"archaeological" finds while hiking near AT (pictures)

[Jason Berard]

A few days ago I had some free time while running errands and decided to check out a few places I had wanted to see for a while. The first one was an old granite quarry on the east side of Moose Mtn, near the AT north of Hanover. I had seen this quarry while on an excellent hike of the southern ridge of Moose with avk4316 earlier this summer, and had wanted to get back there to check it out. Well, it was pretty cool. I'm not too sure when this was last used as a quarry, but not too long ago by the looks of the equipment that was scattered around.

There were blueberries everywhere, as well as british soldiers, and wintergreen.

Back to the car I go, and off to do the errands. Then, on to my next little adventure.

Somewhere, not too far from the AT between West Hartford, Vermont, and Happy Hill Shelter in Norwich, VT, there used to be a town called....Podunk. The town has faded back into the woods, and now all that is left are some cellar holes, some very crowded apple trees, and a couple cemeteries. I found one of the cemeteries a few weeks ago with the kids, but wanted to go back and find the bigger of the two. I have been up there at least 5-6 times this summer, and haven't been able to find it....until now.

some of the headstones were pretty cool...

Several of the dates on the headstones were from late summer of 1850....I wonder if there was an outbreak of typhoid or the flu.....
All in all a productive day of "running errands"

While wandering around in the woods up there, I also saw this:

weird....

full album here

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

Podunk is a real place!

Really cool post and pics, Jason.

When I was growing up in se NH, we would laugh a lot about Podunk, Vermont. But, it is a real place! Here are some facts about Podunk from the Web.

And, speaking of Hick Town (see below), a very good friend grew up in Hicksville, New York (inner Long Gisland); her parents sent her to UNH, thinking Cow Hampsha would be a safer place than the Big City.


Podunk is in Windham County, Vermont.

The latitude of Podunk is 43.008N. The longitude is -72.859W.

It is in the Eastern Standard time zone. Elevation is 1,900 feet.

Quotes:
The microscopic settlement of Podunk (a Natick word supposedly meaning 'a boggy place') is as remote as its name implies.
-- The Vermont Encyclopedia, ed. John J. Duffy

Yes, this is really Podunk. In other places, the word might be a generic put-down, a concept, a mythical map dot somewhere between Hick Town and Nowheresville. Here in Vermont, though, it's a real somewhere.
-- Washington Post, June 6, 2006

 

[Jazzbo]

There's lots of Podunks out there!

Thanks for sharing Jason. I love little miraculous posts like this.

Wikipedia lists lots of Podunks in NE US. Podunk pops up in many place names. I grew up around Hartford Ct. Your comments vaguely reminded me of Podunks in the area around where I grew up. So I Googled it and found this interesting comments about Podunk in Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podunk

Let me know when you find East Cupcake!