Salem County Stones

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,195
4,294
Pines; Bamber area
Great stuff Al. I wonder, what is the pipe for in that little hut half buried? Looks as if liquid was coming out of it but froze?
 

manumuskin

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Jul 20, 2003
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millville nj
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Great stuff Al. I wonder, what is the pipe for in that little hut half buried? Looks as if liquid was coming out of it but froze?
Bob I thought it was a spring house since we were right next to a decent size stream and many springs were issuing out of the hillside and visibly flowing down into the creek.We had an until recently cultivated field behind us that the state bought a few years ago and my friend said he tinks it was a pump hous to irrigate the field with.This field is big. About a half mile long by a third wide.The shack was about ten feet from the stream so I"m thinking He may be right and it was a pump house to pump water to the field.A spring house could have been built further up the hill and would have probably still had water in it.The stream was gorgeous with a sand and gravel bottom and a beaver pond and lodge upstream.We kept seeing beaver sign down where the stream rubs free and we were speculating where the critters lived and why they would be cutting trees that we saw no evidence left of.1500 feet upstream we found the trees all wedged into a tidy little dam.My friend had said the stream looked good enough to drink before we found the dam.I told him I wouldn't try it short of a rolling boil.beaver poop does not make for a nice drink.
 
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manumuskin

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Jul 20, 2003
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PS the woods in this area in some places smack of the Barrens,mostly higher up on the ridges,down lower a lot of nice beech and holly woods,very open and tree trunk sized poison ivy vines down near the streams.The streams are very unbarrens like though.Actually had a small rapids on this one stream and it wasn't flowing over a log but an honest chute of water that dropped about a foot in a ten foot long chute.Whitewater!
 
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Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
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Quite a bit of history in that house for sure as well as the stones. Very nice Al!
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
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I see the house is state owned by the sign on the tree. Correct?
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
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millville nj
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Al,

If you look on the aerial for the topography immediately downstream from Maskells Millpond, you see these large fields. Do you know if they are agriculture...and what it is growing there? They have odd shapes and such.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.4778689,-75.402819,2497m/data=!3m1!1e3
Bob
I crossed those fields in search of other stones and I found a patch of woods that has the biggest trees I have ever seen in NJ.They were oaks.I was alerted by a survey I plotted to get to the stones.One station was at a 60" diameter oak.Now that is five feet straight across.I thought he must be mistaken.He must mean 60" circumference which is a normal sized tree but I was in the area and had to know the truth.It is a five foot diameter tree and whats more that wasn't the biggest one in the area.
The fields are planted i grass and were quite hard from being frozen till I got half way across.I was thinking I bet this field would be a muddy mutha if it thawed when half way across it did thaw.Much of the field was quite soft and after a thaw would probably be a mess.It was 20 degrees and a wind chill of 9 or lower and yet much of the field was mud? The woods there are very cool.Not barrens at all but more like the Maryland Piedmont.Big trees open woods,beech interspersed.I am going back to more thorughly check out the big tree patch since I went straight up the middle and didn't see both corners. There is also a spring in the middle that is drained by a man made ditch.It appeared to be a seep that rapidly gained strength so weather it's permanent or just due to the wetness i don't know.Also a couple of vernal ponds in there as well.
 
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bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,195
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Pines; Bamber area
Very cool Al. I bet the mud wetness on that cold day was because of the sun the day before. Water is quite stable when it comes to temperature, and the ground soaks up a lot of heat from the sun. Probably that plus the vegetation insulated the ground.

Just a theory.
 
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manumuskin

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Jul 20, 2003
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millville nj
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Found four more today.The first two were plotted to and right on the money.The second two had a plotted stone at one end (second one) and a corner guess at the other end and then I had to stretch a line and meausr to the second two and the guess was only as good as my corner pick and it turned out they were right on also.The two with the tires around them were the pick/guesses.




