The Concrete City

In the summer of 2016 a friend and I made the first of what we hope will be an annual road trip / adventure tour to another state. For this year's trip we chose the state of Pennsylvania, and for the first part of this trip we stopped at the Concrete City of Nanticoke.
         
Imagine a neighborhood of 22 duplex buildings spread out in somewhat of a circle, almost like a giant cul-de-sac. Next, imagine that each of these buildings is made entirely of concrete. Finally, imagine that this neighborhood has been abandoned for nearly 100 years and is being overtaken by the forest. This is the Concrete City of Nanticoke.

If it weren't for our GPS coordinates I'm not sure we even would have found the place. We were looking for a neighborhood therefore we assumed we should be looking for some sort of road entrance. But when we stopped the car where our coordinates said we should we found ourselves directly across from these trails.

Up the trail we went, and after maybe a quarter mile bike ride (which included one wrong turn that nearly landed us in someone's backyard) we found the first of our buildings. That feeling of wonderment I got coming across something so seemingly out of place is something everyone should experience at least once in their life.

There is not a window or door left in any of the buildings, just openings, so we had no issue getting inside and exploring them.

In fact, some buildings even had extra windows where kids had broken through walls.

As can be expected in a place like this, each building was covered with graffiti both inside and out. I have mixed feelings about that. I'm no fan of vandalizing, but I found myself taking pictures of some of the more eye-catching work.

On the other hand, the place had more than its share of garbage from people like this genius. I was happy not to run into him during any of our travels.

Built as company housing for a local a coal company, these days Concrete City is used for police training as well as paintball & pellet gun wars. One of our goals was to climb onto the roof of a building, and it was up there that I found evidence of this latter activity. Fortunately, this is just a toy :)

Being built out of concrete is what eventually caused the abandonment of these buildings, as the community was built without plumbing and not easily adaptable to the installation of it. Being built out of concrete is also the reason they remain standing nearly 100 years after being deserted, rather than being demolished. They tried - dynamite was used in the attempted destruction of one building - but because they are so sturdy very little damage was done and the idea was given up on.

And so fortunately for people like myself, here they remain.

Elephant Mountain B52 Crash Remains

Once a year our family makes the 4-1/2 hour drive from the Seacoast of New Hampshire to Moosehead Lake in Maine, where Tina's mother and husband spend each summer. The lake is beautiful and our time is spent hiking, kayaking, and exploring in a whirlwind of fun throughout the never long enough time we're there.

A few years back we were told of a site on Elephant Mountain, perhaps 15 minutes from where we were staying, where a B-52 had crashed into the mountainside back in 1963. Extreme turbulence had snapped the vertical stabilizer of the plane causing it to crash into several feet of snow, with only three men being able to eject. Interestingly enough, one of the men who ejected landed on the ground before his parachute had time to deploy, but because he landed in such deep snow he survived the non-parachute landing, the only person ever to do so. Nine people in total were aboard the plane, but between going down in the crash and huddling through the night in extreme cold only two survived by the time a rescue helicopter found and retrieved them the next day.

The property is owned by the Plum Creek Timber Company and they have opened the crash site for public viewing. It is maintained by the Moosehead Riders snowmobile club who hold annual rides to honor the victims. On the day we went there were perhaps 20 people walking around viewing the wreckage, which is spread over a large area of hillside.

This was the first plane crash site I had visited and a real eye opener as to the devastation they cause. In my mind I had pictured, perhaps naively, that the carcass of the place would be relatively intact and maybe I'd even be able walk into it. Some crash sites might look like that, but no such thing here - this nearly 200' long bomber had been reduced to an absolute scattering of shredded and crumpled metal. One piece that did look big enough to crawl into was apparently used by the survivors as a shelter during their night on the mountain.

Some of the wreckage has been removed from the site, although no more is allowed to be taken as it's officially been deemed a "no salvage" area. In fact, some of the wreckage that had been hauled away was actually brought back.

We came across one of the original four sets of wheels. They were warped but still relatively intact. A second set of wheels that broke apart was further in the woods.

