Lower Forge / Unbridge revisited

ecampbell

Piney
Jan 2, 2003
2,889
1,029
Lower Forge has always meant a campground to me. For decades I have hiked rode and paddled past the big hill of the Lower Forge campground. Recently I got to thinking about an actual forge in the vicinity and that little bridge just downstream of the camp ground known to some of us affectionately as Unbridge.
A couple of times at very high water I inadvertently missed that bridge, the water taking me to the east of it. There I passed pilings in the water similar to Unbridge. I realized that at certain times of the year there is an island between the two bridges so last September 5th I took advantage of the drought to explore the area.
Here is a map of the area with Unbridge visible and the island to the east on the right

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.as...&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&scene=38101984&encType=1

The road to Unbridge from Quaker Bridge is called Old Lower Forge Road, the final stretch of which is man made with fill. It reminds me of a causeway with steep sides full of old nonmagnetic slag.

west11.jpg


west2.jpg


west3.jpg


west4.jpg


The slag thread explains a lot about the types of slag and how it was used for fill.
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/showthread.php?t=5612&highlight=slag

Aproaching Unbridge
west5.jpg


The bridge looking east toward the island
west6.jpg


Interestingly it is pinned with rebar
west7.jpg


west8.jpg


Rebar was first used in the 1800’s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforced_concrete

==

Well if there’s a bridge going to an island then I just have to investigate so back across Quaker Bridge and up the east side of the Batsto toward the Lower Forge campground. I parked and started walking at the “No Vehicles Allowed” sign and shortly came upon an old, unused road heading down to the river.

east11.jpg


east2.jpg


As I walked down hill I came upon these pilings that I had kayaked by previously at high water.

east5.jpg


Looking down stream from the pilings I saw these logs spanning the stream bed. . I tried walking to them but immediately went up to my thighs in muck.

east4.jpg


I am now on the island which surprisingly had very little disturbance. It didn’t seem to have been driven on and there was no slag. That is Unbridge from the other side.

east7.jpg


Looking downstream from Unbridge can be seen older wooded structures.

east8.jpg


east12.jpg


A line of old boards beneath Unbridge.

east13.jpg


east10.jpg


Except for the fact that someone along time ago went to a lot of trouble to build that causeway to the bridge location I started to wonder if there ever was a Lower Forge. I hadn’t seen any slag heaps or signs of a settlement so time to do some research.

In the book EXPLORING THE LITTLE RIVERS OF NEW JERSEY by Cawley , page 174 mentions the remains of an old dam at Lower Forge. Well I kayaked this stretch for decades and I never saw no dam but then a light goes on in my head (finally) I have been walking on the dam, it’s the causeway built to Unbridge! It is very well placed, there is a wide flood plain upstream capable of storing a lot of water. Cawley states that their trip started at Lower Forge and mentions that there trip got easier once they were below “the remains of an old bridge”. To put a timeline on this, my copy of the book is from 1971, with the first edition in 1942. I know Guy has a picture of the bridge looking pretty much the same in 1978.
I remembered I have this wonderful book IRON IN THE PINES by Pierce. The book is well indexed but had nothing on Lower Forge so I thought, hey it’s down stream from Hampton Furnace so maybe I could find a connection, and after some enjoyable reading I found it. On page 42 it mentions two mystery forges.

Quote:
Connected with the Atsion enterprise in all probability were two “mystery forges” off in the woods to the east. One of these was located by the Atsion River about two and one half miles below Atsion. Here once were locks used by ore boats headed for Batsto. The other was beside the Batsto River not quite two miles above Quaker Bridge. This forge was called Washington, and was connected with Hampton Furnace, farther upstream. There are banks of slag at each of these locations, while some remains of a dam may still be seen at the site above Quaker Bridge. It is now known that these installations, operated during the Richards era, and Washington Forge [not to be confused with Washington Furnace at Lakewood] was in use as late as 1850.


Isn’t it amazing how time erases things, I have a new eye for that river. I’ll be going back to look for the slag heaps when it dries out. The unnamed mystery forge is at a nice beach some of us call Locks Bridge. There is lots of glassy blue slag there. It’s hard to believe oar boats could navigate that part of the river. I remember seeing an ad for a forge for sale there but can’t find it now. I like to think that those old boards under Unbridge were part of the forge. As for Unbridge, because the island doesn’t appear to have seen traffic, I believe it was never completed.

