On The Hunt For Abandoned Vehicles III

I had a friend in high school who took his beat up Subaru to Rhode Island for a weekend of fun. He was never gentle with this car - in fact, this was the first car in my life I ever went airborne in - and at some point during that trip the thing just up and quit on him for good. After realizing he wasn't going to be driving it home, he pushed it to the side of the road, wrote "Free" on a piece of cardboard that he tucked under the windshield, then bummed his way all the way back to New Hampshire. I've always chuckled when thinking back on that story, and I've always been fascinated with abandoned cars I've come across in my explorations. And I wonder if any of them have as many interesting stories as my friend's old Subaru did.

Watch the side of the road while you're driving. Not exclusively of course, just keep an eye out for beauties such as this one, which I spotted while passing through the town of Nelson, New Hampshire. Even though I was in it, Nelson is a town I didn't even know existed until I plotted this picture on a map that night.

Powderhouse Hill is an ingenious little tow-rope skiing hill in South Berwick, Maine. Between its pulley system made out of tire rims, to its once being powered by an old truck, the entire operation seems to have been constructed out of parts from a junkyard. The engine has been upgraded over the years, but although this truck no longer drives the rope that will tow you up the hill, it still serves as a great reminder of the creativity of working on a very small budget.


Every summer we take our family to Ferndale Acres in Lee, New Hampshire. It's a fun little campground with swimming, fishing, a playground for the younger kids, and horseshoes and beer for the older ones. Recently we were driving down its mile-long entrance road when I spotted something out in the woods, something I'd missed on our first dozen years of coming here. The next morning while the kids were riding their bikes I convinced my wife to talk a walk, and in those woods we found a pair of abandoned vehicles. The amount this one has sunken into the ground will give you an idea of just how long it's been rusting away out here.

If you're of the same generation I am, you may remember the Home Improvement episode where Tim dropped a beam on his wife's car, turning it into a giant hot dog bun. Something very similar to that happened to this second car. I assume it was a large tree that crashed down on it, but then where did it go? Being so far in the woods, it doesn't make sense that someone would have cut it up and removed it. So did the tree rot away to nothing, or did the car get crushed somewhere else and then dragged out here to be left?

We drove to Washington New Hampshire two years ago in search of Captain Jones' grave for his leg, which he lost to amputation following an accident moving a barn. But although that was our mission, anytime we're in a new town is an opportunity to drive new back roads. We spotted this truck while in the midst of that wandering, and through the snow I trudged to get this picture.

This vehicle I spotted from the passenger seat while my wife was driving through Ogunquit, Maine. It sat perhaps 50 yards down a trail that could almost have been a dirt road once. My wife is a great sport, because I once again convinced her to turn the car around and take another walk through the woods.

This last vehicle is one of my favorites. After watching a YouTube video where a guy explored an abandoned garage and found this circus looking car in the basement, it wasn't long before I'd located the place on Google Earth and set out to find it myself. I tore my jeans climbing through the window, but that was a small price to pay in order to get this picture.

On The Hunt For Abandoned Vehicles
On The Hunt For Abandoned Vehicles II

Bancroft Castle Ruins, Groton Massachusetts

New to exploring and looking to start with something easy? Requiring only a fifteen minute climb to reach these castle-like ruins, Gibbet Hill in Groton Massachusetts might be just the place you're looking for.

A man's home is his castle. That is just a phrase, but one hundred years ago Groton native William Bancroft took these words to heart. After years in the military followed by a political career as mayor of Cambridge, Bancroft set out to build his retirement villa on top of Gibbet Hill. Although he managed to partially complete it, funds came to an end before construction did and the structure he named Shawfieldmont never came to be. Bancroft abandoned his work in 1906, and in 1918 sold the property to Harold Ayers, who turned it into a sanitarium for tuberculosis and other long-term patients.

By 1930 the property was in the hands of the Groton Hunt Club, who used it not just for their fox hunts but for parties and dinners. Those good times came to an end in 1932, however, after a Fourth of July party gone wrong ended with a fireworks accident that burned the structure to the ground. All that remained is everything you can still see today - which are the parts made out of stone.

Two separate paths will take you up Gibbet Hill. We chose the Shattuck Street entrance for our first trip, then on a return visit parked along the Lowell Road side. Either way feels more like a walk in the park than an actual hike, with some paths consisting of not much more than some trampled down grass. We passed a fire tower from the Shattuck route, but unlike the fun loving people of New Hampshire who encourage you to climb their towers, Massachusetts does not allow you anywhere near this one.

But there is no need to brave rickety stairs for a nice view, just continue to the the west side of Gibbet Hill.

