WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=K55rCFWNJEA

Part: 1

1
00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:24.000
while we're chat folks are chatting. So anyway, we're we're thrilled to have Allison and Larry here to do this program through history. Um thank you for spending your time uh historian, journalist, uh expert on museums,

2
00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:41.280
um wears many hats. This is one of of many events that uh would not be possible without support of the friends of the air library. Um if you're already a friend of the air library, thank you so much uh for contributing. And if you're not yet a friend of the air

3
00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:59.120
library, um please consider joining. There's information on our website air library.org for that. And thank you for spending your Wednesday evening with us. And I'll just pass it on to >> Thank you so much. Thank you for having me back. Um, always nice to be here.

4
00:00:59.120 --> 00:01:15.119
Nice to see some familiar faces. Um, again, my name is Alison Olri. I've written a number of books that are up here on the table. Um, hey, Luke was nice enough to give me a nice display outside the room if you want to just thumb through a couple of them. and I

5
00:01:15.119 --> 00:01:31.759
got involved in um the Appalachian Mountain Club's hiking guide books, which is a really neat different kind of a book to work on. You know, they really want like turn byturn guides, which

6
00:01:31.759 --> 00:01:46.720
makes perfect sense. This is what they do. They their their hiking guide books are comprehensive. you know, it is a a go-to guide for anyone throughout the Northeast if you want to hike up in New

7
00:01:46.720 --> 00:02:02.799
Hampshire or wherever. But I was a little bit of a problem, I have to say, for the editor. Of course, I'm always the problem child because I was writing these guides and turning them into the editor and the editor would be like,

8
00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:20.000
"Would you cut it out? You know, we need to know. Did we follow the blue glazes or the yellow blazes? Cut out all that history stuff. Nobody needs to know what that seller hole was. And if you can see an old well over here. And I was like,

9
00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:35.599
"Yeah, but that's what makes it interesting for me." You know, I mean, I love that having grown up here in Massachusetts. And I love telling this funny story. This is what really got me going as a young kid in history was I grew up in the town of Hopkinson, not

10
00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:51.120
all that far from here. And all we knew about our neighborhood is like everybody else, it used to be a farm. You know, that's what everyone says, it used to be a farm here. Well, one day when I was about 10, I was following one of my brothers around the backyard and he had

11
00:02:51.120 --> 00:03:09.200
a golf club and he reared back and whacked a huge divot of grass out of the ground. It went flying through the air and my first thought was, "Dad is going to kill you." And then we looked down and we said, "Oh my god, there's a gold

12
00:03:09.200 --> 00:03:25.519
coin in the dirt." We picked it up and it said California Gold Piece 1875 on it in our backyard. Now, as a 10year-old, boy, did that get the wheels going in my head. What was here before? Who walked across this

13
00:03:25.519 --> 00:03:41.840
property? How could a gold coin from California end up all the way across the country in Massachusetts? So, I've always been hooked on those aspects of history. One of my early books was called Ins and Adventures. Unfortunately, it's now out of print.

14
00:03:41.840 --> 00:03:58.480
That was a little wider um area for traveling in New England. And when you do travel, you know, you don't always need all of this gear for a hike an hour away or a half an hour away.

15
00:03:58.480 --> 00:04:15.120
Fortunately, you can leave all this stuff at home. Just walk out your door with a little knapsack, a water bottle, a snack, maybe um some sunscreen, definitely bug spray these days, you know, keep the ticks away. And you can

16
00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:32.240
enter hiking in sort of more of a zen state, you know, it should be calming, it should be relaxing, it should be forest bathing, you know, it should be something enjoyable. We know now that uh there's a lot of science about hiking. I

17
00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:47.120
never imagined this would come to light, but it literally lowers your blood pressure when you get out into nature and lowers the cortisol levels in your body. You feel better about yourself.

18
00:04:47.120 --> 00:05:02.880
You can release your anxieties when you're out in nature. So in some countries they actually prescribe time in nature whether it's hiking or whatever but they prescribe it for

19
00:05:02.880 --> 00:05:21.199
mental health and well-being and um I hope all of us are well aware of that and enjoy it for you know what we can around here. So let me start with the cycle of land use in New England so that we have sort of a basic background on

20
00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:38.960
history of hiking in Massachusetts. Uh Native Americans would burn the land, burn the underbrush to make it clear clearer for hunting and to create new growth uh that would attract animals.

21
00:05:38.960 --> 00:05:55.840
There were uh when the European settlers came in, they started to cut down trees and use that lumber for industries. Rocks became stone walls. You know, you you needed to clear your land to some degree to make it useful. And oh my

22
00:05:55.840 --> 00:06:13.680
goodness, here in New England, what a horrible neckbreaking job. Uh there's a a professor from Connecticut named uh Robert Thorson who came from another part of the country and I believe he he teaches at Yukon and he came to New

23
00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:30.639
England and he was like what are all of these stone walls? Holy cow, how did they get here? And unlike most of us who just take them for granted, he started to dig into it and find out more. Why are these stone walls going off through

24
00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:46.080
the woods in every direction? Why does every yard have a stone wall around it? And he discovered that in New England we have something like 240,000 miles of stone walls. And it's because

25
00:06:46.080 --> 00:07:03.440
the ground obviously is full of stones. And our early settlers, you know, tough people, they were subsisting on these beef, bacon, and butter farms. I love that phrase. That's that's uh Professor Thorson's phrase, not mine. Um they were

26
00:07:03.440 --> 00:07:20.400
just subsisting, just trying to get by. And a big part of their work was digging up these stones and rolling them to the edge of the field so that they could plow enough land to grow a crop or to get them out of the way for their

27
00:07:20.400 --> 00:07:36.400
livestock to be able to graze. They didn't necessarily build stone walls to pen in any livestock. They could be land boundaries, but they usually used sort of those cross-timber uh fences on top of the stone walls if

28
00:07:36.400 --> 00:07:52.960
they needed to keep their livestock in. So, using some pictures from the wonderful Harvard um Harvard Forest exhibit up in Petersham. Are you familiar with that? It's um when they

29
00:07:52.960 --> 00:08:10.080
study the forests of New England, they have these this diarama series that shows this history of land use in New England. This represents old growth forest that hasn't been uh trimmed by man, but has, you know,

30
00:08:10.080 --> 00:08:26.879
naturally things have fallen and are decaying on the ground to support um new trees that are growing. And then when the European settlers came, they began to clear the land and as I said, you

31
00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:40.800
know, roll those stones to the edges of their their pastures and their uh crop fields. But something very interesting happened along the way. Trying to remember this was the 1700s.

