The other day I wrote up a piece for NJPB about my first trip through the Pine Barrens.
Those who read my blog and don't check the other site may want to click this link if they're so inclined.
Expounding on the post I made the other day about Lower Mill:
If there was a water wheel, how was it situated? If it needed to be dipped in the water, then it must have been at least 30′ in diameter. That’s far larger than any wheel I know of. If the wheel was just pushed by the rush of water spilling over/through the dam, how high was the dam and the water level back in the day?
Why is there no evidence of any sort of mount for this wheel? The last time I saw a water wheel I remember it mounted on a metal sleeve embedded in concrete on either side.
I remember being really young and traveling up to Colts Neck with my father to visit a friend of his who had a tiger. During one of our journeys up there, I remember us stopping to look at a water wheel. Well, the years go by and time goes on and I sort of forget how impressive these old water wheels were, until I did some research.
Photo from the Ohio Barns website.
Photo from the Colts Neck, NJ township website.
It seems I was mistaken about the size of these things. The one they have on display at Allaire State Park seems much smaller in comparison. Maybe the sawmill at Lower Mill really did have a wheel that was that big.
You have to hand it to our forefathers - the level of engineering on a lot of things was pretty impressive given the tools and technology available.
Posted a new article up on NJPB. Check it out. It's about a ~100 year old canal, located out in the woods near New Lisbon in Burlington County, that failed because the builders didn't realize that water didn't flow uphill. Somehow, I think there is more to it than that.
Today I met up with Jeff from my site. He was going to show me how far off the map I was when I looked for Lower Mill last weekend.
The last time I was out there, I stopped at the bridge crossing the Bisphams Mill Branch. It turns out I was looking somewhat out of the way -- cellar holes for the mill site are along either side of Greenwood Bridge Road. Scouting around, we found three cellar holes and the remains of what was most likely the dam near the mill site. There's nothing to be seen there now, except for a relatively recent bottle dump and some scattered bricks.
What's odd is that the site is on a ridge overlooking the Bisphams Mill Branch, which at one point was dammed to form a lake. The sawmill site today is about 15' higher than the surface of the water today. It's a fair assumption that the sawmill - at least during it's operation in the mid 19th century - was water powered. This leaves me with some questions:
1. If there was a water wheel, how was it situated? If it needed to be dipped in the water, then it must have been at least 30' in diameter. That's far larger than any wheel I know of. If the wheel was just pushed by the rush of water spilling over/through the dam, how high was the dam and the water level back in the day?
2. Why is there no evidence of any sort of mount for this wheel? The last time I saw a water wheel I remember it mounted on a metal sleeve embedded in concrete on either side.
Unfortunately sites like there are very poorly documented. Any thoughts of how the mill was run are speculation, and it'd be an undertaking of original research to figure it out. That's the joy of the Pine Barrens explorer who is looking into way out of the way places.
As an aside, Jeff also showed me the canal "found" by Beck in the chapter "Lost in the Woods: One Railroad" in More Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey. The canal North of Mount Misery Brook is in good shape, and a lot of the pilings, etc. are still visible. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera so I'll have to go back soon to get more shots. Jeff thinks the canal may have actually been a narrow gauge rail road. Me, I'm not sure what it was, except that if it was a canal, it was a poorly engineered one as water does not flow uphill.