All,
Over the years many of us have taken an interest in Aserdaten just as Beck did years ago. Unfortunately, for Beck he relied mostly on others to help him with his quest. Today, we have it much easier, but the question still remains....where is the Aserdaten Tract? Well, I believe I can finally answer that question and in the coming months and years I am hoping to add more to this thread. In the mean time I will lay out the facts that I have and as I see them, and you can be the judge on the truth. So make sure you have a little time and lets begin.
The Aserdaten Tract is a real tract of land consisting of 1400 acres that was recorded in 1796 in Book X page 253 Board of Proprietors, Western Division, Burlington.
I believe this document was transcribed by Elizabeth Morgan and bobpbx made me a copy.
Let look at a particular portion of the document. It states in part... "BEGINNING at a stake in the mouth of a small branch called Cherry Valley Branch where it empties into the Main South Branch of Cedar Creek called Chamberlain's Branch."
The answer to the question of where the Cherry Valley Branch actually is has frustrated and eluded me for quite some time; however, recently while looking over some old maps I have had for years, I discovered this one that mentions the Cherry Valley Branch, and with a little knowledge of the area it tells me it's location.
They spell it "Vale" and not Valley. Maybe that is the correct spelling but until I know differently I will use Valley. They may have abbreviated it. This map is rotated for easier viewing of the text.
So we now know the "mouth" of the Cherry Valley Branch meets the Chamberlain about 3/4 of a mile ENE of 539.
Lets go back to the Aserdaten document again. It states that the stake is at the mouth of the Cherry Valley Branch where it EMPTIES into the Chamberlain which is basically where they meet in the center of the cedar swamp. So from that stake which is the beginning, it then states the tract line turns up the Cherry Valley Branch "(1) South eleven degrees and Thirty minutes east 18 chains (1188 feet)."
After looking that over I realized that I had found a stone up the Cherry Valley Branch years ago about 1188 feet from where the stake would have been. So I checked the GPS coordinates and you can see here the distance from the mouth of the Cherry Valley Branch to the stone I found along the steep valley which is about where the survey says the first location should be.
Here is the stone which is almost exactly the distance mentioned in the Aserdaten document. I believe this is location 1.
Now that I ended up with what I believe to be the first location and have an exact GPS coordinate, I then was able to start calculating where the rest of the tract would be. As I have mentioned before the declination changes over the years for magnetic north, and since we are dealing with 1796 we are going pretty far back in time. So by looking over a few websites that calculate declination for specific years I came up with almost exactly a 10 degree difference for our area from 1796 to 2012. So I took each course mentioned on the Aserdaten document and went CCW 10 degrees. So for example if it says South 24 15 East I made it South 34 15 East. I then calculated each and every course and in no time at all I had the Aserdaten tract completed.
Back to the Aserdaten Document. We know where it starts and lets read where it ends. It basically states ..."(12) North forty six degrees and thirty minutes West one hundred and twenty eight chains and eighty links to said Chamberlain branch, thence UP THE SAID CHAMBERLAIN BRANCH THE SEVERAL COURSES THEREOF TO THE PLACE OF BEGINNING."
This means that the last upland course meets the Chamberlain, and the rest of the tract then follows the Chamberlain upstream back to the stake at the beginning. And after doing all of the calculating the last land course meets up almost EXACTLY with the property line of the Eureka Gun Club at the Chamberlain Branch. Take notice of that in one of the below photo's where I point it out.
For the first time I am confident this is the Aserdaten Tract. Notice the location of Aserdaten is right in the middle of the tract directly above #7 at the road.
