The Search For Newton's Elusive Stone Chamber

As I learned during my recent visit to Danville's Beehive Hut, New England is littered with curious, man-made stone chambers that date back to the colonial days, and some think even further.

Danville's "Beehive Hut" Stone Chamber

This is the story of my search for an unmarked chamber said to exist in the woods of Newton, New Hampshire. Not that I plan on writing about each and every one of these I hunt down, but this one took me four attempts plus some begging to locate, therefore Newton is getting its own entry.

Our first attempt to find it was thwarted by the combined forces of Mother Nature and young children. A pounding rain had let loose on our drive to the site, but I've gotten soaked on explorations before so we decided to keep going. That's when Tina's phone rang. Our kids were home and power had just gone out. This was a bit tougher, especially since dusk was coming and they'd be alone in the dark, but the trail was just minutes away so we told them to go count the glow-in-the-dark stars on our ceiling and we be home soon. Then we rounded a corner and that's where this day's attempt came to and end. A firetruck was parked right where the trail began and its flashing lights told us we weren't going any further. The storm had taken down a large tree and police had the whole road closed.

My second attempt came the following weekend with Tina and Logan. Tricked by how easy to find Danville's stone chamber was, I planned on this entire adventure being just a quick stop and go. But things were anything but easy, starting with the fact that the trail was city-owned and marked no trespassing. That ruled out Logan and Tina going in, but I doubted anyone would get too excited over a 50-year old man searching for a cave - especially if I abided by the motto take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints. So into the woods I went. And a half hour later, out I came - empty handed and sweaty. I'd left plenty of footprints but didn't get any pictures.

Back to the drawing board I went, but after triple-checking my research I was sure I had the right spot. Maybe not precisely, but I was definitely within a few hundred feet in one direction or another. So the next weekend I planned attempt number three, which was going to be an all out sweep of the area. I would bring my mountain bike and search every trail in those woods, and where there weren't any trails I would make them.

I succeeded in half my mission that weekend, I created a whole lot of trails where there weren't any. The map below, which could easily be mistaken for the wanderings of my daughter through the Fox Run Mall, is actually a GPS recording of my 6+ miles of searching.

Although I still didn't find the chamber, there were enough cool things in the woods to at least make the afternoon interesting. First there was this piece of metal I ran over, which when I began digging almost had me convinced I'd found a buried car.

Then there were these cameras mounted on trees, which someone's going to get a good chuckle out of watching me staring dumbly into. I'm not sure what they're used for so I've just been telling people they belong to a group of Bigfoot hunters.

But without finding the chamber I had to call it quits, and I texted Tina to let her know I'd given it my best shot but was calling off the search. That night I made one last ditch attempt, however, and emailed a local author who has written extensively about stone structures throughout New England, including Newton's excavation in 1968. I asked if he could offer me any help, and for extra pity I sent him the map of my search. Maybe that did the trick because he wrote back and gave me the chamber's exact location. I'd been close - in fact at one point I had walked completely around the hill that was hiding it.

Which led me to the my fourth and final trip into these woods, and with my updated map it wasn't long before I found myself looking triumphantly at the chamber. Just like that my search was over and I'd be able to sleep at night again.

Like most of the stone chambers in New England this is a simple structure, and half the enjoyment comes from a day in the woods spent searching for them. And although this adventure came with a very large assist, I still considered it a success and had a satisfying moment sitting inside the Newton stone chamber.