Wondering if anyone has been to the Walker's Forge area recently. I live about a mile away, but I've never actually been into the woods over there. I'm fairly certain it's all private property, but I was taking a look at the Estell Manor tax maps and saw that there's something labelled "Historical Commission Easement" just south of the river in the two properties directly east of Forty Wire Rd. I'm assuming that's where some type of ruins are? If anyone has any info that would be great, I've been wanting to do some more exploring in the area.
Welcome to the site! I live very near there but have never explored that area either, like you said, it is private. Just looking at the Cook Topo, I see there's something called Monroe Forge in that general area, never noticed that before
My new topo shows public openspace, property lines and historical structures when you zoom all the way in. There are sections of the Maple Lake WMA and Estell Manor Park along the lower part of Walkers Forge road.
I have a long-term project to georeference these, but it's a big job that may never be finished. @Spung-Man is the guy who can probably tell us everything there is to know about this area.
@Boyd —
Thanks Boyd! I believe Monroe Forge is another name for Walker's Forge, but I don't remember the history behind that. I have not seen the Hartman maps, I'll definitely check those out.
Looking at different spots with the "Lidar Viewer" but it seems like it only goes so far when I go North, and ends abruptly. Are there areas that haven't been mapped yet?? Or maybe looking at a different map?
All the recent discussion has revolved around the Southern NJ 2019 LIDAR project which only covers Ocean, Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Salem Counties. If you're talking about my LIDAR Viewer, that's just a quick hack I put together so people could temporarily access this newly-released data and it will go away soon, when I finish a new map with full coverage of the entire region.
See this post for information on my other LIDAR-based maps that are available.
The resolution is a bit less, the original is 2 feet/pixel, I have down-sampled it to 1-meter to match the 2015 LIDAR. It is level 17, going up to level 18 would result in 24gb more data and about 2 million more tiles, I can't handle that. You are right, you can't over-zoom with the Maptalks API. Not sure what the problem is there, the docs suggest that it should be possible, but I haven't been able to get it working. Will have to look into this more deeply, I would like to be able to do that. But, for now, "it is what it is".
Hi, everyone! My name is Ed. I've been a lifelong resident of Mays Landing but have been away for some time, just moved back. I have always loved South Jersey History and Lore. Recently, I too have been looking for the Walker's Forge location. I got some good news (but maybe old)! The actual "Walker's Forge Mansion" (which was really the Estell Family Mansion, how it got labeled Walker's Mansion I don't know) is located on the corner of route 50 and Walkers Forge Road, right down the street from the historic Estellville Methodist Church, which is located on the corner of Maple Ave and Walker's Forge Road. There is actually a dirt road right on the corner of Walker's and Route 50 that leads to Steven's Lake. I believe that the "dirt road", might have actually been the driveway to the mansion since you can access the ruins of the mansion from that dirt road a lot easier than from the road. All that is left is a pile of Jersey Sandstone though since it burnt down in 1996. There is a historic sign there on the side of Walker's Forge Road. It's hard to see due to vegetation. As I said, the easiest access to it is via the little dirt road at the corner, as there is a forest of vegetation surrounding it where the sign is. The area of Steven's Lake and the dirt road is public access, being WMA land.
As for Walker's Forge Furnace. I have just located the historic sign located on Forty Wire Road. It is behind a guard rail around the South River. I have not gone into the area since there are no trespassing signs. My theory though is that if there is a historic sign up, then that should be considered more or less public land? I may be wrong, correct me if I am. I'm going to do some research on this to see if I can get permission to enter the area for historical exploration. Eh, who knows, maybe I'll be able to if I get permission.
If any knows any more info about this or the Estell Family, please educate me! I actually have a great-grandmother who was an Estell!
A sign does not give you permission to trespass and if you use the sign argument you are admitting you can read so trying to claim you couldn't read the no trespassing signs will no longer be a valid excuse.
I've spent the 18 or so years out of the South Jersey history business. I used to be fairly well read up, from spending hours at the Atlantic County Libraries trying to learn everything about everything concerning local history. Exhausting the resources at the time, in the library and my...
forums.njpinebarrens.com
Clearly, the presence of a historical marker does not give you permission to trespass. See the links I posted to my 2020 topo above. The green areas are public openspace. This is the location of the mansion, as you correctly surmised. Buildings shown in the lavendar color are historical structures that no longer exist.
Hey! Thanks for the feedback! I'm so glad I found this site, being an avid South Jerseyan and "wannabe" historian of local history, but nobody to share my interest with. This is cool! By no means would I enter private land. I was just thinking that a public sign would only be on public land. Now that I think about it, I think they put historic signs on historic private homes too, so, yeah, that about answers that. I enjoy the area of the mansion though. It easy to drive your car into and it's a quiet little alcove of tranquility. Does any go fishing here? Steven's Lake? Seems likely to be fish in there? I see there is an old dock and an area to place boats on the lake. I will have plenty of thoughts and questions comming for those of you more familiar with the area! Thanks again. Anybody collect and dig for antique bottles?
I've spent the 18 or so years out of the South Jersey history business. I used to be fairly well read up, from spending hours at the Atlantic County Libraries trying to learn everything about everything concerning local history. Exhausting the resources at the time, in the library and my...
forums.njpinebarrens.com
Clearly, the presence of a historical marker does not give you permission to trespass. See the links I posted to my 2020 topo above. The green areas are public openspace. This is the location of the mansion, as you correctly surmised. Buildings shown in the lavendar color are historical structures that no longer exist.
Yes, I actually remember seeing the mansion as a kid back in the late 70s and early 80s. Never knew what it was and did'nt care back then, but, I knew it was there.
Yes, I actually remember seeing the mansion as a kid back in the late 70s and early 80s. Never knew what it was and did'nt care back then, but, I knew it was there.