Pretty much wherever I turned there were more pieces of wreckage, both large and small. I found myself going through a range of emotions that afternoon; from my initial chills, to amazement, curiosity, then almost a desensitization from having seen so much devastation. Processing what I had seen ended up taking a lot longer than the time I spent actually viewing it.

This is a very well maintained and respectable site, with various plaques and signs informing you of the tragedy and the men involved. There is very little walking to reach the site from the parking area, the bigger difficulty is in making the long drive to get to Elephant Mountain in the first place. But if you ever have the urge to visit a plane crash memorial and pay your respects, this would be first on my list of recommendations.

Livermore Falls Abandoned Mill

We keep a Google map with pinned locations of interesting places we want to visit someday, which comes in handy not only for planning trips in advance but for those last minute instances where we find ourselves driving with extra time to kill.  I visited Livermore Falls during just one of those times, when I was returning from a trip down Route 93 and realized I was early and would have a few hours to myself. Off to my map I went, and 20 minutes later my GPS brought me to the parking area of Livermore Falls.

I wasn't sure what to expect other than that Livermore Falls was described as an abandoned pulp mill sitting on the Pemigewasset River. The website I'd found about it didn't say whether it was open for exploration or gated off with no trespassing allowed, but the pictures had looked interesting enough for me to add to the map. Turns out that not only is the site all open, it's actually been turned into a state park and perhaps a dozen people were wandering around or just hanging out by the water that day.

The first thing to grab your attention when entering the park is this large, partially deteriorated bridge spanning the river. You will find many references to it as the "Pumpkin Seed Bridge", which according to the Campton Historical Society is due to its unique design.

This is an impressive yet very dangerous structure, something I'm glad to never have come across in my younger and more reckless days. Many young people have been injured or worse jumping from this bridge and hitting rocks or metal beams in the water, but even after these tragedies YouTube shows that the practice continues to this day. Needless to say, I admired this bridge only from a distance.

Although much of the mill building no longer remains, a portion of it is intact and viewable from the path above. This is no place for young children, however - only sections of the path's railing remain and are little protection against a very long fall to the ground. If you tread carefully though you will be rewarded with this view of nature overtaking the remains of the mill and claiming back her land.

Not satisfied with just an overhead view, I decided to try and climb down and look inside the building. There is a safe passage below if you turn around the follow a path down to the river, which is where I passed various people both sunbathing and returning with fishing gear. From this point it became a little trickier climbing to make it over a rock ledge that skirted the water, but nothing I wasn't able to handle.

Finally down below and at the far side of the building, I found my entrance. Not the kind I was hoping for, though. Rather than a nice open doorframe I found only this crawl space leading under the building. Different images of what I may find under there - from wild animals to wild kids - gave me pause, but I hadn't come this far for nothing. Down on my hands and knees I went and crawled inside.

There was nothing wild to greet me inside, but there was plenty of evidence to show that this was a popular hangout for kids, between the broken bottles and graffiti. This inspirational message became perhaps my favorite picture of the day, and the spelling error (which I didn't realize until that night) only added to its charm.

Although I was solo that day, Livermore Falls also contains walking trails that would have been fun for our whole family. The mill itself is not a place I'd bring young children to, but if you enjoy abandoned structures and buildings it's a fascinating place that will provide you with some hauntingly wonderful photo opportunities.

Links:
Photo Album
State Park Website

Blue Job Mountain & Fire Tower

Growing up in the Seacoast, Blue Job Mountain is a name I've been familiar with for the past 25 years. However, that's as far as my familiarity had taken me. I never actually climbed it until Logan and I made the ascent earlier this spring.

With an elevation of roughly 1,300 feet it's tall enough to give you perhaps the best view in Southern NH, but small enough to make it an enjoyable rather than challenging hike. Located in Farmington NH - roughly a half-hour drive from us - this fit in perfectly for a Saturday afternoon when Tina and Madison were both working and Logan and I wanted to get out for a bit. Putting aside the guilt we felt about the girls having to work on a weekend while us guys got to play, we loaded up a backpack and made the quick drive over.

