New Acquisition

[Teegate]

All,

The state has acquired another semi large tract of land along the edge of Wharton so the two of us decided to get there before any structure or places of interest were removed. The two of us actually crossed the edge of the property many years ago looking for stones; however, since it was private we only visited the monuments or stones we passed by. With the property now owned by the state it was much easier to get to them. There are many more to visit which we will do this summer or fall. The state has already surveyed the property and will be removing all structures very soon I am sure. I have in the past already acquired most of the locations for the property corners and have made pretty good guesses on the rest. Some of them are pretty deep in the woods so we have some work and walking to do. And many of them have property stones.

I am not going to mention the location or post any photos of what may be there until I see that everything is finialized. I am sure the state does not want people there until that occurs.


This monument in the 1950s had a stone along with it. The records show it to be loose and it now appears to be gone. Not in a good spot anyway.

In a really nice cedar swamp.

View of the cedar swamp.

Oops! For some reason the surveyor skipped or missed this one. The area is disturbed but I was able to find the stone. The monument may be there or it may have been removed many years ago during the digging of a trench next to it. I will continue to look for the monument.

This property will certainly never have vehicle access, and while it may be interesting to explore in the first few years, it will eventually grow in and for the casual explorer there will be no real interest in going there after that. However, it was a great purchase in my book.

Guy

 

[Teegate]

Update: In reality I was premature in this thread saying the state has acquired a new tract of land. They now have an agreement of sale and acquisition is forthcoming. Once I find out that it is completed I will add more to this thread. One piece of information will interest most of you. Unfortunately, I am quite certain there will not be vehicle access, and most of the property is not really easy to explore in anyway.

 

[1Jerseydevil]

 

[Teegate]

Yea, it was an Oops. The paper trail just did not materialize so I have been sitting back waiting to see it. I had reason to believe it was a done deal but........

 

[Teegate]

Well, it turns out the state acquired it on January 2. I will have more next weekend.

 

[Teegate]

All,

Have you ever driven down Carranza Road and passed this sign and wished you could walk back there and look around?

Well, on 1/2/2020 the State Of NJ acquired that property as what certainly will be an addition to Wharton State Forest. I learned almost a year ago the state was after it but had to wait until I acquired the official document. There will be nothing to see there except nature, as the building there as well as the concrete it sat on has been removed even before the state officially acquired it. The state today apparently wants all possible man made items removed for fear of lawsuits. Who knows! In any event, if you did not see the building and the two outhouses you missed out on a nice piece of history to view. Now...... the state most likely want to keep this quiet for a while, and as far as I know has not officially mentioned it, so below is the proof so that you can believe what I am saying. They have not even marked it as state property yet. So I would suggest you keep a watch down that road for new state forest signs to arrive sometime in the future, and then you can officially go back there on foot only and explore. There are some ruins behind the small bog that you would think may have been the mill, but the deed says otherwise. And the rest of the property is extremely hard to travel in so I would suggest you stay in the open area's.


The edited deed. There was no need to have all the info there. Just notice Block 1402 Lot 25 on the deed and the tax map so you know the state now owns it.

Now lets discuss the Stamping Mill mentioned on the sign. I have the text of an old deed that mentions the mill, and by following the known monuments and the stone which the state surveyed when Wharton was acquired in the 50's, I have determined where the mill was located along the Green Limb Branch according to that old deed. Here is the line from the deed.

North 26 degrees 30 minutes west 9 chains and 50 links to a cedar tree opposite what is known as the Old Turning Mill.

At the time of the above deed there was a cedar tree there. Today, a stone resides there and I can confirm this is the location that matches the deed.

