New Jersey - Day 8 - Delaware coast

Clarksboro KOA
Saturday, 8 December 2018

I'm sorry these next few posts have been so delayed.  Time seems to have gotten the better of me but I'll try to make friends with it.

today's route

Today I went first into Paulsboro to pick up my prescription refill at the CVS, and then went on through town heading east southeast.  My aim was the small towns along the coast of the Delaware River.

I found out about that question of where the boundary with Delaware is, by the way, and you might want to check out this link.  /nj-delaware-border/  Decided by the Supreme Court, oddly enough, less than 100 years ago.  Interesting.

I passed the Paulsboro chapter of the Sons of Italy.  Italian immigrants must have moved into this area in large numbers, because there are Italian names everywhere - on businesses and political signs, for instance.

Did I mention the other day that gasoline is much cheaper here than in Connecticut?  Prices hover in the neighborhood of $2.30/gal of unleaded, while in much of New England I thought I was doing well to find it at $2.75.  Big difference when you buy 25 gallons at a time.











That link above about the Delaware border mentions Finn's Point Cemetery, which is on the road to Ft. Mott.  What still exists at the fort includes 2 of these structures, and I think this sign helps explain them.  The moat area is on the other side, as far as I can tell.  I was handicapped partly by several other people walking their dogs in the area, and partly by the very very cold weather, exacerbated by a stiff breeze, making hanging around outdoors not what I much wanted to do.

So, okay, when the Spanish-American War started looking like it was coming, Ft. Mott was one of several defensive posts established to discourage the Spanish from invading via the Delaware River.  Troops were actively stationed there 1897-1922, and post WWI they still had a detachment here until 1943 (I guess WWII needed troops elsewhere).  The grounds are extensive with lots of signs explaining things, but I'd need better weather than we had before I'd want to make a study of the place.

Range Light

Back down the road toward the Finn's Point Cemetery is this thing called a range light.  I'd misunderstood and thought it was a lighthouse and went to see why it was so definitely inland.

Turns out it isn't a lighthouse but, instead, a "range light."  The protective covering on the sign has been so weathered that it's a little hard to read, especially when there's some sunshine on it.  It's mostly about the history of this particular light, but the part in the lower right-hand corner shows how the range lights worked for navigation.

For most of the day's drive I went past wetlands full of reeds like these in this by-the-road photo.  I found out a lot more about this later in the day, as I'll show.

I saw 15 vultures (I counted them) sitting in a leafless tree beside the road, and what had probably been another vulture carcass in the road.  Unsettling sight.

I stopped in Salem - "historic Salem" according to the town, though I'm not sure what part of history it owns - at the Friends' (Quakers') Cemetery.  I wanted to see the historic oak that lives there.  And it was worth the trip.

Friends' Cemetery

This tree must be incredibly impressive in the summer.  I took the photo of the cemetery because I was surprised by the grave markers.  I've never seen a whole cemetery with what you might call humble gravestones.  It was nice, in an odd way.

explains the historical importance of the site

From there I went down the road to a village called Hancocks Bridge, named for the bridge erected by Mr. Hancock in 1709.

Hancock's Bridge today

The original bridge had to be rebuilt several times due to floods on Alloway Creek (this site is near the Delaware River), and was replaced with an iron swing bridge in 1885 (to allow boats to go upriver - the creek runs quite a distance into New Jersey).  This current bridge was built in 1952.

I'm intrigued by the run of pilings you can see leading under the bridge, because nothing explains why they were put there.  Originally a breakwater?  A dock?  They all look like wood poles driven into the creekbed.  I don't know if the water height was normal or unusually full.

Next to the bridge is more wetlands and there were several informational signs about it.

Wetlands along Alloway Creek

This area had the same sort of plant life I'd been seeing all day.  You can see the extent of the area, and I'm guessing the whole area along the Delaware River is much like this.

I was interested in the bird info here

Across the street from all this was what I'd gone to see in the first place: Hancock House.  Aside from its age and site of historical events, it's the unusual brickwork that makes it a continuing point of interest.

Hancock House from the side

info re: the brickwork

Hancock House from the front

This house was the location of a massacre during the Revolutionary War and, unlike many of the events labeled "massacre," this one seems to have actually been one.

This sign, like the range light sign, has been weathered, but I think you can still get the gist.

On my way back through Salem, I passed the Salem County Mosquito Commission, which rates its own building.  That seemed excessive to me, seeing as how New Jersey's not really a southern state so how much of a mosquito problem could they have?  Turns out, a big one.  Probably all the wetlands play a big role.  They've had positive tests here for both the West Nile virus and another virus not as well known but still not good.  During the season they do weekly street spraying for mosquitos, which is more than they do in Austin.

All day long I drove past farmland.  Lots of horses, a few cows, but many orchards and vineyards and lots of cropland.  Fallow now, of course, but obviously worked during the growing season.  I saw for myself why New Jersey's called the Garden State: nickname arose a while back from someone noticing NJ was the backyard for both New York City and

Philadelphia and was growing all their garden stuff.

New Jersey's got a Preserved Farmland program to protect farmland from being plowed under by developers, and I saw signs everywhere of participating farms.

I also saw indications everywhere of Swedish settlers, which I hadn't expected, so I looked it up.  The website this link takes you to seems to be in love with ads, but the information is still interesting.    https://www.history.com/news/americas-forgotten-swedish-colony

The whole area I explored today was sparsely inhabited - only small towns or villages - mostly farmland or wetlands.  I wasn't expecting it.  Considering NJ is the most densely populated state in the union, I gotta expect a whole lot of people in the northern part.