32
00:08:40.800 --> 00:08:58.399
They were able in a period of um upheaval in Spain, some Americans were able to get a hold of some sheep from Spain that had high quality wool. And

33
00:08:58.399 --> 00:09:13.279
once they brought those to the United States, the sheep that were here were like, "No good anymore. We need, you know, the Spanish sheep that had this very high quality wool." and they started to breed them and that's when

34
00:09:13.279 --> 00:09:31.360
cutting down trees went wild in New England. People just started to clear all sorts of land for more and more sheep. I believe it was the Marino wool and um so that they could have larger and larger herds of sheep and make more

35
00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:47.040
money off of the wool. And at a certain period in the early 1800s, most of New England was deforested. It looked more like this than what we're used to seeing today. You know, we're used to like seeing trees everywhere,

36
00:09:47.040 --> 00:10:02.720
but that's just the regeneration. So, you can see the farm down here has cleared yet another field. And um there are a few neighbors have cropped up along the way. This was the way the population was

37
00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:19.120
distributed in Massachusetts in 1810. You can see it's very lightly sprinkled across the landscape. And that's why we're wherever we happen to go into the woods these days, we're likely to find finder holes and stone walls and wells

38
00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:33.680
and things like that. Try not to think of chickenpox or measles when you look at this picture. Worcester had um Worcester County had 64,000 people and the city of Boston only had 33,000

39
00:10:33.680 --> 00:10:49.680
people back in 1810. So, um Salem had 12,000, but you can see, you know, it was very lightly distributed population across the state. And again, as I said, that's why we go

40
00:10:49.680 --> 00:11:06.640
into the woods now and we stumble upon things like giant millstones in rivers that, you know, was once an industrial area. But over time, when the industrial revolution took off in New England in the 1830s, 1840s,

41
00:11:06.640 --> 00:11:23.040
people started to say, "The heck with all of this hard work, you know, I'm done with the backbreaking, rolling the stones to the edge of the field. I'm going to go to work in a factory and maybe only work six days a week instead of seven days a week. And so they

42
00:11:23.040 --> 00:11:40.000
started to give up some of the farmland. And you can see it regenerating in the forest. The white pines are always the first to come in. And in this picture, there are some men in here with the big crosscut saws sawing the logs up. They

43
00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:57.279
could use those timbers for ships or for buildings or railroad ties, all sorts of uses. And then as time went on, the white pines had been cut back and the hardwood started to come in. And of course, that was more area for the deer to come in

44
00:11:57.279 --> 00:12:13.279
and graze. And that was when the first Amazon delivery truck started to pop up on the streets across New England. Now, they actually were able to use that wood that they cut, the white pine, and cut it very

45
00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:29.519
thinly in mills and make boxes out of it with twine. So, as the industrial revolution took off, they were making goods here that needed to be shipped around the country. Primarily in New England, we had a lot of uh fabric um

46
00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:47.200
mills. And you know, as I said, this is literally from a Massachusetts Historical Society, a picture from uh one of the streets back in the day. So, as time went on that the descendants of that original farmer were able to

47
00:12:47.200 --> 00:13:02.800
actually have a little time off and here is, you know, the grandson of the original settler painting the scenery instead of tilling the land. So by 1900, just 90 years from that map that I

48
00:13:02.800 --> 00:13:17.519
showed you before, the population centers had really boomed with all of the mill growth and um all of the industrial jobs that were available and central western mass became less

49
00:13:17.519 --> 00:13:32.079
populous. So people moved into cities like Worcester, New Bedford, Fall River, Boston, of course, up in um Haveril in Lel. Um the rural population fell below

50
00:13:32.079 --> 00:13:49.200
400,000. Boston went from 33,000 in 1810 to 560,000 in 90 years. Wow, that's amazing. Um, and it had a 10mi radius of

51
00:13:49.200 --> 00:14:06.480
metropolitan area which because it was so densely populated needed a lot of sources of uh food and water to support that population. But in short, that's why when we look

52
00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:20.720
into the woods, this is a very typical scene. You see the stone walls, a lot of brooks where there used to be mills, and the trees are pretty skinny because they have been cut for timber time and time

53
00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:36.240
again over successive generations. And there's an old old picture of the stone walls just crisscrossing the countryside and a before and after. Now, this is um

54
00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:53.839
back in the 1870s, maybe early photography and then when it was all regrown, and I must um nod to the Native Americans who were here well before all of us, but they didn't leave such a built

55
00:14:53.839 --> 00:15:09.279
environment as the uh European settlers did. They didn't, you know, make big roads for parts and wagons and certainly didn't make railroads and buildings that lasted a long time. So, starting out

56
00:15:09.279 --> 00:15:24.880
here in your neighborhood, um, let me talk a little bit about that growth of Boston and that tremendous need for resources. Um, starting with the Wiset Reservoir which was created in 1897. There were a

57
00:15:24.880 --> 00:15:40.320
lot of reservoirs in the metropolitan Boston area or in the surrounding suburbs created during this time frame. I'm sure you're all familiar with the old stone church which was the only thing left standing when they created

58
00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:56.240
the reservoir that was over 7 square miles. They left the church as a reminder of the communities that were once there but had to be cleared away to create the reservoir which contains 65

59
00:15:56.240 --> 00:16:12.720
billion gallons of water. And yet that wasn't big enough for Boston. It was basically obsolete by the time they finished creating it. Um, fortunately for us these days, they left behind

60
00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:28.560
wonderful areas to hike and recreate. One of my favorites, not far from the Stone Church, just go up the road a little bit and um park, you've got that rail trail that goes into the woods

61
00:16:28.560 --> 00:16:45.279
there and uh there are lots of little bridges. It is a beautiful um trail out there. It's uh West Boilston, right? Uh West Boilston Rail Trail along the Quinnipoxid River.

