The Newest Member of our Crew

Hi Gang!

I wanted to introduce you all to the newest member of The Crew...

Meet Titanic, our 1999 Chevy Suburban!  :)

We have been a one-car crew for the past six years or thereabouts, so it's pretty exciting for Bessie the Jeep to have a brother.  :)

Titanic will surely be taking us on many adventures in the days to come!

Goin' Down the Road (but not feelin' bad)...

Miss Myo

xoxoxoxo

Fort Mott - Pennsville, NJ - Part Two - Finn's Point National Cemetery

Hi Gang!  Yesterday I uploaded my first post about Fort Mott, which can be found here: Fort Mott - Part One. Now it's on to Part Two.

Across from where the main batteries are located, you will find a path. At first it's hard to tell whether it's some kind of road for cars or other vehicles of the people who are doing work at Fort Mott, an extension of a driveway leading to the parking lot, or an actual path. Turns out it is a path, which leads to Finn's Point National Cemetery, about half a mile from Fort Mott.

(You can visit the cemetery website here.)

The path.

As we approached the cemetery, there was a real sense of calm and peacefulness in the air. We were the only people on the path or at the cemetery and everything was quiet.

The sign tells us that the cemetery contains the graves of 2,436 Confederate soldiers who died as prisoners of war at Fort Delaware. That gave me pause and I had to stand still for a moment.

2,436 soldiers. That number, to me, is astounding.

Some information about Finn's Point, from Wikipedia:

Originally purchased by the federal government to build a battery to protect the port of Philadelphia, the land became a cemetery by 1863 for Confederate prisoners of war who died while in captivity at Fort Delaware. One hundred and thirty five Union soldiers who died while serving as guards at the prison camp are also buried here. The death toll among prisoners of war and the guards was high, especially in the latter part of 1863 and throughout 1864. By July 1863, there were 12,595 prisoners on the island at nearby Fort Delaware which was only about 75 acres (30 ha) in size. Disease was rampant and nearly 2,700 prisoners died from malnutrition or neglect. Confederate prisoners interred at the cemetery totaled 2,436 and all are in general unmarked graves.  

The Confederate Monument, under which the bodies of 2,436 Confederate soldiers are buried.

The Union Monument, dedicated to 135 Union soldiers who died while on duty at Fort Delaware.

Finn's Point is an active cemetery, in that cremated remains of military personnel and their spouses can still be interred here. Here are some interesting headstones that we saw:

There are some older headstones as well:

So sad...

There is also a tree that was planted to commemorate the Bicentennial. 

Finn's Point National Cemetery is definitely worth visiting, whether you are a history/Civil War buff or not. Though it is absolutely heartbreaking to think of all the soldiers who senselessly died during the "War Between the States" - on both sides - I feel this is also a part of our history that is important to become educated about and learn from. It's one thing to read about the Civil War in a book, quite another to see a piece of it in real life.

I hope that all of the soldiers who died in this war have found peace. Though they were fighting on different sides, they were all Americans, all brothers. It's sad that they had to die for such a pointless cause...

Until Next Time 

Miss Myo

xoxoxoxo

Fort Mott, Pennsville, NJ - Part One

It's been a long, hard winter here in NJ.  We have had more snow this year than in the previous three! Needless to say, the Crew and I did no exploring over the winter but now that spring is beginning to spring, we are back on the trail of cool places to visit in the tri-state area!

And so I give you, Fort Mott, NJ!

Fort Mott is one of the cool, historical places located in southern NJ (Pennsville, to be exact).

Fort Mott was part of a three-fort defense system designed for the Delaware River during the postbellum modernization period following theAmerican Civil War. The other two forts in the system were Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island and Fort DuPont in Delaware City, Delaware.  

Fort Mott is also featured in a book called "Getting Out of Jersey" by M.P. Esham which can be found here:

Getting Out of Jersey

I highly recommend this entertaining and scary read!

Anyway, it was super duper zooming windy the day we visited Fort Mott...hopefully the next time we go the weather will be slightly warmer and less windy!  Still managed to get several awesome pics, though!

The sky was beautiful when we visited!

Beautiful sun, too!

You can see the Salem nuclear plant from here!

Coming up next will be a post about the Civil War cemetery also located in this area, so stay tuned!

Until Next Time - Happy Spring!

