In September 1964 a huge forest fire was burning in the Jackson Road/Atsion road area, having started on the east side of Jackson Road near Sunrise Lake. Clinton Prickett, the Medford Fire Tower observer discover and reported it.
From newspaper articles at the time.
Residents of more than a dozen homes along Atsion road, in Medford, Shamong and Evesham Township remained on 24-hour alert for possible evacuations.
More than 100 men worked through the night to keep the fire from spreading. Tank trucks from Rancocas, Vincentown, Masonville, Medford, Mount Holly, and Lumberton, together with 15 state trucks battles the fire yesterday and last night. At times the flames were 50 to 60 feet high. Fifty men recruited yesterday from Ft. Dix to fight the fire were replaced by local and regional firefighters at sundown yesterday.
Recently, a member of this site informed me that something unusual occurred with the men from Fort Dix, in the area where the power lines are now located, and in the vicinity of West Jersey Cranberry Meadow. The information given to me is that with the dry conditions the military men from Ft. Dix, mentioned above, needed to acquire water and had to take drastic measures to do just that. I was told approximately where this occurred, and Jessica and I have been doing our best to find it.
We were told to look for a large hole right along the edge of the road where the Ft Dix men were witnessed using dynamite to capture ground water. The road really no longer is a road and can barely be traversed by foot. We have walked over 20 miles getting to, traveling it, and getting back, and have not found any holes where this could have occurred. However, we now have come to the belief that we have found it and it is the location where the 1978 Grand Prix is located. It is the only place in the locations we have been told to look where there is anything resembling a hole. It actually is in the middle of a stream and I am certain the flow of water has mostly filled it in. I checked it today and it is about 2 feet deep. With the information I have, this is my conclusion.
The road as it currently looks.
On the way there crossing the savannah.
One of the many unused stands. Quite a bit of money left out there to rust.