62
00:16:45.279 --> 00:17:00.320
And my favorite out there is cross country skiing. I just love it. But it's just a nice busy place. You always see people on that trail. Everyone is enjoying themselves. And now and then I

63
00:17:00.320 --> 00:17:16.400
take a little side trip off of the main rail trail. If you go a little closer to the river from the trail itself, I believe they have a few plaques out, there are some areas where there were old mills and they have descriptions of

64
00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:32.720
the mill site and portions of foundations and things like that. So you have a feeling for the mills that were beside the river using the water power to create the products that they made there and the railroad right next to it

65
00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:47.840
so that they could load up the goods that needed to be shipped to consumers. Also um other wonderful hiking areas around reservoir. I used to live in Clinton briefly and around the dam is

66
00:17:47.840 --> 00:18:03.039
really neat. I mean, the dam itself is just majestic, you know? It's so huge. Um, has that big stairway down and then back up the other side. Well, if you don't like all of those stairs, go

67
00:18:03.039 --> 00:18:20.240
around this spillway and park up that road if you can find a spot. It is residential. They're a little tricky about it, but um there are wonderful walking trails particularly near the spillway that is really beautiful. But you can go all the way up behind the

68
00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:37.919
high school where it's very very flat and even. Um so you could always park at the high school after hours or middle school and just walk that area. Um along the road here, I don't think you have any access, but as you were down uh

69
00:18:37.919 --> 00:18:53.919
Route 70, there are pulloffs with gates where you can go in and do some wonderful hikes. There are some nice um overlooks out here in the sunset from the dam. You know, people always pull over to take pictures. It's very scenic

70
00:18:53.919 --> 00:19:09.840
and yet we forget that at one time that that whole area was farmland. You know, there were lots of families who were making a living there who were told by the state basically, "You got to go. We're taking your farm. We need a

71
00:19:09.840 --> 00:19:24.320
reservoir." And what how much sting do you think they felt when they learned that the reservoir was obsolete basically when it was created? It just didn't didn't produce quite enough water

72
00:19:24.320 --> 00:19:43.120
for Boston. But looking back in time, this is the um railroad that crossed Route 70 there, right near the dam. The dam was basically, I think, under construction in this picture. Here's the dam and the spillway comes from over

73
00:19:43.120 --> 00:20:00.720
here. They're still creating the reservoir and the railroad crosses way above the road. There's still a tunnel on this side of the street that goes over toward the high school and would go right along the edge of the uh reservoir

74
00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:16.720
when it was created. But of course, this has been taken down. The railroad is no longer there. The trails committee in Clinton wants to bring back this railroad bridge and reconnect the access

75
00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:33.840
from the tunnel all the way to the high school, which would be super neat. I mean, it would be quite an attraction for people. Uh these days, you can actually still go in the tunnel. It's kind of gross though, full of water and graffiti and stuff. But it is this relic

76
00:20:33.840 --> 00:20:49.360
that people want to bring back to sort of remember the old days and yet look to the future, a different kind of access for humanpowered um travel. So, another uh area not too far from

77
00:20:49.360 --> 00:21:03.919
here that was also shaped by the need for water is this enormous uh area of land. Again, it was a farm area, very small communities out here.

78
00:21:03.919 --> 00:21:21.840
We're talking about um a little east of Apple. This says Baldwinville. I know that it's near Oh my goodness. >> Oh, you're there. So Templeton Gardner Temple >> I grew up right there on the map. Templeton, East Templeton

79
00:21:21.840 --> 00:21:36.880
River are all four precincts of the same town. >> Okay. Templeton was the one town. >> Right. Right. Thank you. Thank you. But so they this h in the 1950s the army corps of engineers was creating a big

80
00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:54.880
watershed area to um protect the millillage river and um other waterways up here from flooding. And so again they took the communities out and it just ends up being basically open space with

81
00:21:54.880 --> 00:22:09.840
a few dams in it. There's the Tully Lake Dam, the Birch Hill Dam, but all of this is recreation area. Basically, it's all wide open for us to use. I've stayed at uh Otter River Campground, which is a

82
00:22:09.840 --> 00:22:26.640
state park. Uh you can travel all in through here on dirt roads, you know, mountain biking, crosscountry skiing, snowshoeing. It is just gorgeous. I would not use the word pristine, but you know, it's something

83
00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:43.120
that you don't see much in the midst of a very urban state is these enormous parcels of land that are accessible to all of us free of charge. Um, it's just a matter of getting there and uh getting

84
00:22:43.120 --> 00:22:59.679
out of your car. And on this side is Tully Lake that was also created by the core of engineers when it was damned. So, it's a wonderful wildlife management area, which um I should warn, caution, and remind you all that wildlife

85
00:22:59.679 --> 00:23:15.440
management areas, unlike most state parks, do allow hunting. So, you should always check what time of year it is, whether you need to wear orange if you were to venture out that way. So now moving into the eastern

86
00:23:15.440 --> 00:23:32.400
Massachusetts area north of Boston up in the Ipsswich uh Toppsfield area is Willowdale and Bradley Palmer State Parks. Bradley Palmer was a very wellto-do Bostononian back around 1900

87
00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:49.600
who was a confidant to President Woodro Wilson and he um advised Wilson with the Paris Peace Talks at the end of World War I. He was also a founding partner of the Palmer and Dodge law firm. So he was a very wealthy man. And when he started

88
00:23:49.600 --> 00:24:05.440
to slow down, decide, you know, he wasn't going to work so much, he went up to the Ipsswitch area and said, I want to, you know, build a home up here. So, he bought oh 700 acres to have just a

89
00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:20.559
nice little country home. He died without heirs. And so now his 700 acre estate which abotss Willowdale State Park or like a nice gigantic chunk of land for us to recreate on. It all

90
00:24:20.559 --> 00:24:36.880
belongs to us. It it all passed through uh without heirs to the state of Massachusetts. The Ipsswitch River literally runs under the driveway to his estate. So here's the home up on the hill.

