New Woods and Male Bonding
- Thread starter RednekF350
- Start date
I am just saying that it is cool to discover things that have been so forsaken and forgotten.
Could you imagine the size of the snake that would dig that Chris? No way. The hole was big. I have seen fox on flat land, very often in fact. I walked upon one hole in Lakehurst in a field, and 15 feet from it out he popped out and ran off into the brush.
Guys:
It sounds like you had a great visit to the Upper and Lower Mills area. While I was not there to see what you viewed, I can, if you don't mind, provide some general comments that might aid you understanding the geography there. The "canal" that you found could be just that--an artificial waterway excavated to provide additional water flow to increase the head at the dam. This, in turn, allows the miller to gain increased horsepower for operating the sawmill or whatever type of mill might be there. Another type of canal, known as a power canal, provides waterpower to a mill away from the dam; there is one at Goshen that features the foundation of at least one sawmill along the canal. What you found could also be the raceway for the mill, which is a separate watercourse guarded by a dropgate or other water control mechanism that conducts water to the mill to power it. Traditionally, the raceway is composed of a head race, the portion that carries the water to the mill wheel or turbine, and the tailrace, the portion that carries the water away after it exits the wheel or turbine. Another reason to dig a canal is bring water into the millpond to, again, increase the head of that mill to generate greater horsepower. Millers would frequently do this not only to increase horsepower but also to refill the millpond in times of drought or if they have a small pond.
The headwaters for the Upper Mill Pond included McDonalds Branch, Coopers Branch, and Shinns Branch. These three streams, which begin Woodland Township, flow into the Upper Millpond to refresh its water supply. Today, the Upper Millpond is Presidential Lakes. While I have not compiled a full title chain of Upper and Lower Mills, I can tell you that John Bispham acquired this millseat perhaps as early as the 1730s along with a partner named West. It remained in the Bispham and West families until the early part of the nineteenth century, when William L. Earl ended up with Bispham's share. He offered to sell his moiety or half-interest in the property, including 1,700 acres and two sawmills, for private sale in June 1819. Earl indicated that he had leased the Upper Mill for a period of four years at a cost of $1,200 per annum. Meanwhile, Earl had totally rebuilt the Lower Mill for increased lumber production. Earl also rebuilt the sawmill facilities at (New) Lisbon. It appears the two mills and surrounding timber lands ended up in the hands of the Black family, a prominent familial group of Burlington County entrepreneurs. The New Jersey State Archives recently received a deposit of papers and other material from this family. As someone already noted, Lower Mill shut down operations for good in 1921. The remains of Upper Mill disappeared with the construction of the Presidential Lakes development.
A portion of the nearby rail line dates to the 1830s, and likely carried some of the products for the twin sawmills. The Raritan & Delaware Bay and its successor, the New Jersey Southern, constructed the Pemberton & New York Railroad as punative damages for incurring the wrath of the Camden & Amboy in a complicated court case. The Pennsylvania Railroad later gained control of the tracks as part of its so-called "Back Road" to the Jersey coast.
Best Regards,
Jerseyman
Very informative, Jerseyman.
Guys, you're gonna have to take me back to these locations someday and explain all of this to me. Sounds very interesting.
Guys, you're gonna have to take me back to these locations someday and explain all of this to me. Sounds very interesting.
Bob, it was hard to see the size in that picture. I've seen a handful of pine snakes but never their dens. Just pictures were it is hard to gain perspective of the size. I was thinking that the excess sand was from the digging up process. But like I said I could be way off. Fox sounds right.
Thanks Jerseyman once again for enlightening us.
Your thoughts on the power canal are probably spot on in this case.
In pipe design, the velocity (V) in the pipe is a function of Q (flow in Cubic feet per second) divided by the cross sectional area A (of the pipe.
V= Q/A
To increase velocity, given the same flow, you can reduce cross the sectional area of the conduit. (Pipe or canal in this case)
At Bispham's Mill, the flow we observed in the stream in its natural condition was very high.
By diverting a portion of that flow into a narrow conduit you would greatly increase its velocity and thus its power to do work.
If one has ever used a small diameter hose nozzle on a household garden hose you have seen this principle at work. You can blow paint off with some of them. The available flow from the house is a constant, the velocity increases because the area at the end of the hose has decreased.
Couple that with the hydraulic head between Bispham's and New Lisbon(difference in elevation) and you really got some power.
After I heard you use the term power canal I Googled it and found this great visual of a large scale power canal.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._Canal_(Turners_Falls,_Massachusetts)_map.jpg
Note the amount of constriction after it comes in from the river.
And just think, our forefathers had all this figured out without using a formula or a calculator.