Ed
 

MarkBNJ

Piney
Jun 17, 2007
1,875
73
Long Valley, NJ
www.markbetz.net
Very interesting report, Ed. I've tried to come down to that spot from High Crossing and the Hampton area at one time or another, but for various reasons never made it all the way. I think I'll go north from QB on my next outing and check it all out.
 
Oct 25, 2006
1,757
1
74
Real nice trip report Ed, great photos, thanks for posting and sharing. I always wanted to explore in that area and after reading your report with photos i will be going there in the near future.

Jim
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,952
8,695
Nice report on an interesting location. I spent quite a bit of time there in the 70s. I wish I knew more about the history back then or I may have been able to see more since it was much more open. I am not certain that it was not completed and used. My photo developed in 8/78 shows a different looking island. There is actually a road there even though it looks like it had not been used in a while. Maybe not at all as you said. I made it to the island by crossing but never knew then where the back way in was or I would have walked there. Without computers and being antisocial, I was completely on my own on what I learned.


8/78


unbridge8_78.jpg



I archive all my mail, and this week I was going through it looking for some photo’s, and I found this one that was sent to me by someone back around 2001. Since it is small and blurry I decided to post it even though it is not mine. I seem to remember the person mentioning hiking and the man in the front does look like Stu (onehand) from this site. Bob, can you look this over and see if you know them?



UnBridge.jpg



Guy
 

ecampbell

Piney
Jan 2, 2003
2,889
1,029
I was amazed at how little I found on the island. It wasn't as worn, almost not at all, as the road from the east. It would be interesting to hear from anyone who has an earlier edition of EXPLORING THE LITTLE RIVERS OF NEW JERSEY to better date the bridge.
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,664
4,842
Pines; Bamber area
There is no one in that photo that I recognize Guy.

Nice report Ed. I was never on that causeway road, but I did camp at Lower Forge one time. I remember vividly an owl hooting across the cedar swamp at about 3am or so. It was loud and clear as a bell (Bill, there's another good sound for you).
 

Kevinhooa

Explorer
Mar 12, 2008
332
25
41
Hammonton, NJ.
www.flickr.com
Unbridge

Cool report ecampbell. I checked out that area only about a month or two ago and explored from the campground side. It appeared to me that there is a possible furnace location on the road or "dam" just before you get to the pilings at the water. There is a funny kind of cut to the right, just upstream of the dam, and a weird mound of sorts to the left of the cut. The mound is right on a very sharp right hand bend of the river, and after flood after flood seemed like a really weird place for a high level of dirt. There was slag in the dirt mound and the cut next to it, although almost completely overgrown, is fairly straight, lines right up with the river, and would have made an excellent raceway. Without really digging into the mound, I can't be too sure though. Also just off the side of the road there, are a couple cellar holes for the buildings at the forge with bits of brick, sandstone, and pottery here and there. I would suspect this to be the village that supported the forge. It looks like in your picture of the dam with the road on it, that there was forge slag in the dirt, known for it's very dark brown, liquid looking appearance. The road almost all the way to the campground is also littered with shell fragments (flux), possibly from the old stage coaches loaded from the shore, going to Hampton. I suspect the road around the Lower Forge was probably rougher and either vibrated a good number of shells off in passing through, or maybe the stages stopped to drop off other supplies and the shells fell off with the stopping and starting. Can't really know for sure, but those are the guesses I came up with in my exploring.

Kevin
 

popeofthepines

Explorer
Mar 8, 2006
206
73
Atco
Yea it is a great report and thanks for the info. I have driven near that area but have not always got out to check over the areas and need to do that more. Look forward to more.
Kevin
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,952
8,695
Looking over that last photo I posted I tend to think that is not the same location.

Guy
 

DeepXplor

Explorer
Nov 5, 2008
341
19
Jersey Shore
Ed, You have some nice pictures of the lower forge area, and a good story. It has been years since I have been there and your story makes me want to go back. Thanks for sharing. PS Let's go fishing this week, I have an open schedule.
 
