Weymouth Furnace, Bethlehem Loading Company, and Estell Manor PArk

[Barry_Timony]

Can anybody who is familiar with these places provide me with more insight into the area and what to expect when exploring these places? Also, how extensive are the ruins in this area?

 

[Boyd]

I think you could safely state that the Bethlehem Loading Company (Belco) ruins are the most extensive standing ruins anywhere in the Pine Barrens. This is almost my back yard, and I have explored pretty extensively. There are quite a lot of ruins to be seen from the trails, but there are much more deep in the woods, in places that are almost inaccessible due to the heavy, thorny thickets and swamps. Many of them are in remarkably good condition, and in discussing this with some senior members on the site, I decided not to reveal any details.

A good place to start is the park website: http://www.aclink.org/PARKS/mainpages/estell.asp

Also here: http://www.aclink.org/PARKS/mainpages/historic.asp

Estell Manor Park and Belco are the same thing. Weymouth furnace is interesting and worth stopping by if you're in the area, but there isn't a whole lot to see.

 

[Barry_Timony]

I think you could safely state that the Bethlehem Loading Company (Belco) ruins are the most extensive standing ruins anywhere in the Pine Barrens. This is almost my back yard, and I have explored pretty extensively. There are quite a lot of ruins to be seen from the trails, but there are much more deep in the woods, in places that are almost inaccessible due to the heavy, thorny thickets and swamps. Many of them are in remarkably good condition, and in discussing this with some senior members on the site, I decided not to reveal any details.

A good place to start is the park website: http://www.aclink.org/PARKS/mainpages/estell.asp

Also here: http://www.aclink.org/PARKS/mainpages/historic.asp

Estell Manor Park and Belco are the same thing. Weymouth furnace is interesting and worth stopping by if you're in the area, but there isn't a whole lot to see.

Thanks for the info Boyd. Are Belcoville, Estellville Glassworks, and Bethlehem Loading Company all considered the same thing? (Or generally in the same area?). And, also would you say the ruins are far more extensive than the Pasadena Brick Factory Ruins?

 

[Boyd]

I would say the ruins cover perhaps 10x to 20x the area of Pasadena (maybe more), and there are more stuctures above ground level, some quite large. It was a huge facility. There are some image galleries of the plant at the link I posted above, but the website is a little confusing. Here are some direct links

http://www.aclink.org/blc/plant_images/index.asp
http://www.aclink.org/blc/rail_images/index.asp
http://www.aclink.org/blc/village_images/index.asp
http://www.aclink.org/blc/utilities_images/index.asp

Estell Manor Park contains almost all of Belco, with the exception of the town (workers homes, etc), much of which still exists. The Glassworks are also inside the park boundary towards the Southern end, right next to the loop road that goes through the developed (South) section of the park. They are interesting, but again, not a whole lot to see.

 

[Kevinhooa]

Blasphemy vines, aka swear vines, aka greenbriar... There's a lot of it in some of the more low lying sections here. Look for the deer trails and runs throughout. They are good at finding the best paths as some of the buildings have a little bit of higher ground with different vegetation growing around it. Most of everything is accessible from the paths and roads though, but some of the stuff is buried deeper like has been mentioned by Boyd already. The ruins are much more extensive than you would think though, and there is stuff hiding far and wide here. Have fun.