John and Wayne's excellent adventure

Orienteering in High Point State Park and finding a hidden silver mine, By Cindy Weightman High Point — Two Wantage men with a passion for exploration and the outdoors followed a 50-year-old hand-drawn map to find a silver mine in High Point State Park. It took some work, but after several attempts over a year and a half the two were able to locate the disused mine from the clues on the map that was just about as old as they are. The map is signed “the Frontiersmen of July 1957” and it was given to Wayne Russell by a relative of one of the original signers, believed to have been a camper at the park. Russell says he’s known in the area as a “caveman” but despite having gone out in search of the mine several times with his wife Julie, he had no luck. That’s when Russell contacted his friend John Rovetto. The two had been on the same search and rescue team at one time and shared the same enthusiasm for finding things hidden or lost in the woods. He knew his friend would find the map as compelling as he did and the two became committed to using it to find the mine. “John just jumped on it and started going, narrowed it down and eventually found it,” Russell said. Rovetto describes himself as more of a surface guy, “the man with the compass” and Russell as the one who wants to explore underground mysteries. Trial and error One reason the map was so hard to follow was that the area had changed over the years and nothing on the map was drawn to scale. “I didn’t know what kind of compass was used and I had to make a lot of assumptions,” Rovetto said. The map’s instructions were to follow the “Appy trail” past the shelter (an old barn that’s no longer in existence), hit an old road, go through a mud hole and an old foundation. Rovetto says it was a challenge to get his bearings when the map included such landmarks as a burnt chestnut stump that has since been taken down or rotted away. A lake noted on the map turned out to be considerably farther from the other landmarks than indicated. But of course, the adventure is all part of the game for these two explorers. “When I finally got there (to the lake) ...the view was beautiful,” Rovetto said. Once the lake had been located, he then was able to interpret and recalculate the rest of the landmarks on the map. Rovetto used a grid system to calculate how the map’s landmarks relate to the actual site. Once he’d positioned the grid properly— after several attempts — it became easier to align the map with reality. On the day Rovetto discovered the mine, May 24, 2009, he’d arrived at the lake, but had to wait for a mid-morning thunderstorm to pass. After that, Rovetto said he desperately worked grids until he finally got it. The mine itself, Rovetto says, while hidden is “like a big key notch in the ground...Once you got close to it you could see. It’s not an easy place to walk up to either.” Rovetto says he picked his way through boulder fields. He could see the remains of an old road but there were no trails leading up to the mine site. “But I’m used to bushwacking. I worked in forestry for a couple of years, Rovetto said. He texted a picture to Russell and the two eventually made the journey together. “I was pretty darn excited,” Russell said, “because I made more than a dozen trips.” Still the two aren’t finished exploring the area yet. Both believe that there’s more to find but Rovetto doesn’t think he’ll get to it until spring. He has plenty of volunteer work with New Jersey Search and Rescue and he’s a substitute teacher as well. Russell is also busy working on a project. He’s filming a horror movie at the Sterling Mine in Franklin. “This isn’t our day job,” Russell said.

When we hike, we like to have a reason to hike. We try to do it with a mission, looking for something. You’re using navigation, you’re using your brain; it’s a challenge and it’s fun.”
Wayne Russell