Old stone and newer property markers at Friendship Bogs

Teegate

Teegate

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Sep 17, 2002
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All,

Almost two years ago I was given a tip by Ed on the location of a marker at Friendship Bogs which I acted on. It was a basic cement marker with a metal piece attached to it, and appropriate characters stamped into it. Since then I have been meaning to go back to search for more, which Jessica and I finally did this morning. I came up with some info on their possible locations, and we were able to find three of them quite easily.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/02142004/IMG_3078.jpg

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/02142004/IMG_3085.jpg

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/02142004/IMG_3084.jpg

But the search yielded more than I expected when I realized that I was following what I believe to be the Friendship Bog property tract. In the course of our exploring and searching, we turned up three old property markers, at or very near the locations where I calculated the basic markers to be. The below photos are classic old property stones at Friendship Bogs, much like the Lawrence Line stones.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/02142004/IMG_3086.jpg

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/02142004/IMG_3087.jpg

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/02142004/IMG_3079.jpg

The last photo above is located right near the old gun club in the woods near Friendship Bogs. As you can see in the photo, I moved the stone without realizing what it was.

We walked through the gun club property along our route, so I decided to get some photo's of it from a different perspective. Someone has spray painted odd messages on the side of it, including the GPS coordinates of the building which you can just see spray painted in green.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/02142004/IMG_3080.jpg

Our trip took us through quite a few cedar swamps that required negotiating across the ice.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/02142004/IMG_3092.jpg

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/02142004/IMG_3089.jpg

After spending almost an hour trying to find a route out of the woods that didn't require us to wade through waist deep water, we made it to the main road near Friendship and walked the mile back to our car near the granite marker.

Guy
 
A

aserdaten

Scout
Jul 26, 2003
63
0
Ormond Beach, Florida
Nice research there, Tee-Gate Piney. Guess that when properties were surveyed way back then, accuracy was not too big a priority, since land was relatively cheap. At best, those stones located property corners only to the nearest six inches or so. That would never do today, even out in the woods miles away from civilization. And how many of the stones might have been moved, accidentally (like you did) or otherwise? And does anyone have an original property map of this parcel, perhaps?

One of my first assignments when I started work with the old NJ State Highway Department (now the Department of Transportation) in the mid 50's was plotting old property lines to determine if the state was buying the correct land for highway improvements. Since they had to verify ownership back at least 60 years, and because much land was family-inherited with no new deeds, I found myself plotting many properties described from back in the 1700's. Now there is where they had some unique and often vague property corners, such as "the large oak tree standing next to the Gray Goose Tavern". Of course, the tavern and probably the oak tree later disappeared, which made it hard for surveyors to re-establish the property lines if the property was later sold outside the family. But it was a very interesting as well as challenging assignment.

Keep up your many Pine Barrens explorations, as they are certainly quite interesting, especially to those of us no longer living in New Jersey by way of retirement (like me) or otherwise. I know that whenever I make it up that way (less and less frequently with age), I do try to do some woods snooping ... but am certainly much more cautious about possibly getting stuck in the sand or water. Last summer I attempted to hook up with Bruset, but couldn't find the specific meeting place even though I saw his and another car. That was the Wells Mills "boardwalk", which on a trip up there later in the year I still couldn't find.
 
Teegate

Teegate

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We searched a few places that were in cedar swamps and completely under water, and it is apparent I will have to wait until the ground is drier to search those places again. That means ticks and chiggers!

There are many more stones to find as far as I can tell, as long as they are still there.

Guy
 
Teegate

Teegate

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gun club

kingofthepines said:
Is this http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=1...50&size=l&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25 the gun club? I've been back there several times over the years and noticed in your pic that the old Jeep Wagoneer is gone. Was the gate still up and locked?
Click to expand...

Yes the wagoneer is gone, but you have the wrong location marked on the map. The gun club is located here.

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=1...25&size=l&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25

I have a photo of that wagoneer there, but for some reason I can't find it.

Guy
 
Teegate

Teegate

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I found the photo. And yes the gate was locked.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/wagon.jpg

Jessica and I were on the property inputting coordinates into my GPS, and all the while she was worried that someone would come and catch us on the property. We weren't doing anything but passing through, so I kept telling her not to worry. Just then a 4x4 pulled up and I could hear the man cursing about us having backpacks which it actually was my camera case. I finished what I was doing, and started walking toward the gate and toward them. We ducked under the gate and walked right past them as they exited the vehicle. We entered the woods on the other side of the road and found what we were looking for. Next thing we know they were coming toward us with a shotgun. They had hunting gear on and walked past us in the direction we wanted to go. So we waited a while and carefully headed in that direction, but we never did run into them, or hear any shooting.

