Lebanon State Forest Project
- Thread starter Teegate
- Start date
Yes, but then I would have had to tell where it was. I want to go back in 10 years and see what "nature" does with it.
isn't taylor the last name of the man we spoke to where we went? he has an older brother who might be able to tell you if Asa Pitman owned that old jalope.
I'm back from Florida so the typing won't be quite as horrendous as the Kindle.
I'm back from Florida so the typing won't be quite as horrendous as the Kindle.
Here is a place name I doubt anyone has heard of.
Located here.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.87680366898191&lng=-74.46682233016969&z=17&type=hybrid&gpx=
Located here.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.87680366898191&lng=-74.46682233016969&z=17&type=hybrid&gpx=
Interesting. I was thinking of exploring that branch closer to Pasadena Road, off his property.
Found a couple of nice stones down here yesterday but forgot my camera.I"ll post em on the Cumberland thread once I go back when it stops raining.One is the exact likeness of an old round topped tombstone.It is now named the "Tombstone" on my stone file.Pics forthcoming.
All,
Jessica and I were going to hit the field this morning but she came down at 6:15 and told me she was again not feeling well after 6 weeks of having a cold. So I quickly headed out and was on the road by 6:30. My goal today was to semi explore the Beaver Dam Bogs and look for an old stone shown on a 1933 map. At the entrance to the Bogs there is a small puddle that almost did my car in but I was able to accelerate and make it through. Unfortunately, I had the window down and had to wipe the inside of my car down before proceeding on. I should have just parked on Route 70 because a short distance down the road the dike has been breached.
On the southern edge of the bogs there are multiple structures shown on old aerials, and one in particular is still partially there and is quite interesting.
The stone I was looking for belonged to a 43 acre and 3 perch piece of land that J. J. White purchased in 1894. It consists almost entirely of cedars. BTW, a perch is 0.00625 acres or 1/160 of an acre.
The general location of the property.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.944540732656236&lng=-74.46401137512208&z=17&type=hybrid&gpx=
This 1933 map shows that the stone is 242.5 feet from the southern edge of the Beaver Dam Bog property line, and adjacent to Ditch # 5.
I knew the Beaver Dam Bogs property edge location and was able to pick out the general location of the canal on aerial maps. I then ran a 242.5 feet line parallel with the property line and added it into my GPS as a track. I followed the trails and crossways along the bogs until I found one that meandered towards the cedar swamp. I walked through the cedars until I reached the track line on my GPS. All I needed to do then was to walk the line and look around for the ditch and the stone. Soon the ditch came into view and I knew I was close. Would I be able to find the stone?
The arrows point to the ditch. The map is quite accurate.
The most likely hand dug Ditch # 5.
This area is not well known and not many people obviously go there. It is wild country but hunters do enjoy it. They love their creature comforts.
Guy
Jessica and I were going to hit the field this morning but she came down at 6:15 and told me she was again not feeling well after 6 weeks of having a cold. So I quickly headed out and was on the road by 6:30. My goal today was to semi explore the Beaver Dam Bogs and look for an old stone shown on a 1933 map. At the entrance to the Bogs there is a small puddle that almost did my car in but I was able to accelerate and make it through. Unfortunately, I had the window down and had to wipe the inside of my car down before proceeding on. I should have just parked on Route 70 because a short distance down the road the dike has been breached.
On the southern edge of the bogs there are multiple structures shown on old aerials, and one in particular is still partially there and is quite interesting.
The stone I was looking for belonged to a 43 acre and 3 perch piece of land that J. J. White purchased in 1894. It consists almost entirely of cedars. BTW, a perch is 0.00625 acres or 1/160 of an acre.
The general location of the property.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.944540732656236&lng=-74.46401137512208&z=17&type=hybrid&gpx=
This 1933 map shows that the stone is 242.5 feet from the southern edge of the Beaver Dam Bog property line, and adjacent to Ditch # 5.
I knew the Beaver Dam Bogs property edge location and was able to pick out the general location of the canal on aerial maps. I then ran a 242.5 feet line parallel with the property line and added it into my GPS as a track. I followed the trails and crossways along the bogs until I found one that meandered towards the cedar swamp. I walked through the cedars until I reached the track line on my GPS. All I needed to do then was to walk the line and look around for the ditch and the stone. Soon the ditch came into view and I knew I was close. Would I be able to find the stone?
The arrows point to the ditch. The map is quite accurate.
The most likely hand dug Ditch # 5.
This area is not well known and not many people obviously go there. It is wild country but hunters do enjoy it. They love their creature comforts.
Guy
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sounds like we can use my Triton to tell us how far it is till we get there and we can use your 60 csx to tell us where there is!
All,
From time to time I look back over my finds and realize I missed a few corners of a particular property. So this morning our goal was to find one of them that is located in this swamp.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.89075815802798&lng=-74.52614206474306&z=16&type=hybrid&gpx=
There is a road leading almost to it but to reach it we needed to do some bushwhacking. Along the way we found what might be a Princeton University water testing area.
It appears they did not want to get their drinking water out of the pipes so they brought their own.
Then on to find the stone. Because I had found the other corners I was pretty confident on it's location. In the end I was ten feet off. Here is Jessica standing in front of the stone and state marker. She looks cold!
The stone is the same style of stone as the "Kidney Stone" I found earlier this year. It is underground so I only cleared a small portion of it away. I should call it the potato or spud stone.
We then headed to Mt. Misery Road where I noticed for the first time someone crashed at the field bridge sometime in the past. That must have really hurt.
