Spung man asked me to post the following:
I agree Abbycab, today's Inskeeps Blue Hole is remarkably underwhelming and spung-like. However, waters once bubbled profusely from a strong spring at this location. Bottom sands danced like quicksand creating an illusion that the round pool was bottomless. Chalmers (Down the Long-a-Coming) played along the banks of the Great Egg Harbor at Inskeeps Ford during the 1880s, and recounted that this feature had springs voluminous enough to create a circular current and overflow. Beck (More Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey) reported in the 1930s that the hole was still sinister, but was probably larger some years ago. When visited in 1958 to draft a small paper, "Blue Hole- A Problem in Geology", Genevieve Powell of Pitman measured its depth to be 10-feet deep at center. In 1975, Bill Leap, in "Legend of the Bottomless Blue Hole," found the abyss to be just 6-feet deep. Today it is a shallow pool. Sadly, many of South Jersey's boiling springs have disappeared over the last century as artesian head drops as groundwater is over-withdrawn.
Back to me...
Just to be clear here, this over withdrawal of water is the result of an already existing state of over development in the Pines and in the Atlantic City area. Any further development of the region is not likely to help the situation.
relayer
I agree Abbycab, today's Inskeeps Blue Hole is remarkably underwhelming and spung-like. However, waters once bubbled profusely from a strong spring at this location. Bottom sands danced like quicksand creating an illusion that the round pool was bottomless. Chalmers (Down the Long-a-Coming) played along the banks of the Great Egg Harbor at Inskeeps Ford during the 1880s, and recounted that this feature had springs voluminous enough to create a circular current and overflow. Beck (More Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey) reported in the 1930s that the hole was still sinister, but was probably larger some years ago. When visited in 1958 to draft a small paper, "Blue Hole- A Problem in Geology", Genevieve Powell of Pitman measured its depth to be 10-feet deep at center. In 1975, Bill Leap, in "Legend of the Bottomless Blue Hole," found the abyss to be just 6-feet deep. Today it is a shallow pool. Sadly, many of South Jersey's boiling springs have disappeared over the last century as artesian head drops as groundwater is over-withdrawn.
Back to me...
Just to be clear here, this over withdrawal of water is the result of an already existing state of over development in the Pines and in the Atlantic City area. Any further development of the region is not likely to help the situation.
relayer
