markers

Finding something new amid the familiar

/ Ellen Kolb

How did I not see this before? It’s a granite marker along a trail crossing the New Hampshire-Massachusetts border, plain as day. Somehow, I had never seen this, even though I have walked this trail maybe a hundred times.

Granite marker on old railroad grade, etched with "D Mass 1894" to mark state line in Dunstable, Massachusetts
“D” for Dunstable…
Granite marker on old railroad grade, etched with "N N.H. 1894," marking state line at Nashua, New Hampshire.
and “N” for Nashua

I saw that there was a knocked-over lightweight fence nearby; had that concealed the marker all these years? Or have I just not been paying attention?

Years ago, I first saw markers like these along the Wapack Trail. I noticed that the letters referred to the town I was in as I looked at the marker, not the town I was about to enter. Having spent more time on interstate highways than on trails, this surprised me, but I’ve since gotten used to it. It’s remarkable to see these markers in such good shape after more than a century.

Anyone looking at my walking history can see that there are a few paths and parks to which I return again and again. There’s a sort of comfort and ease in being someplace familiar. This marker reminds me that it’s good to stay as alert on such trails as I am on new ones. Little delights abound, if I pay attention.

Markers here and there

/ Ellen Kolb

Making my way over North Mountain in Pawtuckaway State Park one day, I came across this, embedded in the granite.

pawtuckaway-marker-north-mtn

I had never come across one of these survey marks before, but have since learned that they’re pretty common. The National Geodetic Survey keeps an extensive database listing them.

I looked up the NGS data sheet for this Pawtuckaway marker – or “patuccawa”, as it’s engraved on the disk – and saw that there’s been some kind of marker at this location since at least 1851. The data sheet includes references to various landmarks visible from the marker’s location, but I think those references go back a few years. North Mountain is pretty thoroughly forested now. The fire tower on Pawtuckaway’s South Mountain is the place to go for long-range vistas.

The marker has a stern warning about a fine or imprisonment for “disturbing” it. It would take one seriously motivated vandal to disturb that thing, which seems to have been installed to last.

I could make a list from the NGS database of markers nearby, but I won’t bother. I have enough lists of places to see. I’ll let the markers surprise me.