Poking around Mary Ann Forge

[Jerseyman]

Ben:

I can’t speak with certainty here—and I can’t explain why the center channel does not appear on the historic maps—but with the forge working off the one raceway and the sawmill operating on the main stream, if you have the gates shut on both head races, then you still need a way to allow the water to spill over the dam. Hence, the center channel may have served as a bypass race for the two mills. The 1858 map has a tantalizing little point in the middle of the dam area right from where that center channel would extend.

I will see what else I can find.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[pinelandpaddler]

They needed to get a good amount of water out of there, more than what the raceway to where the mill wheel was, so it would make sense that they would tear a chunk out of the dam to lower the level of the pond.

I think one raceway would have been sufficient to drain the bog. Is there any evidence of a gate where the dam/road crosses either of the two races?

Now I'm itching to get back there.

 

[Ben Ruset]

Gabe, let's try to time it on a day that we can get back there together.

Ben:

I can’t speak with certainty here—and I can’t explain why the center channel does not appear on the historic maps—but with the forge working off the one raceway and the sawmill operating on the main stream, if you have the gates shut on both head races, then you still need a way to allow the water to spill over the dam. Hence, the center channel may have served as a bypass race for the two mills. The 1858 map has a tantalizing little point in the middle of the dam area right from where that center channel would extend.

I will see what else I can find.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

Thanks!

 

[jokerman]

Very interesting read. The last time I was at Mary Ann Forge, I was overcome by the entanglement that awaited me and then by the barking dog on the opposite side of Mt. Misery rd. that I thought was coming to get me. There's a residence back there which made me not want to venture further.

I wanted to add my 2 cents about the discussion since the third raceway may be a new or old raceway that replaced an older one or was replaced by a newer one. I've seen this at other mill sites where there are "extra" raceways beyond the number of mills that operated in the locale. These were either replaced/replacements or perhaps used as temporary raceways when they performed repairs/alterations to the main raceways.

 

[pinelandpaddler]

These were either replaced/replacements or perhaps used as temporary raceways when they performed repairs/alterations to the main raceways.

That's a good consideration, jokerman.