91
00:24:36.880 --> 00:24:52.559
Again, a a place that belongs to all of us that we could use if we so choose to rent it out for a special event, a wedding, a reunion, something like that. The rangers who work on site generally

92
00:24:52.559 --> 00:25:10.799
have tours of the building, the inside as well as the exterior grounds, so that you get more of the history of Bradley Palmer and his reason for building such a palatial home up there in Ipsswitch.

93
00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:27.039
The craftsmanship inside is just absolutely stunning. you know, again, built around 1910, 1915 and open for all of us to use. And it also teams with wildlife, things like

94
00:25:27.039 --> 00:25:43.600
gosh hawks that perch on the edge of fields and may come swooping down, take your hat right off your head. It teams with people as well. It's a very popular park. Um, very well used. It's part of the Bay Circuit Trail,

95
00:25:43.600 --> 00:26:01.919
which is a 230 mile uh half circle that runs from the Ipsswitch area, the Newbury Port area in the Northshore all the way around the western suburbs of Boston to the Southshore. So 230 miles.

96
00:26:01.919 --> 00:26:17.279
If you look at baycircuit.org, they have wonderful section maps. Sometimes over the course of the summer, people will want to hike the whole thing, 230 miles. It's doable in a summer. It's certainly flatter than

97
00:26:17.279 --> 00:26:32.159
hiking in the mountains. And if you use their section maps, you can plan, you know, I'm going to leave a car here and a car here and we'll we'll hike these two sections this weekend, you know, and then go back the next week. But it is

98
00:26:32.159 --> 00:26:48.640
just a wonderful jewel to have in Massachusetts. Willowdale and Bradley Palmer parks are gently rolling. No really steep high hills. There's a lot of mountain biking, crosscountry skiing, snowshoeing, trail

99
00:26:48.640 --> 00:27:04.240
running. It's just absolutely lovely. Um, now Middle Sex Fells. This of course is within that 10mi belt of the POS Boston population in 1900. So they

100
00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:20.720
needed to create some reservoirs for Boston and those surrounding towns. And when Middle Sex Fells, this 2600 acre park was created in the 1890s, um they weren't so concerned about

101
00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:38.080
hiking. They just needed to have these areas for for reservoirs. And of course they probably thought, "Oh, what's the big deal of this, you know, carriage path running in between the reservoirs?" Well, now the carriage

102
00:27:38.080 --> 00:27:54.399
path is a six lane highway with cars screaming by at 90 m an hour. This is Route 93 running right through it. Um, so generally the hiking is on the western side here where there are three

103
00:27:54.399 --> 00:28:11.760
separate reservoirs. Spot Pond is on the eastern side. There's a little less property to hike around there, but there are some beautiful areas. I like the eastern side. It's a little bit flatter. And when you're hiking around the reservoirs, you have a lot of options.

104
00:28:11.760 --> 00:28:27.200
You want to make it a little bit longer, you go one more loop around another pond. If you want to make it shorter, the weather's turning bad, you just shorten it by doing one less pond. So this is the reservoir area for hiking.

105
00:28:27.200 --> 00:28:43.760
Again, mostly flat. Then there's one called Skyline, which gives you those beautiful views of Boston, not all that far away. And there's one called Rock Circuit, which is quite challenging, and it's definitely for getting in shape for

106
00:28:43.760 --> 00:29:00.640
the big mountains up in New Hampshire. The elevation is not that high. It's maybe 3 or 400 ft, but the um trails are quite rugged and you know challenging. So the historic aspect of Middle Sex

107
00:29:00.640 --> 00:29:18.399
Fells is very interesting. Over by Spot Pond near the um the Stone Zoo, if you're familiar with the Stone Zoo, uh it was an area of industry called Haywardville. And this was in the 1800s

108
00:29:18.399 --> 00:29:36.399
again in the industrial revolution. A man named Nathaniel Hayberg started this big mill complex employed many many people. They dyed silk different colors there and they also were working on rubber products and back then rubber was

109
00:29:36.399 --> 00:29:53.919
sort of like this un undeveloped um resource. They were trying to figure out, they knew that it had lots of potential, but they were trying to figure out how they could exactly make the most of it. Well, Nathaniel Hayward

110
00:29:53.919 --> 00:30:10.480
happened to employ a guy named Charles Goodyear at this site. And I'm not sure if Goodyear actually developed the process of vulcanization while he worked for Hayward or not. Goodyear has a whole different very

111
00:30:10.480 --> 00:30:26.799
interesting life story if you ever want to pick up his biography, but he did work here at Haywardville during that time when they were working on rubber and trying to get it to be more flexible. So once they broke through and

112
00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:43.200
figured out how to make rubber super flexible, my goodness, the possible uses just absolutely expanded to use a bed. you know, they could suddenly make hoses and rubber boots and raincoats and tires

113
00:30:43.200 --> 00:30:59.679
and things like that when it was a rigid hard material, it was very difficult to work with. So, if you were to go there though to look for Haywardville, which I actually did one day, I found nothing. And I was like, wait a minute, I thought

114
00:30:59.679 --> 00:31:16.720
there used to be a big industrial center here. Well, I found out from a local historian that when Haywardville closed down, the thrifty New Englanders in the area did not let a single thing go to waste and they took each one of these

115
00:31:16.720 --> 00:31:33.039
buildings and rolled them away. They took them into different towns and put them to use in different areas. So many of these buildings are still in existence. They're just not in Haywardville anymore. So if you go to

116
00:31:33.039 --> 00:31:50.880
the visitors center on spot pond in Middle Sex Falls, they can they do tours of Haywardville and talk about the products and the industry that was once there and of course about the buildings that up and left the area.

