Macabre Memorials - Killed By A Tree

Some days we set out for a single adventure. On this day, we happened to have a few things we were seeking, one of which turned into a bit of a “treasure” hunt, or to be more direct, a “grave memorial” hunt.

There is next to no information on the web about the death of Isaac Nelson. In fact, it seems that the very spot he died is a bit of a mystery as to why they marked it. Why, in the middle of a forest, where a tree struck him dead, would they want to mark this as a memorial? People die everyday in odd circumstances and we don’t always mark the location. We simply follow their wishes and bury them. By now, you know we can’t just read about a story like this, we must see the marker for ourselves.

The path we started on was on the side of a parking lot shared by several businesses. It definitely seemed like a strange place to begin our search. However, the path seemed to be pretty well traveled, and we pushed on until we came to the general area to begin our search for the grave marker. We had very little to go on, just a few general clues. This is where it gets interesting for us. Most people would probably search together but not us. We are very competitive, in a fun way, and went our separate ways to see who could find it first. We did know it was small so keep in mind, living in the “granite state” made many rocks look like they could be the marker. I can’t tell you how many times I thought I found it, only to hear Dave eventually yell, “I found it!” 

Now, I don’t want to make us sound insensitive by using this poor mans demise into our treasure hunt. We always take a moment to think about the tragedy and the person who lost their life. We cleared the leaves covering around the stone and read “This stone is erected in memory of Mr. Isaac Nelson who received a mortal wound on this spot by the fall of a tree on the 28th of Dec. 1812 in the 58th year of his age.”

After finding this memorial marker, I found myself thinking about how interesting it would be if I were to be memorialized in the middle of nowhere. How cool would that be to have a hiker just stumble across my marker? Something to make them stop, look, and hopefully give some thought to who I might have been. Then maybe they would have a cool story to tell someone as I just did for Mr. Isaac Nelson.

* Credit to the OTIS website for covering the existence of this stone, and giving clues to its location:
http://www.oddthingsiveseen.com/2017/01/i-died-here-isaac-nelson-death-marker.html

The Valencia Mineshaft

Located in the mountains of Grafton County New Hampshire, the Valencia Mica Mine was in operation for just 12 years before a tunnel collapse forced its closure. Fortunately, the collapse happened at noontime while men were at lunch, so although many of their tools were lost in the rubble, none of their lives were. This was in 1892, and the mine didn't reopen until 60 years later when another company decided to give it a go. Today what remains of the site include some old railway tracks, a large but flooded cavern, one tunnel, and a pair of very un-excitable porcupines.

Photo Credit: John Egolf

This hike was one of the more enjoyable we've made while hunting these old mineshafts. Often these expeditions consist of several hours of bushwhacking with periodic breaks to yank out thorns, but here the terrain consisted of mostly an old logging road, and round trip came to just under two miles. Partly why it was so short was due to the sharp eye of my hiking partner John, who spotted the hint of a trail in the opposite direction I was leading us. And although we'd started this search not knowing what, if anything, would be left of the operations, we realized today was going to be a good day when we first came across these old mining rails.

Mining Rails

Just beyond these rails were the first signs of the mineshaft itself; this small opening. An even smaller passage continued to the other side where sunlight poked through, but although I could have fit I decided it was too early in the day to go getting myself all muddy. If I wasn't able to see what was on the other side by climbing over the hill, though, I planned on coming back here to crawl through. I'm okay with driving home filthy, but I'm not okay with driving home wondering whether or not I missed anything.

Photo Credit: John Egolf

It wasn't until after we'd thoroughly explored the area that the mine's collapse was evident to me. We found 3 separate openings that when you connected the dots ran in a straight line, and I could envision that the entire thing was once one long tunnel. Sections of that tunnel remained, and by crawling down the collapsed areas you could explore them. The largest of these areas looked promising from up top, but once I'd lowered myself down I found it was completely flooded. I made a show of poking around with a stick to see how deep the water was, but we've all smelled stagnant shaft-water before, and we all knew I had no intention of going in it. At least not on purpose.