So where is this location? The current stone and the cedar tree former location is at the link below, with apparently the mill in the cedar swamp near it along the Green Limb Branch. I finally was able to go back into the cedar swamp at that location this afternoon, and there is nothing there to see as expected.


https://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.807758822957084&lng=-74.67350488385323&z=18&type=hybrid&gpx=

 

[Teegate]

I spent a few hours looking for the property stones. It was fairly easy as it was recently surveyed for the purchase and I just had to make it to the locations and walk right to them. But it is interesting to note that in Wharton the stone is the true corner. Almost all of the monuments with a stone nearby have a number on them telling you how far away the stone is. So the monument is not at the correct location, they are just telling you where the correct stone location is. Well, these surveyors seem to think the monument is the corner and many of the locations on the survey are wrong. So much for modern surveyors. I think RednekF350 will agree with that.

They never even found this stone.

Here it is.

Another one far up the property. The route I took was quite long and on the way back I found a shortcut. Should be easier to get to the upper reaches of the property.

There is an old ATV trail through the property that hunters used in the past. Found these separate but similar stands heading back on the upland.

 

[Teegate]

Today I circumnavigated the complete property finding every stone, monument, pipe and anything else I knew about, could find or had already not visited. I even left the property to look for something else.

A few from today.


A farm in the distance.

Tough going at times.

And the largest stone to be found today.

 

[RednekF350]

...…..Well, these surveyors seem to think the monument is the corner and many of the locations on the survey are wrong. So much for modern surveyors. I think RednekF350 will agree with that.

Guy,

If you would like, send me a copy of the survey with the complete title block. Highlight the misinterpreted monuments and I would be happy to contact the other surveyor as a professional courtesy. That error is serious and would be 8' or more at every location where they made that mistake. Obviously, the area acquired is affected as well as is each boundary leg connecting to that monument.

The State would be very concerned with such an error since it exposes them to a potential boundary dispute in the future. The State has almost ridiculously strict survey requirements for acquistions. However, this is the kind of error that would go undetected because the people reviewing the survey in Trenton are not likely to understand the offset system used to reference native corners and I would bet that most never do a field check of a consultant's work.

Scott

 

[manumuskin]

They should hire Guy as their surveyor.

 

[pinelandpaddler]

All,

The state has acquired another semi large tract of land along the edge of Wharton so the two of us decided to get there before any structure or places of interest were removed. The two of us actually crossed the edge of the property many years ago looking for stones; however, since it was private we only visited the monuments or stones we passed by. With the property now owned by the state it was much easier to get to them. There are many more to visit which we will do this summer or fall. The state has already surveyed the property and will be removing all structures very soon I am sure. I have in the past already acquired most of the locations for the property corners and have made pretty good guesses on the rest. Some of them are pretty deep in the woods so we have some work and walking to do. And many of them have property stones.

I am not going to mention the location or post any photos of what may be there until I see that everything is finialized. I am sure the state does not want people there until that occurs.


This monument in the 1950s had a stone along with it. The records show it to be loose and it now appears to be gone. Not in a good spot anyway.

View attachment 12115


In a really nice cedar swamp.


View attachment 12116


View of the cedar swamp.

View attachment 12117



Oops! For some reason the surveyor skipped or missed this one. The area is disturbed but I was able to find the stone. The monument may be there or it may have been removed many years ago during the digging of a trench next to it. I will continue to look for the monument.

View attachment 12118

View attachment 12119


View attachment 12120


This property will certainly never have vehicle access, and while it may be interesting to explore in the first few years, it will eventually grow in and for the casual explorer there will be no real interest in going there after that. However, it was a great purchase in my book.

Guy

Hey Guy,

Thought I'd check in to the forum to see what's new. I'm glad to hear of the State's acquisition.

I'm guessing that the "Turning Mill" was misread as "Tunking Mill" at some point? I've been interested in this mill site for some time. There should be sign of a dam and race at the site. My hunch has been that the site was here, where a cranberry operation was later established:

NJPineBarrens Maps

Thoughts?

 

[Rooftree]

Tunk means strike lightly or sharply. What I read on he Net, prior to bog ore going to the furnace, it is processed though a "Stamping Mill" run by waterpower with the use of large hammers to crush the ore. Slag was also crushed. A Tunking Mill and a Stamping Mill is one in a same.

