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Here are some views of the
1808 Batsto/Pleasant Mills Church (about 7 miles from here). I took
these a few months ago. I've also included a scan of a real-photo
postcard I have, that's from 1907 or later. The church is right at
the very southern edge of Wharton State Forest. There are some
interesting Pine Barrens plants that grow in the cemetery, such as
Pine Barrens Sandwort. There's also an extremely rare plant that
grows there, but I can't say what it is on a public forum. Anyway,
it's a fantastic location, which will be a part of the tour when
ENTS comes out here, whenever that will be.
Enjoy,
Barry
Continued
at:
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/10dbe088b0da0ba0?hl=en
ENTS,
Today I re-visited the Batsto-Pleasant Mills Methodist church and
cemetery.
I can't remember if I've posted about this before or not.
The church dates to 1808 but the oldest marked graves in the
cemetery date to 1760. The cemetery also contains gravemarkers made
of bog iron, which is what was made at Batsto Ironworks. There are
also wooden gravemarkers, probably made of Atlantic White Cedar. The
cemetery is also filled with native wildflowers. Today I went there
for a couple reasons. One of them was to see if the old Post Oaks
were okay (they are). I was worried that last year's gypsy moth
caterpiller defoliation had killed or weakened them. But they seem
fine. The trees are easily 150 years old. There is also an Eastern
Hemlock there which isn't doing well. But I think it has to do with
it growing in the shade of other trees. It has some pretty low
branches on it, so I was able to check for HWA, and there's no sign
of it! I'm very happy about that. The other reason I went today was
to see some of the wildflowers, in particular, Pine Barrens
sandwort.
Around the church and along the church driveway there are some
good-sized pine trees which I always thought were Pitch Pines, but
since they have tiny cones I've been told that they are most likely
Short-leaf Pine and not Pitch Pine. But anyway the pines seem to be
at least 100 years old, probably more than that.
I'm attaching some photos of the church with the pine trees around
it. I'm not sure if you've seen these yet. The first one is from
April of last year and the other 3 are from
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/35b1f4d06b43699a?hl=en#
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