Jason Berard
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- Oct 28, 2006
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Early this spring I started doing Boundary work for the AT, and one of the first things I did was to walk the entire boundary around my section, the south peak of Moose Mtn. For a 2.2 mile section of trail, the boundary is about 6 miles long.
I found quite a few interesting things on that first walk.....old logging roads, a bear den (unoccupied
), lots of cool wildflowers, an ancient cellar hole and stone lined well, a cool beaver dam, etc. The most intriguing thing by far was an old cabin sinking into the forest floor.
I asked around at the Dartmouth Outing Club, which is who I volunteer for (they own much of the land on Moose Mtn.), and no one knew of the cabin. A friend on the board had seen it, and said that someone, possibly Native American, had lived there a long time ago.... but that was all I could find out......until.....
I met a woman in her 80's two weeks ago, who lived on the road that my section of the AT starts on, and we got to talking about the mountain. I mentioned the cabin, and she said " I know exactly where you're talking about. My father let a Native American fellow live there and build that cabin." We own that land. I'll send you a clipping from the paper when he died."
Well what do you know, but in the mail two days later comes an article from December 18th, 1924, describing "Old Elie", the Native American former inhabitant of the now nearly gone cabin.
Old Elie sounds like he was quite an interesting fellow!
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2299960180099656796KRzoBK
Click the link to read the article from the December 18th, 1924 issue of the Hanover Gazette detailing Old Elie's life. Use the "full size" button to make the article large enough to read.
I'm not sure what the lesson is here. I guess there are a couple.
I found quite a few interesting things on that first walk.....old logging roads, a bear den (unoccupied
), lots of cool wildflowers, an ancient cellar hole and stone lined well, a cool beaver dam, etc. The most intriguing thing by far was an old cabin sinking into the forest floor.
I asked around at the Dartmouth Outing Club, which is who I volunteer for (they own much of the land on Moose Mtn.), and no one knew of the cabin. A friend on the board had seen it, and said that someone, possibly Native American, had lived there a long time ago.... but that was all I could find out......until.....
I met a woman in her 80's two weeks ago, who lived on the road that my section of the AT starts on, and we got to talking about the mountain. I mentioned the cabin, and she said " I know exactly where you're talking about. My father let a Native American fellow live there and build that cabin." We own that land. I'll send you a clipping from the paper when he died."
Well what do you know, but in the mail two days later comes an article from December 18th, 1924, describing "Old Elie", the Native American former inhabitant of the now nearly gone cabin.
Old Elie sounds like he was quite an interesting fellow!
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2299960180099656796KRzoBK
Click the link to read the article from the December 18th, 1924 issue of the Hanover Gazette detailing Old Elie's life. Use the "full size" button to make the article large enough to read.
I'm not sure what the lesson is here. I guess there are a couple.
- The woods get interesting off the trail! Its kinda like a great big treasure hunt!
- Serendipity is a beautiful thing!
- Usually you get at least as much as you give when you volunteer
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