People in Greenfield love their history.
On Thursday night at the Greenfield Historical Society, an overflow crowd came to hear longtime resident Bob Marshall share his research into Greenfield’s lost roads and cellar holes.
For the past several years, Bob has been exploring Greenfield’s abandoned roads and cellar holes, often accompanied by former Greenfield resident and photographer Ken Paulsen.
“Greenfield is a really special town,” Marshall said. “We have all these mountains for hiking on, we have so many lakes and ponds, we have beautiful views. It was a wonderful place to raise a family.”
Marshall started his research by reading “The History of Greenfield, 1791-1976,” by Doris Hopkins, and by “reading and re-reading the chapter on roads.”
Hopkins’ “History” contains multiple maps of Greenfield showing how the roads evolved over the years due to changing modes of transportation, shifting centers of population, and intervention by the state when state roads were created.
Marshall learned that nearly all of Greenfield used to be a part of Lyndeborough, which at that time had a long border with Peterborough. According to Marshall, when the first maps of the area were created, the mapmakers “slipped up,” failing to map a portion of town between Gulf Road and Mountain Road. The area was then called “the Lyndeborough Slip.”
The road that runs through that part of town is still called Slip Road.
Marshall learned the original road to Peterborough from Lyndeborough was a suitable road for oxen, but too steep for horses, and fell out of heavy use when horses became a more popular mode of transport.
“I guess everyone in Lyndeborough wanted to get to Peterborough,” Marshall said. “I’m not sure why.”
According to Marshall, Gulf Road created confusion for people not familiar with Greenfield’s roads. The road, named for the chasm which formed at the bottom of North Pack, ended up having two disconnected sections.
“We had to change that when I was on the Select Board, because of the 911 system,” Marshall said. “We would not want our firefighters or first responders going to the wrong section of Gulf Road.”
That part of the road is now called the “Gulf Road Extension.”
Marshall’s curiosity about Greenfield’s lost roads led him to the state archives in Nashua, where he learned about the Jewell Files, a WPA project that mapped every road in New Hampshire. Marshall also learned about the White Pine Blister Rust maps, which were part of a 50-year initiative to eliminate an invasive fungus that had the potential to wipe out white pines in the United States.
Marshall was surprised to find a personal connection to the White Pine Blister Rust maps.
“My dad was a schoolteacher, like me, and every summer, he worked ‘pulling gooseberries,'” Marshall said. “I never knew why he did that. But it turns out that gooseberries carry the white pine blister rust, so the government paid people to pull it out, every summer for years and years.”
Marshall also discovered the NH Stone Wall Mapper website, which has maps of every stone wall in the state and can be filtered to show manmade or geologic features.
“The stone walls are the best clue to find out where the old roads might have been. When there are two stone walls that parallel one another close together, you know there was a road there,” Marshall said.
Marshall and Paulsen also explored multiple cellar holes in the southern part of town, near Marshall’s home on Gulf Road.
“These cellar holes are all over the place,” Marshall said.
Marshall said he was only able to discover a photograph of one home before it was abandoned, the Savage Farm on Savage Road.
“Having the photograph of the actual house is really exciting, because we can match it to the cellar hole and see right where everything was,” Marshall said.
Marshall urged caution for anyone exploring cellar holes, as they can contain hazards.
“Every single one of these cellar holes, each one of these homes, they all had wells, and some of them had more than one well,” Marshall said. “They are often covered with leaves and you can’t see them, so any time you find a cellar hole, be very cautious. Don’t let children just go play in them until you find the well.’
Marshall also encouraged people to always ask permission to explore cellar holes if they are not sure whose land they are on.
“There is a whole lot out there to explore,” he said. “It’s pretty phenomenal.”