Click these maps to make them larger or click the link under them to view the maps themselves
http://teegate.njpinebarrens.com/04282012_Aserdaten/aerial_A.jpg
http://teegate.njpinebarrens.com/04282012_Aserdaten/aerial_B.jpg
http://teegate.njpinebarrens.com/04282012_Aserdaten/aerial3.jpg
Guy
Over the years many of us have taken an interest in Aserdaten just as Beck did years ago. Unfortunately, for Beck he relied mostly on others to help him with his quest. Today, we have it much easier, but the question still remains....where is the Aserdaten Tract? Well, I believe I can finally answer that question and in the coming months and years I am hoping to add more to this thread. In the mean time I will lay out the facts that I have and as I see them, and you can be the judge on the truth. So make sure you have a little time and lets begin.
The Aserdaten Tract is a real tract of land consisting of 1400 acres that was recorded in 1796 in Book X page 253 Board of Proprietors, Western Division, Burlington.
I believe this document was transcribed by Elizabeth Morgan and bobpbx made me a copy.
Let look at a particular portion of the document. It states in part... "BEGINNING at a stake in the mouth of a small branch called Cherry Valley Branch where it empties into the Main South Branch of Cedar Creek called Chamberlain's Branch."
The answer to the question of where the Cherry Valley Branch actually is has frustrated and eluded me for quite some time; however, recently while looking over some old maps I have had for years, I discovered this one that mentions the Cherry Valley Branch, and with a little knowledge of the area it tells me it's location.
They spell it "Vale" and not Valley. Maybe that is the correct spelling but until I know differently I will use Valley. They may have abbreviated it. This map is rotated for easier viewing of the text.
So we now know the "mouth" of the Cherry Valley Branch meets the Chamberlain about 3/4 of a mile ENE of 539.
Lets go back to the Aserdaten document again. It states that the stake is at the mouth of the Cherry Valley Branch where it EMPTIES into the Chamberlain which is basically where they meet in the center of the cedar swamp. So from that stake which is the beginning, it then states the tract line turns up the Cherry Valley Branch "(1) South eleven degrees and Thirty minutes east 18 chains (1188 feet)."
After looking that over I realized that I had found a stone up the Cherry Valley Branch years ago about 1188 feet from where the stake would have been. So I checked the GPS coordinates and you can see here the distance from the mouth of the Cherry Valley Branch to the stone I found along the steep valley which is about where the survey says the first location should be.
Here is the stone which is almost exactly the distance mentioned in the Aserdaten document. I believe this is location 1.
Now that I ended up with what I believe to be the first location and have an exact GPS coordinate, I then was able to start calculating where the rest of the tract would be. As I have mentioned before the declination changes over the years for magnetic north, and since we are dealing with 1796 we are going pretty far back in time. So by looking over a few websites that calculate declination for specific years I came up with almost exactly a 10 degree difference for our area from 1796 to 2012. So I took each course mentioned on the Aserdaten document and went CCW 10 degrees. So for example if it says South 24 15 East I made it South 34 15 East. I then calculated each and every course and in no time at all I had the Aserdaten tract completed.
Back to the Aserdaten Document. We know where it starts and lets read where it ends. It basically states ..."(12) North forty six degrees and thirty minutes West one hundred and twenty eight chains and eighty links to said Chamberlain branch, thence UP THE SAID CHAMBERLAIN BRANCH THE SEVERAL COURSES THEREOF TO THE PLACE OF BEGINNING."
This means that the last upland course meets the Chamberlain, and the rest of the tract then follows the Chamberlain upstream back to the stake at the beginning. And after doing all of the calculating the last land course meets up almost EXACTLY with the property line of the Eureka Gun Club at the Chamberlain Branch. Take notice of that in one of the below photo's where I point it out.
For the first time I am confident this is the Aserdaten Tract. Notice the location of Aserdaten is right in the middle of the tract directly above #7 at the road.
Click these maps to make them larger or click the link under them to view the maps themselves
http://teegate.njpinebarrens.com/04282012_Aserdaten/aerial_A.jpg
http://teegate.njpinebarrens.com/04282012_Aserdaten/aerial_B.jpg
http://teegate.njpinebarrens.com/04282012_Aserdaten/aerial3.jpg
Guy
