Help us find this area near/on West Confederate Ave

spongebob

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Joined
Jan 22, 2014
Last October looked and looked for this. We thought we had found it but the rocks didn't line up. Going again, and would like to find for a before and after picture.

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Last October looked and looked for this. We thought we had found it but the rocks didn't line up. Going again, and would like to find for a before and after picture.

View attachment 397279
Wow. I certainly don't remember any part of W. Confederate Ave. having boulders of that size line the road. However, you don't need to actually go there in person to check. Use Street View in Google Maps or Google Earth. The entire road can be viewed.
 
I think this was probably misidentified as West Confederate Avenue. That was very common at the time, with souvenirs and postcards. Even considering that this may have been pre-construction of the Telford avenues (it was a kind of road construction used on most if not all the avenues on the battlefield that used a layering of different sizes of rocks as a base, a precursor to macadamized roads), there is no area on West Confederate that had this grade or these huge boulders. This is more likely South Confederate in the area of the south slope of Big Round Top. There are huge boulders (like the Devil’s Slipper) that are now mostly hidden in the underbrush, and it looks like there is an upward slope in the pic.
 
I think this was probably misidentified as West Confederate Avenue. That was very common at the time, with souvenirs and postcards. Even considering that this may have been pre-construction of the Telford avenues (it was a kind of road construction used on most if not all the avenues on the battlefield that used a layering of different sizes of rocks as a base, a precursor to macadamized roads), there is no area on West Confederate that had this grade or these huge boulders. This is more likely South Confederate in the area of the south slope of Big Round Top. There are huge boulders (like the Devil’s Slipper) that are now mostly hidden in the underbrush, and it looks like there is an upward slope in the pic.
I have to agree. No way that the picture is of today's West Confederate Ave, unless there was another past road so named.
 
Winter shot of same area. Note the cluster of large rocks back from the avenue. They would’ve had to move the large rocks in the postcard when they Telfordized the avenue. Again, just guessing.

2D0DAF7B-77F3-4815-9022-01D45B6F5899.png
 
I don't get it? The winter shot above has an antiquated road system, actually a two track lane, with the cluster off to the side. The beautiful postcard has a well established dirt path, possibly graveled. Why would they remove the rocks and put them into a cluster if the road wasn't to be kept up? That macadamized road in the color picture bears very little resemblance to me of either of the others. I know I am wrong, but that is what I see, and the original postcard to me looks a like a gentle decline leading into Gettysburg somewhere along the Cashtown road through the Gap.
Lubliner.
 
I don't get it? The winter shot above has an antiquated road system, actually a two track lane, with the cluster off to the side. The beautiful postcard has a well established dirt path, possibly graveled. Why would they remove the rocks and put them into a cluster if the road wasn't to be kept up? That macadamized road in the color picture bears very little resemblance to me of either of the others. I know I am wrong, but that is what I see, and the original postcard to me looks a like a gentle decline leading into Gettysburg somewhere along the Cashtown road through the Gap.
Lubliner.
You bring up a good point, @Lubliner.

Many folks don’t realize how much the battlefield has changed over the last 150+ years, including the road system. The original avenues were obviously dirt tracks, and there were “avenues” in places that there are not now, and there are places that were supposed to be avenues that were never actually built (think Neill Avenue). There eventually were “improved” but still dirt avenues (like the one in the postcard pic), and finally Telfordized avenues made of layers of rocks. But the “modernization” of the avenues was a stretch at a time (one of the last was Granite School House Lane, in the 1930s), not all at once. And just like many of the changes that happened on the battlefield up to the last 10-15 years or so when there was a new effort to retain the 1863 battlefield, when they constructed the avenues, they pretty much wantonly destroyed the original: moved or dynamited boulders, flattened out ridges and hills to accommodate cars rather than carriages, cut down witness trees, etc. So I always take postcards like that one with a grain of salt, knowing that the battlefield often today looks nothing like what’s in the pic then.

I AM pretty certain this is not West Confederate, but I can only guess where it really is, based on the topography along South Confederate.
 
You bring up a good point, @Lubliner.

Many folks don’t realize how much the battlefield has changed over the last 150+ years, including the road system. The original avenues were obviously dirt tracks, and there were “avenues” in places that there are not now, and there are places that were supposed to be avenues that were never actually built (think Neill Avenue). There eventually were “improved” but still dirt avenues (like the one in the postcard pic), and finally Telfordized avenues made of layers of rocks. But the “modernization” of the avenues was a stretch at a time (one of the last was Granite School House Lane, in the 1930s), not all at once. And just like many of the changes that happened on the battlefield up to the last 10-15 years or so when there was a new effort to retain the 1863 battlefield, when they constructed the avenues, they pretty much wantonly destroyed the original: moved or dynamited boulders, flattened out ridges and hills to accommodate cars rather than carriages, cut down witness trees, etc. So I always take postcards like that one with a grain of salt, knowing that the battlefield often today looks nothing like what’s in the pic then.

I AM pretty certain this is not West Confederate, but I can only guess where it really is, based on the topography along South Confederate.
You do know that most painted post cards are very accurate depictions of what really was. Oh, what an adventure if we could travel back in time, or send some 'drone' through the wormhole of space warp and return with crystal clear videos. I could hear it now, "Look General Lee, there in the sky, is it a bird or a cloud?" "By golly Longstreet, hand me your binoculars!"
Lubliner.
 
Yesterday, I was looking through some Tipton photos and came across the one shown below. It struck me as having a remarkable resemblance to your post card. The caption says that it is a road leading to McAllister Mill, probably east of Rock Creek heading to Neill Avenue. This would put the location on the eastern end of the battlefield. Moreover, you are unlikely to find it. To the best of my knowledge this road no longer exists. If anyone on the forum is aware that it does exist, please advise.
Road to McAllister Mill.jpeg
 
Thanks all,
We just got back from Gettysburg a few days ago and I've been catching up with all my 'home' work, so sorry for the late reply.
When we were there back in October 2020, I had a picture from a post about this, but I've not been able to find the post again to reference it here. But I remember that it said it was now a path/horse path after the dinosaur bridge on S Confederate just to the right. The post said that the road was changed at this point and this part abandoned. We found this, and walked it forward and back but could not match up any of the rocks is the postcard. Oh well.
 
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