Scott
Scott:
Your formula is an absolutely correct and succinct method to describe the physics of a power canal! Most of our forefathers used a "practical" approach to every aspect of life--from establishing a millseat to digging a well. That is why so many early technical treatises contained the word "practical" in their title or somewhere on the title page. In the early nineteenth century, Oliver Evans wrote a treatise called The Young Millwright's Assistant and it provided some direction to those unfamiliar with setting up mills. Despite a lack of formal training, most of our ancestors approached problems with an uncanny knack of solving them with good ol' common sense!
Best regards,
Jerseyman
Real good info, both of you guys. Scott, is that elevation delta from New Lisbon higher at Lower Mill?
Jerseyman, your post reminded me we found two small ponds along the canal; the water would fill them up and then continue on. Perhaps if we poke around another smaller mill is around there.
Scott, remember that strong sulfer smell? That area looked man-made too. Perhaps some type of industrious operation was conducted there also.
I suppose dimensional lumber was very, very important to the country at that time.
Jerseyman, your post reminded me we found two small ponds along the canal; the water would fill them up and then continue on. Perhaps if we poke around another smaller mill is around there.
Scott, remember that strong sulfer smell? That area looked man-made too. Perhaps some type of industrious operation was conducted there also.
I suppose dimensional lumber was very, very important to the country at that time.
Bob:
Regarding the small ponds you found along the "canal," I'm dubious you will find any small mills there, but I can't say with any certainty what purpose these small ponds may have played.
Tell me more about the sulfur smell and the area you found it in; I may have some ideas.
Dimensional lumber played an essential role in the physical landscape development of this region and nationally. Carpenters used such lumber in building houses, churches, and almost all public buildings; ship's carpenters used similar wood for constructing the nation's growing sailing fleet; snake fences, composed of wooden posts and rails, divided fields and kept livestock from wandering; and millwrights fabricated frame and timber structures for a variety of uses. Another forest product--cordwood--provided a crucial source for heat and cooking until coal gained acceptance as a replacement fuel during the 1830s. The Delaware & Atlantic Railroad, spoken of in a previous posting to this thread, operated with horses pulling cars full of cordwood to a pier on the Delaware River at Brown's Point, now known as the town of Roebling in Florence Township, for shipment to Philadelphia. The D&A also delivered cordwood to a wood station where the line crossed the Camden & Amboy. There, the engineer and fireman operating locomotives on the so-called "Camden Branch" would load wood for fueling the boilers on the steam engines. The progeny of John Black, the primary promoter and principal investor of this rail line, would come to own the lands of Upper and Lower Mills.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
Wow! This new information sheds some serious light on the canal system and the creeks namesake. I had suspected that Bispham might have been an owner at one time, however there is no reference that I have seen to a bisphams mill specifically, except for the branches name. Lower mill is north and upper mill is south of the area we investigated. So there might have been a Bisphams mill never posted on maps, even the 1812 map shows the location of Bisphams mill as lower and upper. That is not where we found this. This might have been a forerunner to the lower and upper mills? that would make it ancient.
We searched the area for evidence of structure but found nothing except what seemed to be a weir. Maybe we should have been looking where the canal met the river, it was likely a power canal with the mill in the canal.
That map of a power canal that rednek posted, looks very much like bisphams mill branch from arial/satallite photos. The ponds up and down stream require further thought. I am curious about your thoughts,Jerseyman, on the sulfer smell. It was very, very strong and came from the bottom of a small but very deep "pond", imeditely next to that was a larger, more shallow pond that did not seem to emit the same oder, a canal ran to the later. the sulfer pond was curiously unfrozen and black as night. It was hard to be next to it and look in as the smell was that strong.
Jeff
We searched the area for evidence of structure but found nothing except what seemed to be a weir. Maybe we should have been looking where the canal met the river, it was likely a power canal with the mill in the canal.
That map of a power canal that rednek posted, looks very much like bisphams mill branch from arial/satallite photos. The ponds up and down stream require further thought. I am curious about your thoughts,Jerseyman, on the sulfer smell. It was very, very strong and came from the bottom of a small but very deep "pond", imeditely next to that was a larger, more shallow pond that did not seem to emit the same oder, a canal ran to the later. the sulfer pond was curiously unfrozen and black as night. It was hard to be next to it and look in as the smell was that strong.
Jeff
ALRIGHT!!! I think I got it! Now I could be wrong, I'm not an engineer, but I think this might be the answer.
Okay, Bob, Scott if you remember I mentioned that the maps placed the lake on the other side (the down stream side) of the causeway/canal entrance we examined. Doesn't make sense right? Well I looked at the maps again and everyone with any detail places the lake downstream of the causeway. In fact, Bob, remember when we walked to the road from the causeway, well I memorized exactly where we were and on examining the maps the lake ends/begins exactly at that point.
