shreve. and not Sykes as I indicated.


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Gibby

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The camera pictured is a deterrent and is meant to be seen. I am willing to bet that there is another camera nearby and not so visible.
 

Teegate

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It is not easily viewed unless you look for it. So I don't think they are using it as a deterrant. We have to remember these individuals are pulling up quickly and unloading and they are not looking around into the woods. They are more worried about another vehicle coming.
 

Teegate

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We did some scouting today to find a tract of land that has been frustrating me for quite a while. I was looking through my notes and came up with a distance from the corner of the Buckingham tract down the old railroad and into the woods. Since Jessica and I have been visiting the corners of the Buckingham tract I was able to plot it out and gave it a shot. It took a while but I was able to locate the "black" stone for the "Deer Park" tract ....and this leads the way to the HR incised stone that Manumuskin and myself will be searching for soon.

http://teegate.njpinebarrens.com/10182014/black.jpg
 
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Teegate

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All,

I met up with Manusmuskin this morning to find a few elusive incised stones....and of particular importance to me was another Taylor stone which is a companion stone to the one I posted a photo of last week. We met right along Route 70 at Mt. Misery Road and before heading off I stood next to Al's car window talking with him. A vehicle pulled up with an older man in it asking if we were lost ...he saw me holding pieces of paper and thought we were discussing directions. I informed he we were not lost and he smiled and told us he lived around there his complete life and was just trying to help. That piqued my interest so I stopped him from moving on so I could talk with him. It turns out his last name unbelievably was Taylor and he and his brother live in the area. We discussed Freeman Taylor who once lived in Mt Misery as well as Asa Pittman who lived in Upton nearby. He had some nice info to tell us about his father and grandfather, but did not know some of the information I was giving him as my interests are somewhat odd. Anyway, I asked him about the Taylor stones and he had no idea who the TT may have been. He called his brother but he did not answer, and he wanted us to go there with him. We were in a rush so I declined, but I do now know where his brother lives. I will stop one day and ask a few questions.

Then we were off and soon entering the woods. I had a general idea where we were going but not exactly, so we wandered along the edge of a swamp searching. Within 5 or 10 minutes we came upon the second TT stone along Taylor's Run.


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But something was different with this one. There was something underneath the letters TT. A closer inspection revealed we now most likely know that the Taylor who Taylor's Run was named after owned the property before George Washington was president. Washington's term of office started on April 30. 1789. And I want all of you to know that while standing there at that stone Manumuskin knew this and told me so. I am constantly impressed with his knowledge and am humbled when with him.

Jessica and I will return with chalk next weekend to have this show up better. This to me is one of our better finds.


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But it doesn't end here. There is a possible third stone quite a ways away and we worked our way there to look around. Much of the area is briers so we tried to look where it was the easiest. Eventually, Manumuskin yelled to me the search was over. He had found the stone at the base of a tree that had been growing around it.


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Upon examining it I realized it was broken off and only a piece of it was there. Could the letters TT still be evident???


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Using my walking stick I determined the rest of the stone was still there underground.


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We ended our TT searching for the day and moved on to look for a possible second Shreve stone like the one I posted last week. To get there we had to cross a cedar swamp which turned out to be quite wicked. This old Corduroy Road which usually makes it easier to travel was so twisted it was of no help to us.


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After what seemed like forever we came upon this.


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And hidden underground was I x CNS which stands for I. Shreve and C. Shreve. I suspect this stone also dates back to the 1700s.


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Our next adventure would be the HR stone that I know almost nothing about. I had no idea where it was until I noticed in my notes an entry concerning Buckingham. This is nearby, and Jessica and I were able to find the Black stone yesterday which allowed me to do some calculating last night and I was able to determine the best place to search for it. When we arrived we were close enough to walk directly to it. I still know very little about this stone and who the HR stands for. The properties in this Deer Park Tract were owned by J. J. White and a William Giberson when the state purchased the land around it early in the last century. It was last surveyed by William Eldridge on 9/15/1941.


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We moved down the lots that Giberson and White owned and found these.


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Manumuskin called this the Root Stone.


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Found a nice bottle.


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Guy
 

manumuskin

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Awesome pics Guy! Don't know how you did it but I can see the writing on the stones better on the pics then I could when there.That swamp was a little rough but it was gorgeous,so was the one after that when we headed down toward the cedar post that wasn't there.I"m going to have to learn that corner of the Barrens better.I"ve stayed away from there because I have bad memories of Fort Dix.Somehow Army Boot camp can even ruin being in the Barrens.But now that they sold some of it off I"ll have to get back up there and check out the new state property.
 
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