Photo Credit: John Egolf

Dead ended here, we backtracked to the beginning of the site and over the hill, and that's where all the action turned out to be. Spotting a crevice, I scrambled down and was excited to find the kind of mineshaft we're always hoping to find on these explorations, one that goes farther into the earth than the eye can see.

Photo Credit: John Egolf

Maybe it was due to the collapse, or maybe it was the haphazard way it was dug, but parts of this mineshaft resembled a natural formation rather than something man-made.

Photo Credit: John Egolf

But telltale signs gave it away, such as the horizontal support beam you can see off in the distance.

Support Beam In Distance

We continued into the tunnel until, about mid-way through as we came up over a bend, I looked down and suddenly found myself eye to eye with a porcupine. He stood not even five feet away from me. After regaining my composure (did I yelp like a coward? Only John knows for sure, and he's been sworn to secrecy) we followed him to the end where we found his buddy, then the two of them calmly checked us out and even held still for a couple of pictures. If I were armed with a thousand needles I'd probably take much of life in stride myself. We eventually backtracked out of the tunnel to leave the animals in peace.

Photo Credit: John Egolf

Someday I won't have any new mineshafts to search out in New Hampshire. There's going to come a time when the very next one I bushwhack up the side of a mountain after will be my last. But that's not going to happen for quite a long while. Many more of these underground treasures exist than I ever would have thought possible growing up here in the Granite State, my list of suspect locations is still long, and I have only so much time in my schedule that I can go out searching for them. All of this makes for a very good problem to have, kind of like having too many TV shows you want to bingewatch but not enough hours in the day. I don't know where my search will take me next, but until that very last one is crossed off my list, you can bet that I'll be out there looking.

Photo Credit: John Egolf

Town Pounds of New Hampshire

I can be as guilty as anyone when it comes to cruising through life with my blinders on. It's so easy to get caught up with things like work, the house, and family commitments to where we're oblivious of all the curious and interesting things around us, and that we just need to slow down every once in a while to remind ourselves what a pretty cool place our world actually is.

This was the case as we were driving through the town of Chester one afternoon. Enjoying a day of just seeing what we could find, my wife spotted a curious stone structure along the side of road that somewhat looked like an old house foundation, but stood too high. I've turned the car around for a whole lot less during our drives, so back we went where we found something I'd only read about until that point - a town pound.

Location in Chester

It's hard to imagine in today's society of McMansions and Super Walmarts, but go back a few hundred years and nearly all of New England was farmland. Cows, sheep, goats, and many other animals were part of everyday life for our ancestors, a life that included problems as foreign to us as my wife's flatiron being on the fritz would be as foreign to them. And one particularly problem people dealt with in those days? Sometimes your animals wandered away.

The solution to this was simple enough, however - designate a place where all the strays could be rounded up and kept, until their owners came along to claim them. With that solution came the creation of the town pound.

Location in Marlow

I soon learned that there are town pounds throughout much of New Hampshire, which brought me full circle with my point about taking off the blinders. Our neighboring town of Durham has one that's maybe fifteen minutes from our house - which I'm convinced I've driven by at least more than once - and I never knew it was there. But now that we were on the hunt for them it quickly became a destination. This one turned out to be part of someone's yard, and either the homeowner or the town is to be commended for keeping it in such good condition.

Location in Durham

As to be expected, many of these pounds date back to the early 1800's or prior. We visited one in Hudson a few weeks ago that has been in existence longer than America has even been a country.

Location in Hudson

Because they all seem to be found along the sides of roads, not only are town pounds great places to stop at to break up a long drive, but every now and then you'll come across one entirely by accident. This is how I found Gilmantown's last winter, and thank you to the neighbor who unknowingly let me park in his driveway while I scooted across the street to take these pictures.

Location in Gilmanton

I know this post is about town pounds of New Hampshire, but I'm including one from outside our state simply because it made me chuckle. Look closely and you'll see that the fun people of Upton Massachusetts have a couple of cows occupying their town pound. I tried to get Tina to pet one of them, but she quickly figured out the ruse.

