Stone Searching Fall & Winter 2024/2025

[Teegate]

We did our first test explore today to search for a stone that I have been wanting to find for years. The beavers have the place fully flooded, but not today. We visited a few places to plunge into the woods and realized there is only one way to go. So very soon we will make an attempt and resume heaving searching in November.

Old survey map used by the Wharton survey team to find the corners of Wharton. The red markings are from them.

 

[manumuskin]

We did our first test explore today to search for a stone that I have been wanting to find for years. The beavers have the place fully flooded, but not today. We visited a few places to plunge into the woods and realized there is only one way to go. So very soon we will make an attempt and resume heaving searching in November.

Old survey map used by the Wharton survey team to find the corners of Wharton. The red markings are from them.

View attachment 23438

Well if anyone can find them it will be you and Jessica

 

[Teegate]

This morning when we left the house it was still dark as we headed toward Parkdale to look for the stone mentioned above. Upon arrival it was chilly and I was beginning to think I was under dressed. Because the bridge has burned Jessica refused to walk across it so we had to enter at Dutchtown on 206 and drive and walk the rest of the way to our destination. We have been at that point before and found a tree with a nail in it pointing to the location of the first Wharton monument that we still have no found.

On our way through the reeds I took this of sunrise.

Making it to the tree with the nail was somewhat easy but the future was not so certain.

This is all that is left of Fleming Pike at this location. A once great road is no more.

Because of the lack of water everywhere that usually is 2 feet underwater because of beaver, it is completely dry and we walked on ground that has been flooded for a year.

You can see the second Wharton monument at the bottom left corner. Parkdale in the 50's when the state acquired Wharton was still partially owned by others. I am standing on what was private property.

Looking back it was obvious we were going to have a tough time seeing because of sun glare.

It didn't take much longer for me to decide that I would wait another year and go myself on this adventure. I kept falling down crossing all of the logs and Jessica is still recovering from a leg injury on a previous outing.

Then to the Parker Preserve where I noticed odd things in the woods that I wanted to check out. It was a tent someone had abandoned.

I just have to say that the Parkdale area is a mess. The beavers have destroyed that place killing thousands of trees and removing hundreds of acres of upland that I use to roam on. The road is a mess and rotted trees litter the tracks that use to be interesting to walk down. If you took someone there that never had been to Wharton before they would most certainly never come back. It is slobbish and forever ruined like many of the other area's that I visited years ago, and it is almost all because of beavers. They are a menace. Next, I will tell you how I really feel about them.

 

[Teegate]

Back in 2018 Jessica and myself looked for a monument and old post at the southern end of the Birches property along the Tom Roberts Branch. The swamp was flooded at the time and I was not able to locate the monument. It was there in the 1950's during the Wharton survey.

Today, we made another attempt at it and again stopped to view the bog that is under restoration by Bill Haines the current owner.

Today

And 2018

Another view further south.

We finally made it to the monument and old post area and as expected it was dry. I could walk around fairly easily and finally found the location because of the presence of a wood stake.

Then my walking stick hit a metal stake.

Not sure if the old post is the wood with the stake around it. Doesn't seem to be.

And then my stick hit this from 2013.

An enjoyable 4 mile walk according to my watch.

 

[MuckSavage]

Funny, I found a similar disk a few years ago while surveying a residential property in Cherry Hill.

 

[Boyd]

This?

https://www.nj.gov/agriculture/sadc/documents/publications/farmlandpreservationbrochure.pdf

 

[Teegate]

We were out early this morning and home by 10:15. Our goal was to look for a stone on the easterly side of a hill along the Tom Roberts Branch. I figured there would be briers and I was correct. But they do not look impossible to get through so we will give it a go at another date when it is slightly warmer.

Along the way we searched for and found a few Wharton monuments that most surely have not been visited in 75 years. The state owns all the property around it so there is no reason for anyone to go there and look for them.

It took a few minutes but we prevailed.

This one was easier to find.

We were right at the Tom Roberts branch so we ventured out to check it out. This is the reservoir for the Birches cranberry bog that you can see in the distance in the below photos.

We were here.

You can see the buildings at Birches to the right of the sand pile.

 

[bobpbx]

I think that is right next to the area where I told someone I'd get to the top of that higher point.

 

[Teegate]

Yes it was. I saw your post and I had already been planning on going. I would have made it today but we had limited time as we had to meet up with my brother so I decided to skip it. I will get there soon or semi soon.

 

[Teegate]

Bob ... I made it to the hill today. It was much easier than I thought. I walked back and forth on the easterly side of the hill but was not able to find the stone. The deed says easterly side of the hill but it does not say the slope of the hill. It could be east of the hill itself. The top of the hill is fairly easy to walk but as one goes down it is slightly thicker. Once I reached the bottom the woods opened up and was much easier to walk around in. I have looked again for the deed to try and calculate the location better but I have failed to find it again so far.