Miss Myo

xoxoxoxo

Gingerbread Castle/Wheatsworth Mill, Hamburg, NJ

Once again, haven't posted in a while...been busy with Halloween stuff, work stuff, and some somewhat stressful stuff. But now that life has calmed down a bit, it's time to share some more adventures! (and time to wish my readers a belated Happy Halloween and Blessed Samhain!)

Of all the places we have recently visited, the Gingerbread Castle/Wheatsworth Mill in Hamburg (Sussex County), NJ is one of my all time favorites.  We took a drive to the castle on the same day we traveled to Fairy Tale Forest, as the locations are only about a half an hour apart.

The Gingerbread Castle was, in its heyday, a cool fantasy type place for families to visit. I wouldn't call it an amusement park exactly, though at one time you could take a train ride around the place. The castle was built in 1928 and there have been rumors of refurbishment over the years, though on the day we checked it out, there was no sign of any work being done. In fact, it was more dilapidated than in any of the pictures I had seen on the internet.

The ever-present black cat of the Castle Witch watches over you...

There is a fence blocking off the castle, but part of it was cut open. I could have easily slipped through and investigated the inside of the castle, but thought better of it. The road where the castle is located is fairly busy and I didn't want anyone to call the police. Plus I was not sure of what the condition of the interior of the castle might be and I didn't want to risk slipping and falling and breaking my neck.

Even without going inside, though, there were still plenty of cool pictures to be taken.

A pie that, presumably, once held 4 and 20 blackbirds...

Many wishes were made at this well...

The castle's former moat...

Long dried up pond...

Humpty Dumpty still sits on his wall, waiting to fall...

I'm pretty sensitive to energies in places (part of being a witch, I suppose). I definitely picked up all kinds of energy at the Gingerbread Castle. There was a feeling of sadness at seeing what was once a fanciful place reduced to so much ruin, but at the same time I could almost feel shadows of the joy that was once experienced there. I could almost hear the children laughing and shouting and having a good time.

There was a feeling of peace at the castle as well. Even though it is in sad shape, which is heartbreaking, the overgrowth seemed to embrace the area, not overtake it. I felt very at home there.

Which is a stark contrast to the Wheatsworth Mill which is directly next to the castle. 

Again, we could have explored the interior of the Mill - certain parts were blocked off but there were plenty of spots in which to gain entry. But it was very dark and we didn't have a flashlight, plus the Mill seemed even less safe than the Castle.

The Wheatsworth Mill was constructed in 1908 and was in operation (albiet as an office space) as recently as the 1980s. There is beauty to it, especially the tiled signs that bear the name of the mill and beside it there is a wooded area with a peaceful running stream.

The mill itself was not "bad creepy" at all...however...there was some of the most frightening graffiti I had ever seen spray painted on the exterior of the mill, on the side near the stream. It scared me so much I couldn't even bring myself to photograph it. 

Besides the usual curse words and dirty pictures, there was very sinister stuff, such as what looked like an executioner with a sickle bearing the phrase, "Where's Rachel?" I could not help but think, terrified, who is Rachel and what have they done with her?

Mim had gone on ahead of us a little bit and found graffiti that was even scarier...a tag bearing the name of MS-13, which is one of the worst criminal gangs in the United States. Needless to say, after Mim told us he had seen that we couldn't get out of the area fast enough.

Granted, the graffiti could very well have been done by kids trying to be badasses, but you never know. I have tried to find out if there is a gang presence in Hamburg and/or Sussex County, but all I've been able to discover is that there is a huge Ku Klux Klan contingency (kontingency?) in that area. I didn't get the sense that this was KKK related graffiti, however.

Regardless of the scary part of our trip, however (or the fact that when driving home we got caught in a huge storm that delayed our trip back by about 2 hours), this was, again, one of our best explorations yet!

Here are some fantastic resources if you would like to learn more about/see more of the Gingerbread Castle and Wheatsworth Mill (and see some pictures of the interior of both buildings photographed by people who are much braver than I!):

http://www.vacantnewjersey.com/blog/entry/gingerbread_castle/

http://www.vacantnewjersey.com/locations/wheatsworth_mill/index.html

http://www.preservationnj.org/site/ExpEng/index.php?/ten_most_12/index_detail/Wheatsworth_Mill_and_Gingerbread_Castle

Fantastic, eerie video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p6I9m_Ljv8

Another cool video of the entire area:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60vilF7iZQo

Until Next Time...

Miss Myo

xoxoxoxo