Blue Job is a popular little spot and we actually had to do a bit of jostling for a parking space. We chose a trail more or less at random and started our journey, and were pleasantly surprised at how well maintained the path was. Here, a small bridge led us over one of the messy areas near the base.

And sizable cairns guided our way higher up when trails weren't always so evident.

After Logan took us on one of his famous shortcuts up a steep path and over some boulders, we found ourselves at the summit of the mountain and posing for pictures by this small shack. I assume this was the building used by staff as they rotated shifts during fire watch duty years ago.

The fire tower was our final goal that day, and another one climbed toward our goal of the 15 that remain standing in New Hampshire. While up there admiring the view we met a nice gentleman who took this picture for us. A very rewarding finish to an enjoyable hike.

Blue Job is the perfect mountain for both beginners or anyone with young kids. If either of these describe your family I encourage you not to wait as long as I did to make this hike.

Benson Park

Benson Park, formally known as "Benson's Animal & Amusement Park" is located in Hudson, NH. It's a great place to visit whether you're looking to walk some trails, picnic or let the kids run around on the playground. The amusement park was opened in 1926 and when it shut down in 1987, the town took over the land and turned it into a recreational park.

If you visited this place as a child like I did, it was great to walk through the park and see the town had restored some of the parks old exhibits. The shoe was restored by a local Boy Scout troop. Although you can no longer go inside of it, there are a few steps you can climb onto and a small window to peek inside.

It was wintertime when we visited but this lake we came across while walking would be a beautiful picnic area in the summer. It's not far from the playground and there were picnic tables, benches and my favorite, plenty of places to lay a blanket on the grass.

Another great find here was seeing the old Gorilla House. It was the previous home to a gorilla named Tony and the cage was open for us walk through. As a bonus, it looks as if Tony left behind a couple of his primates! If you look closely, you can see them hanging off the side of the cage.

 

It was so much fun to relive one of my favorite childhood places. We will be returning now that the weather is nicer.  But just in case you have a teenager like we do, the Nashua Mall is only about 10 minutes away. We will picnic while she shops....a win win! :)

Redstone Abandoned Quarry

In our younger days, visiting a quarry meant we were going to have a day of jumping off high cliffs and rock walls into murky, cold water. Today, with our jumping days behind us, visiting an abandoned quarry means we're about to get a snapshot into work and life from a generation past.

Quarries are fairly common throughout the granite state of New Hampshire, but Redstone Quarry is fascinating in that even though it is long since shut down (since the 1940's), much of the large equipment was deemed too expensive to remove and remains at the site and open for exploration today.

The first thing you'll discover walking the trail into Redstone Quarry is this giant finished pilaster. That's a word we never knew existed until this trip. A pilaster is similar to a pillar but with one side flat to fit flush against a wall. There actually were 2 of them at one point, but in the 1990's one of them was hauled out, cut, and installed as decorative columns in front of the Intervale post office. We marveled at how smooth and intact this one remains after being discarded so many decades ago - in fact Tina lamented more than a few times about how our kitchen counter tops aren't nearly so perfect.

We continued down the trail and next came to an area that, on a handwritten map we'd downloaded off the Internet, was listed as the Boiler Room. Maybe it was a room at one point, but now it looks like two giant cylinders stuffed with pipes, being overtaken by the forest.

In addition to giant pilasters and forest-eaten boilers, a couple of old buildings still remain uncollapsed throughout the quarry as well. Tread carefully through them as they're in various states of decay, but a few such as this one, the Carpenter Shop, remains sturdy enough to at least wander through the first floor like Madison was doing here.

Other buildings haven't fared quite so well, however.

One of the big draws to Redstone Quarry is seeing the two massive lathes, one of which is shown below.  These are impressive even to a non-machinist like me who sits behind a desk all day in a chair with lumbar support. The next afternoon I actually found myself on Youtube looking up videos of quarry lathes just to see one of these beasts in action.