This one is a very large foundation right where maskells Mill shoulda been.This may have been the Mill but it was a good 100 ft from the stream or it may have been the mill owners house.I was going to go over to the creek and check for more ruins but forgot to by the time i got back to that area.

This is an ten ft 11 inch circumference oak.I believe it to be southern red oak by the leaves on the ground.I took some pics of them as well but pretty sure it was southern red.Quite a few monsters in this area but this is the biggest.Found the deer skull about fifty feet from it.I usually keep them but it still stunk and my buddy wanted it so I graciously gave it to him:)
 
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jburd641

Explorer
Jan 16, 2008
410
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Port Charlotte, Fl.
I'm curious Al, what are some of the time periods of those stones being set? That was one of the great things about surveying large, old tracts...touching history and feeling the direct link to what I was doing and the work they did.
 
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manumuskin

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Jul 20, 2003
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millville nj
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They've been planting concrete monuments for about a hundred years now so most stones would have been planted over 100 years ago.We have found many stones with dates of the 17 and 1800's inscribed in them and I know of at least one stone that historical evidence shows to have been planted in 1691.Befoe that many surveyors and property owners doing their own bootleg surveys were making "hatchet surveys"
Just marking trees or carving their initials in them.Of course this didn't last very long.
 

manumuskin

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Jul 20, 2003
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Headed back out to salem County to do more stone hunting today but on the way stopped by a piece of land I noticed the state had just bought as i ride by it on the way to work every day.They had been trying to sell the lots to build on for several years but the state has it now.I immediately went home and found the deed online and plotted it,four stones! The first one i could actually see from the road as I drove by because they had festooned the trees with ribbons and painted the stone bright pink.It was about 15 ft off the road. I also found the next two as well as well as a newly placed monument but the last stone all I found was the signs and it was within 50 ft of someones back yard and marked their corner as well and I assume they possibly found the stone and not knowing what it was for may have said HMM! Nice yard ornament! In any case it's gone.Here are the cumberland county stones i found on my way to salem.





This next shot is of a pond we passed closed to on a PBX hike a couple years back but I don't think we made it to the pond if I remember correctly.
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There were about ten stones in the area of this little guy that i could not find.Found a couple ribbons but this is a very open oak woods right behind a bunch of houses and obviously is well used with many stumps and well worn trails.I assume most are missing or as small as this one which I would not have found if not for the post.I found a few very old ribbons at the other locations but this area was a big disappointment for stones.

Found this guy sunning himself.It was cold,about 41 and a 40 mph wind but he was in the sun.He didn't try to get away and being a Black racer they usually flee at high speed and bite like hell when picked up.He did neither.He was blind in one eye,looked like a series of unshed brille caps and permanently blinded him,a common malady of wild snakes,a captive bred snake can have these removed easily enough if you don't let them build up more then two sheds..He did skunk me but when i set him back down he laid there as calmly as if i was not there.I hope i didn't psychologically damage him.I left him where I found him.


I named this the "Don't Look Good Stone. Because the area was highly disturbed near a gravel pit and I said allowed to my self "This don't look good" and as I finished the sentence I saw this,hence the name.

The next two stones were on the edge of a private target range and are quite nice.I was standing on the state side when I took the pics.


Then found this monument where a stone was supposed to be wasn't

Then much to my great surprise I found this after heading south from the range.Also this was so great because the last four stones I made a mistake in plotting but looked at the aerials and guessed correctly where one stone actually would be and adjusted the other three accordingly and they all were spot on or i would not have found this stone or the monument or preceeding two stones.


It is now the IS Stone.This was not shown in the deed hence the surprise.
Went back to the car and was about to quit when I realized I had three more on the other side of the road I had forgotten.One was a no find the second one was this one

And the last one was just a monument.I was looking around for it and did not see it but there was an old tire laying there in the woods.Hear lately in this area I have been finding stones inside of old tires so on a hunch I reached down into the duff in the tire and behold I found this!

Fairly good day but now i only have 137 stones left to find in salem county that I have plotted:-(
 
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