Hikes & Etc

  This past Saturday , with a helpful hint from Ed Gregory...  (" it's off beyond and to the left of that pond"),  we found the "I. Shippee " house site - the one we walked right past a week ago on our first Catamount foray.  This house is on the 1858 map , but not on the 1871 "beers" map. It was worth 2 trips! The house foundation sits on a rise just a few hundred feet southeast of a shallow pond. As soon as we crested the rise, voila! -  a deep cellarhole with cast iron stove remains. This cellar was about 16x20.  The nearby stone remains , including a brick pile about 20' north, suggest a very large house., maybe 4 times the cellar footprint. In the above picture I am standing at the approximate western edge of the house's foundation. Below you can see a large swale - maybe 3 acres - just to the east. Beyond the cellarhole to the north you can make out some more stonework.  Possibly where a barn stood. More pics to come. I am standing in th...

 Pictures of two old House Sites on Catamount Hill in Colrain. Off in the woods of western Mass there are lots of abandoned roads with old house foundations Colrain has "Catamount Hill" with several miles of old roads. On April 20 2034 Sarah and I found two nice sites. East Catamount Road ends, for cars, at the old "G. Cary" house  sites.  i s the      Just before the turn-around , on the left in this picture, is the  "G. Cary" site seen on the 1858 & 1871 maps (1858 map seen above.) I don't know much about this farm, but the foundations are large,     Maps tell us that buildings on these two Cary sites may have been  standing into the 1970s.  Two dots appear on the 1945 and 1961 and 1977  USGS maps.  The "Tolman" map excerpt is taken from the Davenport "Puzzle of Catamount Hill" booklet. Just past the two Cary foundations, the town has a turn-arouns, where we parked my truck. The steel gate is not locked. Nevertheles...