We found many more pieces of equipment throughout the hike, and while some we recognized what they were used for, others we could only guess at. Every now and then you'd find a lever or wheel that wasn't frozen with rust, so half the fun became speculating as to what the equipment was used for and the other half was in looking for moving parts.

Redstone is a treasure trove of things to see and explore, and our advice would be to plan on making a complete day of it. And at the end of that day be sure to make the quick hike up Rattlesnake Mountain to the point where it overlooks the quarry's discarded stones.  The view from the top is well worth the climb and rewarding after a hard day of exploring.

Links:
Photo album
http://redstonequarrynh.org/

Madison Boulder

Some of the places our family visits are thought out well in advance, researched, then the trip is made after careful packing and planning. Other times, we wake up and find ourselves driving somewhere without any forethought whatsoever.  Our trip to Madison Boulder was of the latter version, we didn’t know until that morning we were going to it.

One of the things I learned from visiting Madison Boulder is the term “erratic boulder”. This refers to a boulder that is sitting in a different spot than where it was formed, after having been carried away during an ice-age. Madison Boulder is the largest known erratic boulder in North America and is estimated to weigh between 5-6,000 tons. Theories as to its origin range from having traveled from a couple miles away, to having traveled from up to twenty miles away. There’s no doubt it was brought from somewhere – it couldn’t look more out of place in the otherwise ordinary woods that surround it.

These are all interesting facts, but to truly appreciate Madison Boulder one just needs to make the five minute walk from the parking lot to stand next to it and look up - and to realize, nature moved this thing possibly up to twenty miles!

Not everyone would be willing to drive an hour and a half to stare at a giant rock like we were, but if you ever find yourself near Madison NH we encourage you to visit this site. Take a moment, stand at the base of it, and let yourself marvel at its size and at the power of nature.

Links:
http://des.nh.gov/organization/commissioner/pip/publications/geologic/documents/madison-boulder-brochure.pdf

Fort Stark

Much like a favorite beach that you're regularly drawn back to, Fort Stark is one of those places we find ourselves visiting at least once per summer. Between it’s location in nearby Newcastle and the size of the park – not overly spread out like other nearby forts – it's a perfect destination for those times we find ourselves with a Sunday afternoon to fill. I've found it to be the least known fort we have on the Seacoast, however in many ways it's the best one to visit as there is no admission charge and much of the fort is open for exploration.

Officially named the Fort Stark Historical site, the park itself consists of various and equally interesting pieces. One of the first things you'll see when entering is a crumbling and dangerous looking white building that is boarded and fenced off for safety reasons. At one point trees had overgrown the fence and all but eaten it up, and although volunteers cut those down a while ago many pieces of the trees still remain embedded throughout the fence, adding to the abandoned feel of the place.

We’ve been coming to Fort Stark for many years, however there is always more we have to learn about the place. For instance, I learned just this past year that the building above, which faces the ocean, was actually built to resemble a ship when viewed from out at sea and only the top could be seen over the horizon. A nice little trick to help deter enemies during the war. It took me 20 years of visiting the park, then finally reading about it on the Internet, before I knew this about the place. Now it’s the first thing I see whenever I look at this building.

Past this fake ship are a couple of rows of bunker buildings. Just walking around them is impressive, but for those a little more adventurous you’ll want to bring a flashlight and wander the insides.

Watch for the usual debris and broken bottles you’d expect to find in a place like this, but enjoy the many rooms, staircases, and dark hallways the bunkers have to offer.

Even parts that were once closed off are accessible if you’re not afraid to do a little climbing.

After investigating the bunkers be sure to walk down to the water behind them and find the rock pier reaching out into the ocean. This isn’t for the young kids, but if you’re cautious enough to venture to the end the view looking back at the fort is beautiful.

For anyone who enjoys forts or war memorials, or just wandering through creepy old buildings, Stark is well worth the visit. Pack yourself a lunch, explore the bunkers, then cool off afterward wading through the small beach the park has to offer. You might even find us there doing the same!

