Mullica be Dammed

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,153
4,257
Pines; Bamber area
I did not realize the lower Mullica was dammed at one time. Who has the story behind that? This photo is from the 30's.

watermark.php
 

Teegate

Administrator
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Sep 17, 2002
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I did not realize the lower Mullica was dammed at one time. Who has the story behind that? This photo is from the 30's.

I believe we discussed this on our trip down it. We visited the evidence.

Guy
 
Apr 6, 2004
3,606
551
Galloway
Bob,

That pond was known as "New Pond", and as you can see was quite sizeable due to the fact that the dam was built just below the junction of the Atsion and Meschescatauxin Creeks. The dam failed in 1939 during a big storm that also destroyed Miller's Bridge (on the road from Batsto to Weymouth) on Atsion Creek as well as a number of dams and bridges on other tributaries of the Mullica.

New Pond Dam was constructed in 1895 for the purpose of providing water power to the paper mill at Pleasant Mills. In the 1930 aerial photo you can see a canal leading from New Pond to Nescochague Creek. The owners of the paper mill had dug out this canal and dammed the Nescochague - somewhere near the location where Batsto Forge had been - and dug out another canal leading from Forge Pond on Nescochague Creek to Pleasant Mills Pond on Hammonton Creek Thus, the demanding machinery at the paper mill utilized water power from four of the "five forks": Hammonton Creek, Nescochague Creek, Meschescatauxin Creek and Atsion Creek. Still, the paper mill did not receive suffient water power, and the operation ceased.
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,153
4,257
Pines; Bamber area
Bob,

That pond was known as "New Pond", and as you can see was quite sizeable due to the fact that the dam was built just below the junction of the Atsion and Meschescatauxin Creeks. The dam failed in 1939 during a big storm that also destroyed Miller's Bridge (on the road from Batsto to Weymouth) on Atsion Creek as well as a number of dams and bridges on other tributaries of the Mullica.

New Pond Dam was constructed in 1895 for the purpose of providing water power to the paper mill at Pleasant Mills. In the 1930 aerial photo you can see a canal leading from New Pond to Nescochague Creek. The owners of the paper mill had dug out this canal and dammed the Nescochague - somewhere near the location where Batsto Forge had been - and dug out another canal leading from Forge Pond on Nescochague Creek to Pleasant Mills Pond on Hammonton Creek Thus, the demanding machinery at the paper mill utilized water power from four of the "five forks": Hammonton Creek, Nescochague Creek, Meschescatauxin Creek and Atsion Creek. Still, the paper mill did not receive suffient water power, and the operation ceased.

I noted that the canal to the Pleasant Mills Pond is the one you and I walked, right?

PS: I'm confused. Was that Joseph Ball's New Pond? I though that was many years earlier.
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
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THere are quite a few property stones there that I need to look for. It's that time of year :)

Guy
 
Apr 6, 2004
3,606
551
Galloway
BobPBX said:
I noted that the canal to the Pleasant Mills Pond is the one you and I walked, right?

Correct.

PS: I'm confused. Was that Joseph Ball's New Pond? I though that was many years earlier.

If you look at the last set of pictures in Iron In The Pines you will see a photo of the ruins of the dam. According to Arthur Pierce, these were the ruins of the dam at Joseph Ball's "New Pond", dating back to the 1780's. I don't know where he got this information, or if it is verifiable. Whether or not Ball originally dammed the river there, it is certain that the ruins of the dam depicted in Pierce's book are that of the dam constructed in 1895. In Heart Of The Pines, there is a photo of a couple of men fishing just below the dam.
 

Teegate

Administrator
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Sep 17, 2002
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There are at least two markers that I know of in this vicinity. Have you gotten out that way?

I have not looked for anything there.

There at least 5 stones or monuments right behind the Church, right along the Dam, or along the road and in the swamp about a half mile up from the dam. There probably are many more since the info I have shows many penciled in corners. The state did not own the property shown generally in the below photo until some time after the 1950's. It is listed as "Other Owners."

dam.jpg


Guy
 
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