117
00:31:50.880 --> 00:32:07.120
Now we're in uh Lynn Woods, the town of the city of Lynn. This is one of my absolute favorite stories to tell. Lynwoods is a municipal park, 2200 acres with a lot of steep hills, kind of rough

118
00:32:07.120 --> 00:32:23.760
trails, you know, challenging, a lot of wetlands. So, there was a lot of uh wildlife there, including wood rush and ba owls and a really interesting attraction called Dungeon Rock. And you'll hear all about that. See, if you

119
00:32:23.760 --> 00:32:40.880
look at the map, there's a lot of water, including a Walden Pond, but not Throw's Walden Pond. This is Lynn's Walden Pond. There's a swamp here and another pond down here. So, it's a very wet place where the trails kind of meander around.

120
00:32:40.880 --> 00:32:56.799
Up in this area, there was also a site that everyone just colloquially called the uh wolf pits. And I found out that the local historical society decided to dig into that at one point. They were

121
00:32:56.799 --> 00:33:14.240
like, why are we taking for granted that we call this the wolf pits? Like why do we call it the wolf pits? So they tried to do a lot of research on it and they had what they had was like four or five foot deep pits in the ground lined with

122
00:33:14.240 --> 00:33:31.760
stone and they couldn't quite square it with anything they had seen anywhere else. So, one of their researchers was looking through very old newspapers and discovered that way back in early New England, the uh local county

123
00:33:31.760 --> 00:33:48.399
commissioners were actually paying bounties for the pelts of wolves that were killing sheep in Lynn. Can you imagine in Lynn? Sheep and wolves. It's just hard to even think about that these days, but truthfully, that happened

124
00:33:48.399 --> 00:34:04.559
there in Lynn. So they are wolf pits. This is the bard owl you might hear at dusk if you were up in Lynn Woods. You probably hear them here as well. Bard owl is the hooks for you owl that has the threepart call. And the wood thrush

125
00:34:04.559 --> 00:34:22.639
has this wonderful trilling song, but I from my experience I think you hear them more in the earlier in the spring and then later in the fall rather than throughout the summer. I think they keep going up to Canada. But in Lynwood's the uh in the 1930s

126
00:34:22.639 --> 00:34:37.919
when the Great Depression really was hurting Americans badly, people were out of work. Almost a quarter of the entire population of the US was unemployed and destitute. uh Franklin Delano Roosevelt

127
00:34:37.919 --> 00:34:54.639
created the um the CCC, the uh can I civilian conservation corps and that was basically he took unemployed men and broke them down into groups of 100 or

128
00:34:54.639 --> 00:35:12.640
200 and sent them to camps throughout the countryside. I mean, they were all across Massachusetts and in other states. They built roads in parks. They they dug culverboards. They built things like this tower for nothing, you know,

129
00:35:12.640 --> 00:35:28.800
just to keep them busy just to put food on their tables so that their families could get by until the economy improved. So this is about a 60 ft tower in Lynwoods that you can climb up and enjoy the view,

130
00:35:28.800 --> 00:35:45.599
but it really wasn't there for anything other than just to make work. So the really fun story about Lynn Woods, I have to tell this quickly um is is about dungeon rock. And there are these stories throughout the New England countryside. You know, you hear these

131
00:35:45.599 --> 00:36:02.880
crazy stories about um uh people who lived in the rocks or in caves. Well, this one is especially good. So, Dungeon Rock is up in Lynn Woods and Lynn being close to the waterfront for uh

132
00:36:02.880 --> 00:36:19.920
Massachusetts Bay, uh the population there goes way way back to prior to the American Revolution, of course. So when the British were were occupying Massachusetts, they were our they were part of um our people. They were part of

133
00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:35.119
the government before we had the revolution. People saw a ship come into the port and were a little concerned. It was an unfamiliar ship like what are they doing here? What do they want? They started to

134
00:36:35.119 --> 00:36:51.680
lower the longboats and send some people ashore. And so the local towns people went to the British uh centuries and said, "Hey, you guys get down there and find out what's going on. We don't know who these people are. They could be pirates." It's kind of before the age of

135
00:36:51.680 --> 00:37:10.320
piracy, but anyway. Um, so apparently allegedly they were pirates and there were three or four of them in one of the long boats and they were coming ashore with a chest of booty of, you know, stolen gems and coins and whatever else

136
00:37:10.320 --> 00:37:26.079
and they wanted to get into Lynn for some reason. And so the centuries, the British centuries accosted them and said, "What are you doing here?" You know, stop. And there was a scuffle and some shots rang out. All very

137
00:37:26.079 --> 00:37:44.560
improbable. And one of the centuries died and one of the pirates died. And one of the pirates took the chest of goodies and ran up into the hills into Lynn Woods and hid under this giant tilting rock that um he decided to take

138
00:37:44.560 --> 00:38:01.520
shelter in. And then it people say that he lived in harmony with the local folks for the rest of his natural life. I'm thinking I'm a little skeptical about that. Like if I had a chest of pirate booty, would I live under a rock? I

139
00:38:01.520 --> 00:38:18.079
don't think so. Um but it gets better. So, at one point there was this seismic event and the giant rock tilted and crushed that pirate and his booty underneath it, never to be seen or heard

140
00:38:18.079 --> 00:38:34.400
from again. This is this is a true Massachusetts legend. Now, it would have been forgotten right there because there's no evidence of the pirate. There's no evidence of the treasure. However, in the late 1800s