The hill.

The top.

 

[bobpbx]

No sign of disturbance or previous visits by people Guy?

 

[Teegate]

No. It is a nice place with more exploring to do around it. It may be my new favorite place to explore. On the way there close by the hill I found this. It is a hunters mark because I saw others on cedar trees nearby and they were staggered.

The only thing I found on the hill was this.

Once I find the deed I looked at I will return to look for the stone and explore more. I will have Jessica the next time to help me. She is just getting over a cold today so I was alone.

 

[Rooftree]

Both of you discussed this hill back in February 2023. Guy, you showed the deed on post 16. You are looking for a post, not a stone. There suppose to be one in Roberts Branch too.

Apple Pie Hill Tower Open Saturday

All, Jessica read on the Wharton State Forest Facebook page that the tower will be open for 7 hours Saturday to stop in and enjoy the view. You will not be able to get into the observation room.

forums.njpinebarrens.com

 

[Teegate]

I just found the deed and Rooftree is correct. It is a post and not a stone. I never changed my info and forgot that it was a post.

 

[Teegate]

The deed is the sale of the Atsion property to a lawyer who was commissioned to sell because Raleigh defaulted on it.

 

[Teegate]

We have been spending more time just picking locations we have not been to before and just walking and hoping to find anything along our route. Today, we choose a road in the Parker Preserve that for the most part nobody goes. Just off that road is a hill and I marked that to visit.

We were 300 feet away and still could not see it but quickly the slope was visible. There is not a road up the hill so we just pushed through until I noticed a feeder near the top. Corn and pumpkins was the food of choice and it appears there was not a camera around.

We did find a hood and grill for an old Ford truck right at that very location.

And also a tent. The branches are green so it was used this year. The top of the hill is shown on the right.

From there we moved on to the bog nearby the Bordentown Gun Club. It is private but the dike runs right along the state property. Jessica found our clue to find one of the monuments but we failed to do that today. I will return.

We walked the dike to another one and had to cross this well made bridge.

And Jessica noticed it pushed over, but still there, shown at the bottom of this photo. The information I have says in the 1950s there was a "Tile Pipe With Concrete" there but I did not see it. I may have to dig in warmer weather.

The bog is mostly still dry.

 

[66C10]

We have been spending more time just picking locations we have not been to before and just walking and hoping to find anything along our route. Today, we choose a road in the Parker Preserve that for the most part nobody goes. Just off that road is a hill and I marked that to visit.

View attachment 23985

We were 300 feet away and still could not see it but quickly the slope was visible. There is not a road up the hill so we just pushed through until I noticed a feeder near the top. Corn and pumpkins was the food of choice and it appears there was not a camera around.

View attachment 23986


We did find a hood and grill for an old Ford truck right at that very location.

View attachment 23987

View attachment 23988

And also a tent. The branches are green so it was used this year. The top of the hill is shown on the right.

View attachment 23989

From there we moved on to the bog nearby the Bordentown Gun Club. It is private but the dike runs right along the state property. Jessica found our clue to find one of the monuments but we failed to do that today. I will return.

View attachment 23990

We walked the dike to another one and had to cross this well made bridge.

View attachment 23994

And Jessica noticed it pushed over, but still there, shown at the bottom of this photo. The information I have says in the 1950s there was a "Tile Pipe With Concrete" there but I did not see it. I may have to dig in warmer weather.

View attachment 23995

View attachment 23997

The bog is mostly still dry.

View attachment 23996

1948-50 Ford F1 grille and hood

 

[manumuskin]

1948-50 Ford F1 grille and hood

Now thats damn good for someone who wasn't born till a half century after that

 

[Teegate]

So we go back to the tree with the nail in it mentioned in the last post and started looking again for the monument. After following the nail for 30 feet I gave up. Jessica turned to walk away and noticed this.

The tree with the nail in the distance and the monument.

This is an unusual one because of the 10 L. Most of the time it is either 10 or L. Line meaning line and 10 the distance. All of the information I have just says the monument is here so why is the 10 there. I asked Jessica to check 10 feet away following the line.

Poking with her walking stick.

And a surprise of a large sandstone property corner.

We then visited another location I will post about later today, and then to Parkdale to look for a monument about 400 feet from the road but in dense vegetation. I have passed on looking for this one because of that.

This looks easy but full of brier.

Jessica took a tumble knocking off her glasses. I figured getting the photo was more important than helping her.

For being so remote it is pushed over.

 

[Teegate]

Yesterday we also traveled in the Pestletown area along Porter road and walked 4 miles looking for stones. We only found a few monuments and have to return to dig for the stones. It looks like many of the monuments are also gone as we looked for about 7 of them. Still have many more to look for.

Briers everywhere. The arrow is Jessica in orange who stayed up the hill.