Guy
 
ecampbell

ecampbell

Piney
Jan 2, 2003
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Guy,

That gun club is still in use. I went by there the Sunday before deer week started and they were having a hugh get together, BBQ.

Ed

BTW, they burned over Hampton Furnace Sunday, 2/15.
 
Teegate

Teegate

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ecampbell said:
Guy,

That gun club is still in use. I went by there the Sunday before deer week started and they were having a hugh get together, BBQ.

Ed

BTW, they burned over Hampton Furnace Sunday, 2/15.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Ed. I thought it probably was still in use since it is still standing. Gun clubs don't seem to last long in the pines.

Guy
 
RednekF350

RednekF350

Piney
Feb 20, 2004
5,058
3,328
Pestletown, N.J.
The first photo that you have shown is a State Dept of Commerce Monument that were used on all of the State forest tracts.Most of the surveys were done in the 1950's.
They usually have a number designation and initials such as WA indicating Wharton State Forest.You need a copy of the boundary survey to correlate the numbers.
The interesting thing about these monuments is that they will tell you if there is a native corner marker nearby.
The State was careful not to disturb or remove original corners when they were present and would set their monument on an offset in such cases.
When you look at the top if you see a straight chiseled line and a whole number like 8, Look 8' away in the direction of the chisel mark and you will likely find the native corner (sometimes buried) such as a stone.
Two chisel marks forming a corner on the metal plate indicates that the monument is the actual corner.
I recently did a survey that had three State Monument corners and each one was an offset to a sandstone native corner.
Lastly, native stones regardless of their perceived accuracy carry far more weight in determining boundaries than modern corners when a deed call is to the stone.
I am a licensed surveyor and I deal with this on a daily basis.
 
B

bach2yoga

Guest
Would you happen to know what a Society Corner marker is?
Renee
RednekF350 said:
The first photo that you have shown is a State Dept of Commerce Monument that were used on all of the State forest tracts.Most of the surveys were done in the 1950's.
They usually have a number designation and initials such as WA indicating Wharton State Forest.You need a copy of the boundary survey to correlate the numbers.
The interesting thing about these monuments is that they will tell you if there is a native corner marker nearby.
The State was careful not to disturb or remove original corners when they were present and would set their monument on an offset in such cases.
When you look at the top if you see a straight chiseled line and a whole number like 8, Look 8' away in the direction of the chisel mark and you will likely find the native corner (sometimes buried) such as a stone.
Two chisel marks forming a corner on the metal plate indicates that the monument is the actual corner.
I recently did a survey that had three State Monument corners and each one was an offset to a sandstone native corner.
Lastly, native stones regardless of their perceived accuracy carry far more weight in determining boundaries than modern corners when a deed call is to the stone.
I am a licensed surveyor and I deal with this on a daily basis.
Click to expand...
 
RednekF350

RednekF350

Piney
Feb 20, 2004
5,058
3,328
Pestletown, N.J.
That is a very well written and photographed article.
The N.J. Society of Professional Land Surveyors publishes a quarterly journal called the Coordinate.They published an article a while back on the East/West Jersey line that wasn't nearly as interesting.
By the way, in my 28 years of surveying I have'nt heard of a Society Corner Marker.
Do you have any information on where that reference appears?
 
Teegate

Teegate

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Sep 17, 2002
25,967
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RednekF350 said:
That is a very well written and photographed article.
The N.J. Society of Professional Land Surveyors publishes a quarterly journal called the Coordinate.They published an article a while back on the East/West Jersey line that wasn't nearly as interesting.
Click to expand...

I am glad you enjoyed my article and my photos. It was the most interesting and enjoyable few months I have ever had in my 30 years of exploring the pines, and I hope to find another project that can equal or better that experience. We shall see.

I read that Coordinate article, and it played a pivotal role in my interest in the Lawrence Line. He certainly is a better writer than I am, but unfortunately it appears to me his interest was strictly in writing the article, where mine was in searching out the stones. I even did the html for the article and made the actual web page so that Ben could just upload it with minimal tweeking I believe. So it really was an all around interesing experience for me.

Guy
 
B

bach2yoga

Guest
RednekF350 said:
That is a very well written and photographed article.
The N.J. Society of Professional Land Surveyors publishes a quarterly journal called the Coordinate.They published an article a while back on the East/West Jersey line that wasn't nearly as interesting.
By the way, in my 28 years of surveying I have'nt heard of a Society Corner Marker.
Do you have any information on where that reference appears?
Click to expand...

That's quite a compliment Guy!

The Society Corner marker is down in Cumberland County where I live on the maps in the vicinity of Cumberland Furnace. I have it marked on numberous maps.

Renee
 
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