Just past that overlook is where our first glimpse of the castle poked through. The most eye catching part is its tower, and though it appears to be a stand-alone structure, original photographs show it was attached to the house with a roof wrapping around it.

In the main part of the house you will find this massive chimney, and where people would have once sat by its second story fireplace, weeds are now growing.

Even though it burned to the ground and sat exposed to 80 years of elements, somehow a few pieces of wood have survived all this time, some being just above my head where I'm poking around.

Here comes my favorite part of this story. After a plan was hatched in 2000 to clear these ruins and divide the property into dozens of house lots, Groton native and businessman Steven Webber purchased the entire 526 acres for $10 million. He kept a very modest 6 acres for himself, on which he built the themed restaurant Gibbet Hill Grill, then placed into conservation the rest of the land and castle remains, property he felt belonged to the people of Groton. This accomplished two things. Not only did it save the castle from the wrecking ball of housing development, but it opened this privately owned and previously off-limits area for visitation by the public, allowing everyone to enjoy the Bancroft Castle ruins for many generations to come.

References:
Brown, Jane Roy. Boston.com, The Boston Globe, 16 Oct. 2005, archive.boston.com/travel/articles/2005/10/16/saved_from_development_a_place_to_dream_dine/.

Savard, Rita. “Owner Dispels Stories of Ghosts at Groton's Gothic Castle.” Lowell Sun Online, 14 July 2006, www.lowellsun.com/ci_4052968

Paddock Mines - Into The Pit

"That was the most fun I'll never have again!" 

- John Egolf, upon climbing out of the Paddock Pit.

This is a story that is two years in the making. The Paddock Pit is a mineshaft on Gardner Mountain in northwest New Hampshire that drops 80-feet straight into the earth, then continues into a large chamber and pair of horizontal shafts, jutting out at two different levels. This is one of several copper mines located on the mountain, all of which were worked at various points in the late 1800s.

I spent 30 hours driving back and forth from this mountain over a series of explorations in the summer of 2017, and although each of the mines were impressive, this particular shaft is one of the largest, and most dangerous, we have explored in New Hampshire. This opening is its only entrance, and having arrived completely unprepared for its size, my first attempt at exploring it I could only stand safely from a distance and imagine what treasures lie hidden within. The day wasn't a wasted trip as we still had another mine to explore, but I realized it was going to take a lot more than some spool of rope to get me down into this hole.

Our first descent into the mine was made possible by Amazon, who really does have everything for sale on its website. We purchased two 30-foot steel caving ladders, linked them together, and after securing them to a large tree took turns descending into the unknown. This ladder might look a little sketchy from a distance, but it has a load rating large enough to hoist a grand piano.

However, we soon realized that this day was going to be good, but it wasn't going to be great. Our ladder got us down to the first level, but it wasn't long enough to reach the bottom. We were stuck at the 60-foot mark, where a precarious ledge provided just enough stability to stand on and have a look back up. An additional 20-feet were going to be needed to reach the bottom of the pit, though.

But even though we couldn't continue vertically, it didn't stop us from exploring what we could horizontally. By holding the ladder and shimmying to the left we were able to access a tunnel jutting out from this ledge, which wound its way through approximately 80 feet of rock.

That side tunnel was a nice bonus, but with our ladder stopping short of the bottom this day's expedition was taking us no further. The remainder of the shaft was a wet slope, and the more sensible people in our group reminded me that even though I could slide down that slope easily enough, I wasn't going to be able to climb back out.

It wouldn't be until we returned a few weeks later with additional rope that we would finally reach the bottom of the mine. Leaving one person up top as a security measure - a position my wife cheerfully volunteered for - our group took turns climbing all the way down into the lowest chamber. This was the view looking back up from the those depths, where sunlight can be seen penetrating the shaft.

This bottom level consisted of one large cavern and three separate tunnels. One of the tunnels was very short, and a second one was very short plus flooded. The cavern itself held lots of rubble, but scant remnants of past explorers - this is an area that has seen very few visitors over its 100+ years of existence.

The third tunnel shooting off from this chamber was the real prize, dry and about 80 feet in length - much like its partner sitting one story above. But though the tunnels look nearly identical, the difference in quality between the photo I took one level up, and this one taken by our friends from WeRmudfun, is what convinced me that if I want to be taken more serious an an explorer, maybe I should be snapping pictures with something a little better quality than a two year old iPhone.

Photo courtesy of WeRmudfun

Here I am at the end of the longest tunnel, off of the lowest chamber. This spot marks the deepest depth, or at least the furthest distance from the surface, of the mine, and after one false start and another partial success, it also marks our completed exploration of the Paddock Pit.

Photo courtesy of WeRmudfun