Pine BarrensField Notes

Search and rescue · Galloway tidal marsh

The Mott Creek blizzard rescue

Contemporary report · Creek locality · Cabin unlocated

During a January 1928 snowstorm, a hunter’s boat overturned in the marsh near Great Bay. Two Absecon searchers found him more than a day later after hearing four shots from a cabin on Mott Creek.

Across the marsh in snow

The February 1, 1928 West Atlantic City News says Haines was hunting along Great Bay on Saturday when the storm overtook him at Oyster Creek. His small boat capsized while he tried to make his way back. He waded through icy water to a boathouse on Mott Creek, dried his clothes, and moved farther up the creek to a cabin.

After a call from Haines’s mother, Kurtz and Huffnagle searched the Oyster Creek area into the early hours of Sunday, then resumed. They met Coast Guardsmen, split the search, took two boats from a bay landing, and spotted a cabin on Mott Creek. Four shots drew them to Haines, who was waving from its roof. The report says they reached him about 7 p.m. Sunday and helped him back to Leeds Point, where a physician cared for him.

A map for the story, not a trail to the cabin

The account identifies a chain of waterways and the rescue creek, but supplies no cabin owner, chart position, or bearing. A GeoNames-derived Mott Creek listing places the stream mouth at approximately 39.5190, −74.4135; that point is a broad geographic anchor only. The 1928 cabin could have stood elsewhere along the creek. The present marsh is tidal, exposed, and partly difficult to access. Do not use the pin as a route or enter cabins, marshland, or boat landings without lawful access.

The dramatic rescue details come from one newspaper account. A Coast Guard log, historic creek chart, or Haines’s own statement would be valuable corroboration and might locate the cabin more closely.

Sources and limits