So, I conclude that this was, as weird as it sounds, a backwards lake. The canal diverted water away from the creek and then feed it back in down stream. This explains the confusing canal system near lower forge and it explains why there was a canal on the other side of the causeway as well (Scott, Bob and I saw another canal on the other side of Bisphams mill branch going downstream). So where did the lake end...at lower forge where Bisphams meets mt misery which is a south west flowing river at that point. It would have fed or at least contradicted the northern flow of Bisphams branch. Mt. misery is flowing very strong in that area but I bet there was a real dam to aid in the process just south of the bridge perhaps.
So why not just have a dam at lower forge right? I don't know except if it was in fact cranberry bogs it would allow them to minimize the strong currents of river by diverting the main channel flow, thus more growing area. Most cranberry bogs are created adjacent to a river to control water flow, this might have been an early attempt at creating bogs within a very powerful river and managing the force of water. The natural topography of the area would make this design more feasible that trying to create bogs adjacent to the river, I mean, that ridge west of the river was very steep.
Alright, a little out there but what do you think (remember, that canal just leads back to mt. misery which would increase the counter flow at the river intersection) Also, those ponds near lower forge could have been reserviors and the larger ponds I found upstream now make sense because they would not have been underwater.
Jeff
Okay, Bob, Scott if you remember I mentioned that the maps placed the lake on the other side (the down stream side) of the causeway/canal entrance we examined. Doesn't make sense right? Well I looked at the maps again and everyone with any detail places the lake downstream of the causeway. In fact, Bob, remember when we walked to the road from the causeway, well I memorized exactly where we were and on examining the maps the lake ends/begins exactly at that point.
So, I conclude that this was, as weird as it sounds, a backwards lake. The canal diverted water away from the creek and then feed it back in down stream. This explains the confusing canal system near lower forge and it explains why there was a canal on the other side of the causeway as well (Scott, Bob and I saw another canal on the other side of Bisphams mill branch going downstream). So where did the lake end...at lower forge where Bisphams meets mt misery which is a south west flowing river at that point. It would have fed or at least contradicted the northern flow of Bisphams branch. Mt. misery is flowing very strong in that area but I bet there was a real dam to aid in the process just south of the bridge perhaps.
So why not just have a dam at lower forge right? I don't know except if it was in fact cranberry bogs it would allow them to minimize the strong currents of river by diverting the main channel flow, thus more growing area. Most cranberry bogs are created adjacent to a river to control water flow, this might have been an early attempt at creating bogs within a very powerful river and managing the force of water. The natural topography of the area would make this design more feasible that trying to create bogs adjacent to the river, I mean, that ridge west of the river was very steep.
Alright, a little out there but what do you think (remember, that canal just leads back to mt. misery which would increase the counter flow at the river intersection) Also, those ponds near lower forge could have been reserviors and the larger ponds I found upstream now make sense because they would not have been underwater.
Jeff
the more I think about it, the more I think I'm right. You have to have absolute control of water level in a cranberry bog. Not just the force of the main channel. The bogs need to be flooded in winter to protect the vines and dry and then flooded for harvest. At certain times of the year the river must have been almost completely diverted to the canals. those ponds near lower forge were not reseviors but water overflow basins to ensure the bogs did not flood during heavy rains.
The reference to the lake in the 1916 account I posted was probably after the cranberry operation and the area was flooded to a lake.
Jeff
The reference to the lake in the 1916 account I posted was probably after the cranberry operation and the area was flooded to a lake.
Jeff
Oh, but Jeff my Pines Brother, I disagree. Look at the 1812 map again. That little symbol next to Bispham means mill. The writer of the map is not telling us its the name of the creek, he's saying there were 2 mills on Bisphams creek and both were named Bisphams.
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=3792&fullsize=1
Jeff, your theory sounds very interesting, and I'm sure at least part of it may be right. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If you sketched it out and scanned it into a PDF or JPG file, I could see better what you are saying.
The topography on both sides of the creeks in this area is steeply sloping. Not a likely area for attempting bog operations.
Downstream towards New Lisbon and to the north bogs can be seen on the older maps that Bob posted and there are still active bogs on the road we drove in on.
The second map Bob posted shows what appears to be the canal we walked going directly into a bog near the railroad.
I think the primary purpose of the pond and canal system was more power related.
Look at Bob's second map and look at the elevation contours starting upstream of the area where we found the earthen dam. You are up in the 120 elevations and drop to around 70 a the dam. New Lisbon is down at 49.
There is an extraordinary amount of elevation difference along this stream corridor, especially for a coastal plain stream.
I think our industrious forefathers figured this out with some topographic surveying and were able to squeeze every HP out of this stream using the advantages of gravity.
Strangely, even today, gravity is free.
Scott
Jeff:
Can you provide me with the approximate size of the deep pond and shallow pond? Did you also notice a series of shallow depressions anywhere nearby? I think my first suspicions are correct, but I will wait to hear from you regarding the requested dimensions.
Best regards,
Jerseyman