Until our next adventure, salute :)

  

Links:
Photo Album

Official Website: http://www.nhstateparks.org/visit/Historic-Sites/fort-stark-state-historic-site.aspx

Abandoned Dogtown

We first learned of the abandoned community of Dogtown after going to see the movie The Forest, based on a real, and supposedly haunted, forest in Japan. I had done a Google search for haunted forests to read more about it, and among other links to come up was a place in Gloucester Massachusetts called Dogtown Forest, a place with its own share of supernatural lore. We’re not believers in ghosts, but the idea of taking our kids to a supposedly haunted forest was something not to be passed up.

Dogtown is an abandoned community that, during its peak in the 1700’s, was home to approximately 100 families. Due to a "change in economic conditions" (which I guess means nobody really knows the reason why) the town was abandoned by the 1800’s. Today what evidence remains of this town consists of a main road, some side roads that are more paths than roads, and many cellar holes.

Although interesting by themselves, what really makes Dogtown unique is that during the great depression, out of work stone-cutters were hired by local philanthropist Roger Babson to carve inspirational messages on boulders throughout the woods.

We found many of these rocks on the aptly named Boulder Trail, however some we had to search out in the woods. Usually any patch of ground that appeared to have been trafficked would lead to something interesting. A few of the boulders toward the end we even needed to cross these train tracks to get to. After stopping to play on them, that is.

Tina was especially happy we crossed the tracks to search out the remaining boulders, as it was there she found her favorite message. I still expect to find a poster sized version of this hanging in our kitchen one of these mornings.

We were so caught up in searching out the messages that we really only explored the boulder side of Dogtown. A whole other section that we never got to, where many of the cellar holes exist, remains an adventure for another weekend.  Trying to find all the carved rocks, over two dozen total, was the theme of this day and more fun than any of us expected. Although the fun and games did come to a brief halt when we made the kids pose with this message.

At the end of the day Dogtown turned out to be a perfect mix of hiking, history, and exploring.  For those who enjoy any of these things we highly recommend this trip.

Links:

Photo album

Belknap Mountain Dual Adventure - Plane Crash Wreckage & Fire Tower

We drove to Belknap Mountain on 6/11/16 with two missions for the day - first was to climb the summit's fire tower (#3 of the 15 in NH we plan to climb), and second was to locate the remains of a 1972 plane crash somewhere on the mountainside. Because it was summertime the gate to Carriage Road was open, which saved us over a mile of hiking as we were then able to drive to the upper parking lot. From there the climb to the summit was .8 miles of fairly smooth hiking, and along the way we met this interesting, but injured, little critter.

After moving him to safety (and also convincing Madison that he wasn't a toy some kid dropped) we continued to the tower. The wind was gusting up to 30 mph that day, but after much persuasion we finally managed to get all of us on top for a group picture. Tina might look relaxed but she actually left finger indents on the steel railing.

Logan on the other hand had no such fear, insisting on returning to the top a second time for a solo picture.

Our first mission complete, we now began the second and harder one. We believed the plane crash to be about 2-tenths of a mile down the backside of the mountain. I've not yet found any actual news articles about the crash, but from what I've pieced together through message forums it was a private plane that crashed in 1972 due to inclement weather. It wasn't until a year later that the site was discovered and 2 bodies recovered, after local residents went searching for the source of a reflection they saw from below.

Shortly after leaving the tower we found a small ribbon tied to a tree, marking the unofficial path to the site. It was a steep climb down and we lost the ribbon markers halfway there, but with Logan leading the way we eventually located the crash.

A fair amount of plane remains at the crash site, including the engine.

We respectfully toured the site for about 15 minutes before heading back to the summit. The climb back up the mountain was as tricky as the climb down to the crash site, but after boosting Tina over a couple steep spots, and again with Logan leading the way, we found ourselves back on the main trail and returning to our car. In all we spent between 2 to 3 hours on Belknap Mountain that day, although more ambitious people may want to try the loop between Gunstock, Belknap, and Piper mountains for a 10-mile day of hiking.

As a bonus we stopped at Johnson's Dairy Bar for ice cream on the way home. A good way to bribe the kids to come with us on our next adventure!