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Tunk means strike lightly or sharply. What I read on he Net, prior to bog ore going to the furnace, it is processed though a "Stamping Mill" run by waterpower with the use of large hammers to crush the ore. Slag was also crushed. A Tunking Mill and a Stamping Mill is one in a same.

Ah, that makes sense. I guess it may have been the other way around: "Tunking" was mistaken for "turning"....

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Daniel Smith's Old Mill on the Wading

I have been planning to explore some of the mill sites along the Wading River this summer and finally got a chance to start some adventures last Thursday. One particular place that I hoped to explore was a sawmill site just upstream of Evans Bridge. Daniel Smith purchased a 60 acre tract there...

forums.njpinebarrens.com

I wonder what location Oriental was referring to?

 

[Teegate]

Hey Guy,

Thought I'd check in to the forum to see what's new. I'm glad to hear of the State's acquisition.

I'm guessing that the "Turning Mill" was misread as "Tunking Mill" at some point? I've been interested in this mill site for some time. There should be sign of a dam and race at the site. My hunch has been that the site was here, where a cranberry operation was later established:

NJPineBarrens Maps

Thoughts?

I followed the deed carefully and where I say it was is what the deed says. Who knows if that is correct. It certainly does not look like the proper place when visiting there. So I really can't say what the true location is other than the info I have.

 

[Teegate]

Guy,

If you would like, send me a copy of the survey with the complete title block. Highlight the misinterpreted monuments and I would be happy to contact the other surveyor as a professional courtesy. That error is serious and would be 8' or more at every location where they made that mistake. Obviously, the area acquired is affected as well as is each boundary leg connecting to that monument.

The State would be very concerned with such an error since it exposes them to a potential boundary dispute in the future. The State has almost ridiculously strict survey requirements for acquistions. However, this is the kind of error that would go undetected because the people reviewing the survey in Trenton are not likely to understand the offset system used to reference native corners and I would bet that most never do a field check of a consultant's work.

Scott

Scott,

I don't have a clear physical survey, just the text details of it.

Another error is the wrong markings on the Green Acres Disks. Everything was going along fine and then mistakes. And even the carsonite post has a third error with the wrong number written on that.

Give me a few days and I will write you up a detailed description of the mistakes I found. I might even wait until the weekend so I can triple check everything.

 

[bobpbx]

Tunk means strike lightly or sharply. What I read on he Net, prior to bog ore going to the furnace, it is processed though a "Stamping Mill" run by waterpower with the use of large hammers to crush the ore. Slag was also crushed. A Tunking Mill and a Stamping Mill is one in a same.

Oddly, in Heart of the Pines, Pearce writes this:

"I always thought that the iron-colored rocks lying around the area were the ore dug from the streambeds. Not so. There certainly is iron in the hard sandbeds of the rivers, but it has too much sand mixed with it to be useful. The real "ore" that was mined from the bogs was the semisolid muck that was loaded with iron oxides called limonite. Only if left in contact with the open air for an extended period of time did it harden into the rocklike substance most of us would think of as "iron ore".

 

[RednekF350]

Give me a few days and I will write you up a detailed description of the mistakes I found. I might even wait until the weekend so I can triple check everything.

Good. Take your time.

I'll be in AC the next two days at the New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors Conference for my continuing education credits. I'll be seeing only a few of the remaining old school surveyors like myself who are gray in the muzzle and long in the tooth but who can still smell a field stone at 100 yards.
The rest of the people will be in suits and chatting about the latest advances in electronic hardware that is contributing to the dumbification (Lisa Simpson) of the American Surveyor.

 

[Rooftree]

Bob; do you mean this stuff, or the stuff I go down in over my knee-high boots and get sucked and stucked in. The nice thing; Bog Asphodels, Grass Pinks, and Rose Pogonias love it.

 

[46er]

The rest of the people will be in suits and chatting about the latest advances in electronic hardware that is contributing to the dumbification (Lisa Simpson) of the American Surveyor.

It is not just the American surveyor that is being dumified by those 'advances'