All,
It has been a while since I have been in the pines even though in various ways I have been working on things that will be fruitful in the future. With that said, we headed out early as usual and our first stop was to visit a place I recently learned of. With this I will give a little history lesson. The road from Batsto to Leektown (Route 542) is called Batsto Bridgeport Road, and you would think it has been there forever. However, before that road was built travelers in that area had to use a different route to go between those two locations. In doing so they crossed Pole Bridge. Here is a little snip-it from the Wharton Ledgers.
One of the Southerly lines of Joseph Wharton's lands is the road leading westwardly from Wading River (called Bridgeport) to where it crosses Cakes Spruto Branch, about 30 or 35 acres of the North part of this resurvey lies North of that road, which road also leads to Lower bank, Green Bank, Herman, Batsto, & etc.
The road now so traveled (542) leads through the Great Swamp a distance of more than ¾ of a mile. Before this comparatively modern road was made, there was a road that lead from Lewis Darnell's (who then lived at Bridgeport on the resurvey) (about 1795) up the “Ridge” on the East side of the Great Swamp, around the head of the swamp crossing at “Pole Bridge, “ thence down the West side of the swamp, passing the Job Week's place down the Mullicas where Eric Mullica lived and where Matthias Johnson lived and where the Johnson's and Cavileers have since lived and which is now called Lower Bank.
I have a map here that was made by Joseph Wharton's Surveyor Elijah Wright, and using it I determined that this particular Pole Bridge was located off of Ridge Road and we went there today to look around.
The map showing Pole Bridge, Job Week's Farm, and the road intersections. Compare them with the modern aerial below it where I show the same road intersections and the outline of Job Week's Farm. This is on Seaf Weeks Road.
Unfortunately, after what seemed like forever pushing our way through some really serious briers, we found no evidence of any old road or bridge at the location shown. There is nothing at all there except desolation.
Jessica on the way there.
She died on a little island nearby.
So we left Ridge Road and headed over to Seaf Weeks Road to look for another stone on the Job Week's property line. Al and I had been there before and reported on our previous finds. Today, Jessica and I walked the state line and eventually came to the location of where we hoped to find a stone. We were successful.
You may have noticed in the above aerial map that there is a small tract of land deep in the woods in that area which is still private. The Wharton survey team in the 1950's somehow missed that piece of property and thought it was state land. It is obvious that sometime at a later date it was determined that the state did not own the land and the state has recognized it as private. Today we traveled there to check out the edges of the property, and on state land nearby we found a trash dump from many years ago.
Jessica went bowling. I can guarantee her throw did not knock down anything......not even a stick.
Ready To Eat Smoked Sausages. Yum!
And right on the edge of that property we found an old farm truck. I would assume it was some sort of bog at one time.
There is a duck blind in the middle of the property.
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=qm...1.1398944448560806&sty=b&rtp=adr.~adr.&mode=W
Finally, if you have three minutes you can view this edited video of me cutting a tree that was crossing a road that I wanted to get down today. Jessica seemed to enjoy it and maybe you will also. It makes me look pretty idiotic.
Guy
It has been a while since I have been in the pines even though in various ways I have been working on things that will be fruitful in the future. With that said, we headed out early as usual and our first stop was to visit a place I recently learned of. With this I will give a little history lesson. The road from Batsto to Leektown (Route 542) is called Batsto Bridgeport Road, and you would think it has been there forever. However, before that road was built travelers in that area had to use a different route to go between those two locations. In doing so they crossed Pole Bridge. Here is a little snip-it from the Wharton Ledgers.
One of the Southerly lines of Joseph Wharton's lands is the road leading westwardly from Wading River (called Bridgeport) to where it crosses Cakes Spruto Branch, about 30 or 35 acres of the North part of this resurvey lies North of that road, which road also leads to Lower bank, Green Bank, Herman, Batsto, & etc.
The road now so traveled (542) leads through the Great Swamp a distance of more than ¾ of a mile. Before this comparatively modern road was made, there was a road that lead from Lewis Darnell's (who then lived at Bridgeport on the resurvey) (about 1795) up the “Ridge” on the East side of the Great Swamp, around the head of the swamp crossing at “Pole Bridge, “ thence down the West side of the swamp, passing the Job Week's place down the Mullicas where Eric Mullica lived and where Matthias Johnson lived and where the Johnson's and Cavileers have since lived and which is now called Lower Bank.
I have a map here that was made by Joseph Wharton's Surveyor Elijah Wright, and using it I determined that this particular Pole Bridge was located off of Ridge Road and we went there today to look around.
The map showing Pole Bridge, Job Week's Farm, and the road intersections. Compare them with the modern aerial below it where I show the same road intersections and the outline of Job Week's Farm. This is on Seaf Weeks Road.
Unfortunately, after what seemed like forever pushing our way through some really serious briers, we found no evidence of any old road or bridge at the location shown. There is nothing at all there except desolation.
Jessica on the way there.
She died on a little island nearby.
So we left Ridge Road and headed over to Seaf Weeks Road to look for another stone on the Job Week's property line. Al and I had been there before and reported on our previous finds. Today, Jessica and I walked the state line and eventually came to the location of where we hoped to find a stone. We were successful.
You may have noticed in the above aerial map that there is a small tract of land deep in the woods in that area which is still private. The Wharton survey team in the 1950's somehow missed that piece of property and thought it was state land. It is obvious that sometime at a later date it was determined that the state did not own the land and the state has recognized it as private. Today we traveled there to check out the edges of the property, and on state land nearby we found a trash dump from many years ago.
Jessica went bowling. I can guarantee her throw did not knock down anything......not even a stick.
Ready To Eat Smoked Sausages. Yum!
And right on the edge of that property we found an old farm truck. I would assume it was some sort of bog at one time.
There is a duck blind in the middle of the property.
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=qm...1.1398944448560806&sty=b&rtp=adr.~adr.&mode=W
Finally, if you have three minutes you can view this edited video of me cutting a tree that was crossing a road that I wanted to get down today. Jessica seemed to enjoy it and maybe you will also. It makes me look pretty idiotic.
Guy