141
00:38:34.400 --> 00:38:51.280
during the Victorian era when people were doing seances and they were sort of communing with the dead and talking to the dead, a man shows up in Lynn and his name was Hyram Marble. This is verifiable intro. He showed up in Lynn

142
00:38:51.280 --> 00:39:08.320
and he said, "I'm here to um excavate the pirate treasure." And people were like "Really?" and he said, "Yeah, I've been talking to the pirate through seances." And he said to come get his treasure out from under

143
00:39:08.320 --> 00:39:23.520
the rock. So, Hyram Marvel starts chipping away at the rock and digging. And then when he needed supplies or food or more shovels, he would do seances for the local people, raise a little bit of

144
00:39:23.520 --> 00:39:40.960
money, and then go back to work. And over time his son joined him and the two of them spent years chipping away the rock, digging away, looking for the pirate treasure and doing seances for people for their

145
00:39:40.960 --> 00:39:57.520
money. Well, Hyramo eventually passed away and his son said, "Okay, without dad, I'm leaving town." They never found the pirate treasure. But they left a 130 foot tunnel into and under this giant

146
00:39:57.520 --> 00:40:12.800
rock in Lyn Woods and it's actually open to the public. So if you're out hiking in Lynwood Woods, it's fun. There are little signs that say Dungeon Rock this way, you know, you follow the trail and um during the summer, you know, in the

147
00:40:12.800 --> 00:40:28.320
nice months, it's open, I believe, every single day. in the off season probably spring and fall it's just weekends but you know part of the story is verifiable and true and somebody dug that tunnel

148
00:40:28.320 --> 00:40:46.160
you know whether there was a pirate ever involved I really can't say so now we'll move out west on route two to the town of conquered where I'm sure many of you have heard of Walden Pond the Walden Pond um which has many many very short

149
00:40:46.160 --> 00:41:03.119
trail options. It's more known for the swimming. It's a beautiful pond and for Henry David Thorough having spent two years, two months, and two days living in a tiny tiny shack at the back of the

150
00:41:03.119 --> 00:41:19.520
pond where he wrote his famous book Walden, which like only sold four copies during his lifetime. Unfortunately, when I go to Walden Pond, I like to get out this way. You go across the railroad

151
00:41:19.520 --> 00:41:36.240
tracks and into Walden Woods out there. That's really nice. But these short trails and the number of people that are attracted to pond just don't really make it quite anything I'm interested in. And in fact, when I was working on this

152
00:41:36.240 --> 00:41:51.440
book, I called up the visitors center and I said, "Hey, working on this hiking book. We'd like to include Walder Pond." And the ranger at the visitors center said, "You've got to tell people about the parking." And I was like, "Okay, can

153
00:41:51.440 --> 00:42:07.280
we talk about the hiking?" Well, you've got to put the the parking in there because we've redone the parking lots and, you know, we're just so crammed full of people all the time. we have to close the parking lots in the morning when the buses start to show up and and

154
00:42:07.280 --> 00:42:22.640
I was like, "Okay, okay. I get it. I get it. I will definitely tell people about the parking." So, in fact, this state park gets 500,000 visitors a year, half a million people.

155
00:42:22.640 --> 00:42:38.240
I went to check it out to sort of feel like what is the big deal? You know, I had been around the pond, but I hadn't really been to the visitors center. They did just um create a new visitor center in the last few years and it does have a

156
00:42:38.240 --> 00:42:55.200
lot of historical artifacts. Not really Theorough's personal belongings, but things of his era that were found around the pond. They have a recreation of his hut and things like that. But um when I

157
00:42:55.200 --> 00:43:13.119
went it was like April, a Thursday morning. It was raining. It was great. I could drive right up to the visitor center. No competition for parking. Walk right in the door. No issues. If you go in through the visitors center into the

158
00:43:13.119 --> 00:43:29.760
back room, they have a looped video of Don Henley, the rock star, talking about the Walden Woods project and why it was so important for him to get involved and to help out with it. And has that been like 50 years ago? All right. Yeah. They

159
00:43:29.760 --> 00:43:45.520
just had the anniversary. Wow. Does not feel like 50 years ago. But, you know, Waldupon truly was never that pristine. Not in, you know, written history because it was always highly populated. Even when Thorough lived out there,

160
00:43:45.520 --> 00:44:02.960
there were other people living in the woods. The railroad was already laid by 1830. You know, there were people taking trains in and out of Boston from there. After these day, there was a campground, there was um a ballroom, you know, it

161
00:44:02.960 --> 00:44:20.000
was always a very very busy place. Only recently had they tried to sort of pull back into more natural surroundings and to turn down the volume of human habitation. But this pond has just been

162
00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:36.800
so popular for so long that it's impossible to tell people you can't have access. I always look at this picture and think my grandparents are in there somewhere, you know? I mean, it's been popular that long. So about Thorough himself, this is where

163
00:44:36.800 --> 00:44:53.440
he wrote some really seinal works. And when I was studying in college, you know, being a sort of a literary type person, he was like gh thorough, you know, tough tough to digest. But then I discovered

164
00:44:53.440 --> 00:45:09.359
some of his other works that were not so difficult to sort of get into. He went down to Cape Cod as a young man and he wrote a book about it and it is so fun to read, you know, as like a 26 year old

165
00:45:09.359 --> 00:45:24.880
guy with one of his buddies. He goes down to the cave and they walk at the entire national seashore and you know bare feet and he stands at on the beach and says you know here I am and the rest

166
00:45:24.880 --> 00:45:40.160
of the world is behind me. you know, these big thoughts from being in such a beautiful empty place. And it's just a wonderful book to read. He also wrote a great book called um a week on the conquered environment where he and his

167
00:45:40.160 --> 00:45:57.839
brother John as young men took a boat from conquered Massachusetts to conquer New Hampshire and back. And along the way they describe the scenes, the people that they met, the things that they saw and it's just so evocative of that time.