And finally, I have spent no less than 50 hour of my time looking for an Asa Pittman stone on his Middle Branch Property. I have looked for it at least 10 times. I have the surveyors notes which state there is an "R" incised in the stone which makes we want to find it. The surveyors notes clearly state that multiple times the survey was stopped for some unknown reason. The first survey was before November 1935 and that was rescheduled for November 1935, and that again was rescheduled. You can see clearly in this photo that the date it was rescheduled for was 12/21/1935 which is 79 years ago tomorrow. I was thinking that this weekend would be an appropriate time to find the stone so I looked back over the info I had to try and figure out where it was. The notes again have the basic info on the "peg" locations they used to tie in the stone. Since I had good luck using them to find the last Pittman stone I gave it a try again. This time I made sure I used the 10 degree CCW angle for the magnetic declination. I came up with a location about 50 feet from where I had been looking and we found it.
"Void to be resurveyed 12/21/35" (Tomorrow 79 years ago)
The beginning corner stone to Asa Pittman's Middle Branch Property along with the state monument. Unfortunately, I did not see an "R" incised on it. Maybe it was on the portion that is missing or maybe lower on the stone.
Guy
From time to time I look back over my finds and realize I missed a few corners of a particular property. So this morning our goal was to find one of them that is located in this swamp.
http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.89075815802798&lng=-74.52614206474306&z=16&type=hybrid&gpx=
There is a road leading almost to it but to reach it we needed to do some bushwhacking. Along the way we found what might be a Princeton University water testing area.
It appears they did not want to get their drinking water out of the pipes so they brought their own.
Then on to find the stone. Because I had found the other corners I was pretty confident on it's location. In the end I was ten feet off. Here is Jessica standing in front of the stone and state marker. She looks cold!
The stone is the same style of stone as the "Kidney Stone" I found earlier this year. It is underground so I only cleared a small portion of it away. I should call it the potato or spud stone.
We then headed to Mt. Misery Road where I noticed for the first time someone crashed at the field bridge sometime in the past. That must have really hurt.
And finally, I have spent no less than 50 hour of my time looking for an Asa Pittman stone on his Middle Branch Property. I have looked for it at least 10 times. I have the surveyors notes which state there is an "R" incised in the stone which makes we want to find it. The surveyors notes clearly state that multiple times the survey was stopped for some unknown reason. The first survey was before November 1935 and that was rescheduled for November 1935, and that again was rescheduled. You can see clearly in this photo that the date it was rescheduled for was 12/21/1935 which is 79 years ago tomorrow. I was thinking that this weekend would be an appropriate time to find the stone so I looked back over the info I had to try and figure out where it was. The notes again have the basic info on the "peg" locations they used to tie in the stone. Since I had good luck using them to find the last Pittman stone I gave it a try again. This time I made sure I used the 10 degree CCW angle for the magnetic declination. I came up with a location about 50 feet from where I had been looking and we found it.
"Void to be resurveyed 12/21/35" (Tomorrow 79 years ago)
The beginning corner stone to Asa Pittman's Middle Branch Property along with the state monument. Unfortunately, I did not see an "R" incised on it. Maybe it was on the portion that is missing or maybe lower on the stone.
Guy
Great find! The under water stone reminds me of a Wharton corner I found in the big bog east of West Jersey Cranberry Bogs.I had exact coordinates and found myself standing in a flooded leatherleaf spung.I was stomping around and kicked something solid but could not tell if it was wood or rock through my rubber boots and two pairs of socks.It was mid winter and cold as it gets.I had to yank my sleeve up and stick an already cold hand into the black water to feel.I still could not tell if it was wood or stone since my hands were instantly completely numbed.Luckily I had enough fingernail to give it the scratch test.I could plainly feel the vibrations of sandstone grit that said stone!.Probably the only stone I ever found that I never got a look at.It's amazing i even noticed it walking on top of a leatherleaf slinky.
All,
I was recently looking over surveyor notes from 1936 and saw a mention of a "W.O.Witness" tree 7 feet from where Jessica and I had found a monument a few months back. I can tell you have no idea what W.O. means. I did want to go back and see if there was any evidence of it and today I was able to do that. The tree is actually still there ....almost.
The 1936 notes.
The tree. It looks like it was cut but I may be wrong.
We then headed over to Deep Hollow pond and found an original Lebanon Monument. This is NJ32.
In 1936 a plan was hatched to widen Deep Hollow Pond and this project was to be worked on by the CCC. I have to assume that was done, and eventually it was a state camping area. Does anyone know when the camping ended there and why? I don't know that answer. I have to assume the ruins there were part of the camping structures such as a bathroom and the main building. The snow kept me from seeing everything today.
Guy
I was recently looking over surveyor notes from 1936 and saw a mention of a "W.O.Witness" tree 7 feet from where Jessica and I had found a monument a few months back. I can tell you have no idea what W.O. means. I did want to go back and see if there was any evidence of it and today I was able to do that. The tree is actually still there ....almost.
The 1936 notes.
The tree. It looks like it was cut but I may be wrong.
We then headed over to Deep Hollow pond and found an original Lebanon Monument. This is NJ32.
In 1936 a plan was hatched to widen Deep Hollow Pond and this project was to be worked on by the CCC. I have to assume that was done, and eventually it was a state camping area. Does anyone know when the camping ended there and why? I don't know that answer. I have to assume the ruins there were part of the camping structures such as a bathroom and the main building. The snow kept me from seeing everything today.
Guy
Guy, I remember seeing a lot of people still swimming there in the mid 1960's. But, that may have just been a church group after they closed it--but maybe not. I was 11 at the time, and the pavilion was still up. It seemed like a neat place; sand on both sides of the pond and the pond very narrow for a swimming area. I think they should bring it back. Our state parks and forests would be better staffed if I were Governor.