Ruins on the Mullica

[TabernacleNative]

So I'm paddling the Mullica during low tide often. Just before Bull Creek, whats the story behind the ruins that are just the stone foundations? Is that the Herman Hotel? And also the home next to it that looks as though it may share the same fate someday soon? And why are there so many concrete wharfs on the OTHER side of the river? One across from Bull Creek, one just after the Green Bank Bridge, and one a bit further down towards Lower Bank - that last one almost looks like a thin wall section sticking up from the water. I'd think the wharfs or docks would be on the road side.

 

[Ben Ruset]

The Hermann Hotel has been long gone. There's not even a cellar hole there. Further back in the woods you can see the ruins of the glassworks, but they're mostly ground level.

There's another ruin that looks like the beginnings of a house. I think it was a house that was illegally built and never finished. It's also really old.

 

[turtle]

There was a road on the Atlantic Co. side of the river....an access road. The concrete "wharfs" are the supports for the roadways over the creeks that empty into the Mullica. On the Atlantic Co. side of the Green Bank bridge you can see it from the paved road.

turtle

 

[pinelandpaddler]

TabernacleNative and Turtle,

Looking at the 1930 aerial photos of this stretch of river, it appears that the wetlands immediately adjacent to the Mullica on the Atlantic County side were flooded. It seems that the road turtle mentioned was also used as a dyke. I'd bet that the concrete structures served not only as bridges, but also as dams. I'd also bet that there were cranberry bogs here, and that the concrete dams not only retained the swamp waters, but also prevented the tidal Mullica from introducing salinity into the bogs.

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Do you see the submerged channels just to the south of the road/berm?

http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.60258008080764&lng=-74.5823085308075&z=17&type=nj1930&gpx=