168
00:45:57.839 --> 00:46:13.760
So well written where he's not trying to be Mr. Important when he wrote about, you know, Alden. So another thing that he wrote and do I have it here? Ah, yeah. Here it is. This is the visitors center at the state park when

169
00:46:13.760 --> 00:46:30.319
it's not crowded. He wrote an essay on walking that I adore. It was published in the Atlantic magazine in 1851. And if you Google throw Atlantic walking, you get the entire thing. This

170
00:46:30.319 --> 00:46:45.760
is just a snippet of it that says I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits unless I spend 4 hours a day at least. And it is commonly more than that. Sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields. absolutely

171
00:46:45.760 --> 00:47:05.520
free from all worldly engagements. I love reading that and sort of taking inspiration from it and thinking what better thing do I have to do than go for a nice long walk in the woods. So now moving down to the southshore. I

172
00:47:05.520 --> 00:47:21.200
used to live down in Plymouth and the previous edition of the book kind of left that area unrepresented. So, I went looking for a place that I thought would be very interesting for folks to visit on the Southshore, and I

173
00:47:21.200 --> 00:47:38.960
came up with Buridge Pond, which is hardly known outside of the towns that it's in, and that is Hansen and Halifax. It's kind of right on the town line. Um, Birch Pun is a wildlife management area, again, a place that allows hunting and

174
00:47:38.960 --> 00:47:54.160
things like that. It's not a park. It doesn't have bathrooms and picnic tables, but it's just a wild area. Some of the history of it is is quite interesting. It was named for Henry Buridge, who was

175
00:47:54.160 --> 00:48:10.640
an industrialist, you know, uh a businessman who started some businesses down in that area. One of his businesses was digging up Pete. So that's the, you know, compacted uh plant material in the

176
00:48:10.640 --> 00:48:25.760
ground. They would dig it up, put it on barges and float it down the river to Rhode Island and sell it to people for home heating fuel. Now that was a long time ago. And then he started some other

177
00:48:25.760 --> 00:48:42.160
businesses and eventually his properties here in the Hansen Halifax area apparently caught fire. He left town. And so Veridge Pond um has this uh history of the Pete being

178
00:48:42.160 --> 00:48:58.319
dug out. So it became perfect for cranberry box. So the cranberry growers moved in around 1900. And I was very surprised to learn that they were actually canning cranberry juice as early as 1910 and selling it as a health

179
00:48:58.319 --> 00:49:14.160
food. So people were actually interested in consuming healthy products as early as 1910. Um however as time went on you know um this fell into

180
00:49:14.160 --> 00:49:31.119
disuse and there was actually a munitions factory nearby and the people at the munitions factory used to lob um lob munitions bombs into the pond to test them. So they kind of got in a

181
00:49:31.119 --> 00:49:47.200
little bit of trouble for doing that. you know, blowing up the fish or the wildlife. A crazy thing to do. So, it's definitely not pristine land, you know, having been used the way it has. So now, as I said, 1,700 acres of wildlife

182
00:49:47.200 --> 00:50:04.480
management, beautiful scenery, and one thing that particularly draws me to it is that in this area when we hike and we're outdoors, we're often under a canopy of trees and you really can't see the sky. But when you're down in this

183
00:50:04.480 --> 00:50:20.480
area where it's open land, there's a lot of open water, there's cranberry logs, you're you've got the sky above you as sort of this, you know, uh beautiful pallet. The clouds are moving, you know,

184
00:50:20.480 --> 00:50:35.599
the sun and it really changes your perspective to have that above you rather than a lot of trees hanging over your head. And part of the property is a big cedar swamp. You've familiar with cedar trees

185
00:50:35.599 --> 00:50:51.119
probably in your own yards, but this was um was important to the early settlers and to the Native Americans because cedar wood resists rot. So if you cut down a

186
00:50:51.119 --> 00:51:07.599
cedar tree, you make shingles, you make fence posts out of it, it lasts a long time in the New England environment. it does not just start to fall apart after a couple of seasons. Also, these berries were used by the Native Americans

187
00:51:07.599 --> 00:51:23.200
um for medicines. They contain a lot of vitamin C, which as we know cures scurvy and can lessen the the issues, some other issues as well. So, again, it's very wide open. It's

188
00:51:23.200 --> 00:51:40.240
really neat to get down there and just, you know, feel like this freedom of being able to choose whatever direction you want to travel in because of the cranberry bogs and the water. It's kind of a a series of grids or for little

189
00:51:40.240 --> 00:51:57.520
dirt roads that people just take off on. And it also attracts a lot of bird life. The Ottabon Society has done a survey down there every few years. Things like the belted king fisher are very common.

190
00:51:57.520 --> 00:52:14.079
They fly just above the surface of the water and they have this very quick staccato call when they're looking for the juicy frogs and things to eat up. You may also see wood ducks down there because they of course like the water.

191
00:52:14.079 --> 00:52:32.319
They also nest in uh hollow trees or if you put up wood duck boxes. Uh they're absolutely beautiful to look at. So the Ottoman had found that there were over 40 different species of birds in just in the Burge Pond area when they did their

192
00:52:32.319 --> 00:52:49.280
survey. And one that really blew everyone's mind was a sandy crane. Now Sandyville cranes are not native to Massachusetts. In fact, the first time the Ottabon did their survey and they saw the cranes down there, they were like, "Oh, these

193
00:52:49.280 --> 00:53:05.760
must have been blown off course. They do not live in New England. Um, we won't see them next time." Well, next time they saw them again. And then they saw them again. So, every time they do a bird survey, they're finding the cranes

194
00:53:05.760 --> 00:53:22.640
in Burge Pond. And um they're quite distinctive. If you haven't run across one, I have also seen them in far western mouse in fields. Uh they're native to like Florida, Nebraska, and Alaska. They have this huge migration