Apr 6, 2004
3,620
564
Galloway
Ed,

In Heart of the Pines, John Pearce says that Samuel Richards constructed the lock system at what we call "Locks Bridge". However, in Atsion: A Town of Four Faces, Sarah W.R. Ewing quotes an 1804 letter from Henry Drinker (one of the owners of the Atsion enterprise) to Hicks Jenkins & Co. ( a New York firm to which Atsion regularly shipped bar iron), wherein Drinker wrote:

"About 1 or 2 miles below the forge is a lock or dam, an excellent seat for a rolling and slitting mill to which the bar iron from the Forge can be conveyed by water."

I'm a bit confused by Drinker's word choice (did he mean to write, "lock or dam," or did he mean "lock and dam"?)

So it would appear that the lock system was already in place by the time Samuel Richards built the forge at that location. Certainly, there was already a dam there, which implies that there was a mill of some sort there prior to Drinker's 1805 letter.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the lock system was actually built under Charles Read in Atsion's infancy. More research is neccessary.
 

gipsie

Explorer
Sep 14, 2008
548
67
56
atlantic county
Nice report Ed. Thanks for all that info, I will probably be down in that area tomorrow, so I will head out in that direction and check it out...!! Thanks!
 

Neil in SJ

Scout
May 22, 2006
32
0
64
Cherry Hill, NJ
www.freewebs.com
There were definitely at least three structures there as late as the 1970's to 1980's. You can see them on the 1989 USGS topo. I do not know when the survey was done for the 1989 series.

I have not been out to the area since last February, but at that time I explored the area with my GPS to locate these structures. The remaining cellar holes do not seem to be from permanent structures; there are no bricks or sandstone. only slight depressions in the ground. This would indicate that they were more likely hunters shacks than permanent residences. Also absent were the typical signs of early civilization. No pottery shards or glass, and no trash dump that I could find.

There is also a larger cellar hole to the east of the road. This one may be much older. There is a large deposit of clam shells near the hole which may have used as flux as was common in the area's early furnaces and forges. It may also be food waste left behind by hunters.

I wish the weather would cooperate a bit more. I would like to get back and explore again.
 

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Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,952
8,695
There were definitely at least three structures there as late as the 1970s to 1980's. You can see them on the 1989 USGS topo. I do not know when the survey was done for the 1989 series.

Unfortunately, you can't use the USGS topo's as proof structures were there. Even though they come out with new versions they do not update the maps. Those markings are there many years after the dwellings are long gone. But more importantly, I was there back in the 1970s and that area was absent of dwellings.


Guy
 

Neil in SJ

Scout
May 22, 2006
32
0
64
Cherry Hill, NJ
www.freewebs.com
That is a cool looking avatar you have there Neil. What is it?

Have you read about that gentleman who found a treasure trove of gold from the Dark Ages in England? That avatar makes me think of that.

http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/treasure-trove-farmer-field.html

Bob,

My avatar is one of two British Royal Regiment of Artillery buttons that I dug last summer, here in So. Jersey. The site is not in the Pine Barrens, as much of that area is off limits to metal detecting. The site is one of my favorites; it has produced many old buttons and coins, the oldest dated 1699.
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,664
4,842
Pines; Bamber area
Bob,

My avatar is one of two British Royal Regiment of Artillery buttons that I dug last summer, here in So. Jersey. The site is not in the Pine Barrens, as much of that area is off limits to metal detecting. The site is one of my favorites; it has produced many old buttons and coins, the oldest dated 1699.

That is very cool Neil....thanks for that info. I checked out your website...nicely done. That must be a very infectious hobby....once bitten you keep going back out. It's very exciting. I had a small detector in the 70's and I did use it a lot....mostly at the beaches and playgrounds.
 

Neil in SJ

Scout
May 22, 2006
32
0
64
Cherry Hill, NJ
www.freewebs.com
That is very cool Neil....thanks for that info. I checked out your website...nicely done. That must be a very infectious hobby....once bitten you keep going back out. It's very exciting. I had a small detector in the 70's and I did use it a lot....mostly at the beaches and playgrounds.

You would not believe the changes in the technology (or maybe you would) Color analysis screens tell you what type of coin (I can even tell a 1964 dime from a 1965 dime without digging), and how deep. All in a 3 LB unit!
 
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