Location in Upton

Exploring doesn't always have to mean hiking miles into the woods in search of some unknown cave or ruins. Sometimes it just means getting into your car and driving to a place you've never been before. There are many town pounds that I didn't include on this list, so the next time you're out for a Sunday drive I encourage you to look one up and go for a walk through it. It's a very easy way to experience, if only for a moment, one small part of how our ancestors lived.

Myles Standish's Missing Body

The past 100 years have been one wild ride for the statue of Myles Standish. After first suffering a direct strike by lightning, then getting cut in half at the waist, and finally being discarded as rubble in a local quarry, only half of his body can be accounted for today. But before we can tell you about Myles Standish the statue, we first have to tell you about Myles Standish the man.

This story begins in 1620 with the Mayflower's voyage to America, in which Standish was a passenger. He had been hired as militia commander for colonists of the new world, something he would continue to be elected to for the remainder of his life. He fought many battles against Native American tribes as the colonists struggled to survive in those harsh, early years, and his reputation grew as both skilled in battle and brutal toward his enemies. He was known for using mutilation as a way to inflict fear, and it's for this reason that certain groups find it fitting his statue be in the condition it is today. Others look upon Standish with admiration, however, and it's one of those groups who banded together in 1872 to construct this 116 foot tower in honor of him. The process did not go smoothly, but after a 26-year period of stop and go funding the tower was completed in 1898.

Although worthwhile seeing it from the outside, the main appeal for visiting the tower is to be able to climb it. The tower is only open Saturdays and Sundays during the summer season, however, which this year began on May 27th. And the day I started writing about our visit to the tower? You guessed it, May 28th, the very next day.

Inside the tower is a single, continuous spiral staircase to the top. Only one platform exists about a quarter of the way up, however the circular protective cage that was added in later years prevents you from walking onto it. This means that once you start up these 125 steps there's no stopping, unless it's to let people coming down have the right of way, one of the tower's rules. I was on light duty and using my cane that day, and with those metal steps in that tight, echoey chamber you can bet there were some people at the top wondering what was coming clicking up the stairs after them.

At the top you'll find yourself standing on a platform that could fit maybe two dozen people, with four small windows facing in each direction and offering a limited view. Prior to this I'd had it in my head that climbing the tower meant we'd actually be right on top of the thing shaking hands with Standish himself, but access to the statue is possible only through this small trapdoor in the ceiling.

Having completed the first part of that day's adventure in climbing the tower, it was now on to part two. The statue that stands up there today is not the first one to adorn this tower. In 1922 a lightning strike partially destroyed the original one, decapitating Standish and sending his head toppling to the ground. Workers cut the statue clean at the waist in an effort to install a new body, but after a crack was discovered above the right knee that raised concerns, the remains were discarded and a new statue built from scratch.

Fast-forward 60 years to those legs being a long gone memory, when in 1990 they were discovered at a local quarry in Quincy Massachusetts. They were retrieved and given to the group that oversees the tower, and today can be seen standing at the house of the Myles Standish Monument Director, in nearby Halifax Massachusetts.

Our intention was to drive to the house for a quick picture to complete our story, but when we pulled up a friendly man came out and we spent the next half-hour listening in fascination to the history of Myles Standish, his statue, and what they all mean to people in that area today. Marc, the monument's director, even pointed out the crack that caused this statue to be discarded 100 years ago, which if your eyes are better than mine you can see in this picture below.

One question remains when Marc considers the statue today, though - what ever happened to the top of it? Although broken off in the lightning strike and falling over 100 feet, the head never shattered. It survived, but was never found discarded with the rest of the statue years later. He's still looking for it to this day, and recently he was given a clue.

A picture surfaced that seems to show the original head, with a young girl leaning against it in what looks to be a private garden. Could someone have scooped it from that quarry many years ago and brought it home as a curious showpiece for their backyard? Marc thinks it's possible, and I like to think so, too. I hope someday he finds it, and I look forward to writing a follow-up to this story when he does.

Links:
Myles Standish Monument State Reservation