195
00:53:22.640 --> 00:53:39.040
route where they go all the way across the country. Down in Florida, you see them on golf courses, and it's like meeting a big bird in real life. They're 3 and 1/2 ft tall, maybe four feet tall. They almost look you in the eye and they are not afraid of people which scares me

196
00:53:39.040 --> 00:53:55.200
a little bit because they have these really big beaks, you know, they can just take you out. Um, when they fly the wingspan, it's like seeing a pterodactyl or some sort of dinosaur bird. When they fly, they have this crazy call that is a

197
00:53:55.200 --> 00:54:11.119
cross between a turkey gobble gobble gobble and a heron that goes. So it's like this mix of those two calls. So they're unbelievably unique, you know, to see in New England. So if

198
00:54:11.119 --> 00:54:26.000
you see a gigantic bird, you're not seeing things. They are starting to come here. Not sure what it all means, but it's pretty cool at the same time. How we doing? Oh my goodness. I got to wrap it up. All right, one last great

199
00:54:26.000 --> 00:54:41.680
story. Whitney Theo Woods is um south of Boston in around Hangingham and Cohassid. There are many parks that adjoin there including uh Watenuck State Park which is one of the biggest state

200
00:54:41.680 --> 00:54:59.200
parks in Massachusetts. That's in Weimoth and Hangingham. And there are lots and lots of trails in there. Watup was a World War II munitions factory. It's all being taken down though. You know, there are still bumpers you can

201
00:54:59.200 --> 00:55:14.559
see in the woods and old railroad tracks where they would move things. But Whitney and the woodwinds has quite a different story to it. It's a joining to Turkey Hill and Will River Farm. These are all trustees of reservations

202
00:55:14.559 --> 00:55:32.240
properties and um they have beautiful woods, lots of rodendrids down there. So, lots of gorgeous flowering plants in the springtime. Many, many glacial erratics in the woods that attract people who want to do

203
00:55:32.240 --> 00:55:47.680
bouldering or just messing around, you know, just climbing on them. Here's a guy down here who is taking a little rest from doing some bouldering. And the reason we have a big part of this park is this gentleman named Henry Whitney

204
00:55:47.680 --> 00:56:04.559
who in uh the late 1800s owned many street car lines in Brooklyn, Massachusetts in the Boston area. So he lived in Brooklyn. He was a very wealthy man and uh he ran street cars and uh

205
00:56:04.559 --> 00:56:21.599
when the competition began between Boston, London and New York for the first subway system, Henry Whitney got involved and he wanted Boston to be first. So he was very involved in the beginning of the of the tea. Thank him

206
00:56:21.599 --> 00:56:36.880
or hate him. I don't know which I want to do. Um there's a wonderful documentary by PBS and a book called The Race Underground written by Doug Moouse who was a Boston Globe reporter and he talks a lot about Henry Whitney and the

207
00:56:36.880 --> 00:56:54.400
reason why they wanted to revolutionize travel in cities like Boston, New York and London was because of his street cars. The street cars were pulled by horses. So when you stood on a street corner in Boston, New York, London,

208
00:56:54.400 --> 00:57:11.119
wherever back then, the street cars that went by were all pulled by horses. So there were tens of thousands of horses in these cities. And you can imagine the cities tended to smell like barns. You

209
00:57:11.119 --> 00:57:26.640
know, it was horrible. The heat of the summer and you get all of these I don't have to describe it. So Mr. Whitney himself decided that he would give up living in the city and go enjoy the

210
00:57:26.640 --> 00:57:43.440
fresh breezes from the ocean. So he built a little cottage down there on the seashore in in Pahassid and lived out his life there. And again, when his when he passed away, his property reverted to a foundation that became the trustees of

211
00:57:43.440 --> 00:58:01.359
reservations. And now we are all allowed to just go and enjoy it. I don't think the home is there any longer. But again, his his expanded property with lots of heart paths and hiking trails is all there in Whitney in Fairwoods, the place

212
00:58:01.359 --> 00:58:19.680
with the road ends. And now it's 7:00. I've hit my time limit. Um, does anyone have any questions, comments, or corrections? Yes ma'am. >> So, if you were around here, right, is there

213
00:58:19.680 --> 00:58:34.400
anywhere where you could just straight up walk like next to a river? >> Oh, yeah. The the rail trail. >> Yeah. >> That goes along the Nasha River. >> Mhm. >> That's beautiful. Okay. >> That How many miles is that from here to

214
00:58:34.400 --> 00:58:49.920
Peril? Um, >> so where does the river part start though? cuz like I've been on there and it's not really, you know, just what >> Oh, yeah. >> So, where would you start from? >> Well, you know what? There is also um I

215
00:58:49.920 --> 00:59:04.640
don't know the area well enough to be able to pinpoint, maybe somebody else in the room does, but there are maps um section maps again of the Nasha River that can tell you where to put in a kayak, but will also tell you, you know,

216
00:59:04.640 --> 00:59:21.280
where the trails are near the shore. Yeah. All right. Thanks. >> There's um trails along the conquered rivers also. I don't know specifically what the trails are called, but if you look at maps for those rivers, there's trails.

217
00:59:21.280 --> 00:59:38.319
>> So, if there's like parking, you can just park there. >> Yeah, there's places where you can put it in like a canoe and stuff. And then there's like >> But you could just walk if you wanted to instead. >> You know what? masttrails.com >> is a great resource for rail trails

218
00:59:38.319 --> 00:59:55.079
>> and can show you a lot of different places, you know, throughout the entire state where you can get out on trails history. >> I was just going to say in in l there's a lot of canals and things and I know that you can walk right along the water there. >> Okay,

219
00:59:57.040 --> 01:00:12.559
>> any other questions, comments? Well, thank you folks for coming. Um, if you would like to sign up here for my email, what I pro have been doing recently is sending people a synopsis of my program

220
01:00:12.559 --> 01:00:25.400
with the places that I mention. Um, if you're interested, I could send that out within a few days. So, thank you