I hike in former iron mining areas along the NY/NJ border; these places were stripped bare of trees to make charcoal for the forges. The few thick, old trees usually mark where a home had been (the tree was spared by the owner); everything else was cut. Much of that land is now state parks, and covered with trees; the only indications of what had happened 150 years ago are the lack of trees older than 150 years old and the many “coppiced?” trees (trees in which several seem to be sharing one trunk at the ground level - an indication that it had been cut and sprouted in a different direction afterwards).
Sounds similar to the Adirondack forever wild state park.
That was also all cut in the 1800s. Now, you can not touch a tree there. A buddy of mine in-laws owned a camp on one of the lakes up there. I think it is on Saranac. It can only be reached by boat in the summer, snowmobile in the winter when the lake is frozen.
They wanted to rebuild it. What a pain in the neck. He also wanted to turn a boat house into a liveable cabin. It took years to get approval. He could not expand the footprint at all. All the materials had to be barged in. No electricity too. Generator only. No cell service either. A true escape.
He eventually got it done, but had to jump through many hoops.
Since I live in the Area you’re talking about I’ve always wondered why so many of the trees are like you described. I’m originally from Ohio so I figured it was something about the stones in NJ as I’ve never heard of “Coppiced”.
In fact, I have a “5 tree” Oak on my property that is probably 6 feet at the base that splits into 5 18”-24” trunks and I’ve always wondered how it got that way.
Ron Dupont, a local author and owner at the HL general store wrote a book on the History of Vernon. http://www.amazon.com/Vernon-Township-NJ-Images-America/dp/0738511102 It has pictures showing the area completely denuded of trees. What a difference it is compared to today.
This was done by rivers so the charcoal could be transported to the forge. Or if the iron smelter was built by the trees, then to transport the iron.
Iron production was shifted to The Colonies because too many of the easy trees had been cut down in England to make charcoal for iron production
Why did they have to cut trees ? Could they not just go to the lumber yard for wood ?