-From the collection of Jeff Nugent
Martin Langeveld stands at the B&N marker on the MA/VT border near Pond Mountain in Satan's Kingdom wildlife management area.
I suppose that in some instances it's fitting to begin at the end (or almost end) of an adventure. So that is precisely where we begin, by posting in Martin Langeveld's own words his description of what I had jokingly informed him was most probably in someone's living room by now.
"The boundary markers were placed by the state of Massachusetts along the Vermont-Mass. line in 1896, wherever a major road or road intersected the border, but also at all the places where Mass. town lines touched the border. so this is the one where the Northfield/Bernardston border ends at the state line. It's about 3300feet east of the marker on Huckelhill road, in the middle of the woods. Norma Manning, Wayne Manning and I found it yesterday (6/15/2021) by following the markers from Huckelhill rd. along the north line of Satan's Kingdom wildlife management area in Massachusetts B&N obviously refers to Bernardston & Northfield. MSS=Massachusetts, 1869 is when the markers were erected. I don't know what the numbers mean but have an inquiry in to the eminent cartographer Jeff Nugent of Windham Regional Commission:- Martin Langeveld
Martin and I occasionally banter and or email back and forth about interesting thoughts and finds in and about Vernon. This of course, results in my curiosity being peaked, sometimes prompts me and Wayne to take extended road trips all within the borders of Vernon, sparks ideas for blogs and even once resulted in a guest blog on the
old names of brooks in Vernon by Martin himself.
It seems that Martin had taken a keen interest in the granite markers along the roads where Vernon meets Massachusetts when he noted that the one atop of Huckelhill road had become askew and the one on 142 had been knocked to the ground. Martin decided to track down the party responsible for setting the stones right again and in so doing (as Martin typically does) consulted with a variety of people, papers and both historical and current maps. He informed me twice about the status of this pursuit before advising me that one, two, perhaps three markers existed off road and might require a bit of bushwhacking and would we be willing to tag along on such an expedition.
While Martin did his scholarly thing, I nudged Wayne and suggested a road trip to find all of the possible ways into Vernon from Massachusetts. Wayne being like Martin wanted to check out maps, but I needed to put my foot to the ground so I promised Wayne ice cream.
Our first trip took us over Huckelhill to Bernardston via Burke Flat road,
We turned around and decided to go up Bald Mountain road which has a "Dead End" sign posted but not a private road posting. This is a fun road to traverse and we discovered back gates into Satan's Kingdom along the way. We drove until we came to a fork of sorts, one way was gated and I encouraged Wayne to try the one on the left. We soon realized that it was more of an ATV width trail and so backed on out of there. Seth later told me that if we were to walk the rest of that road we would find an airfield and a pond. Wayne subsequently found the airfield to be located near the Vernon Town Forest! That's a trip for another day.
On our second trip, I told Wayne that we needed a snack from the dollar store in Bernardston. I asked him to stop at every place near the border that looked as though it could be a pull off, an old road or trail. On the way back we took W. road which cuts over to Hucklehill. We found that road to be fun as well and to add to the excitement there was a sign advising us to drive at our own risk! Never mind that we were batting zero in locating possible markers, we were adventuring!
We also found a possible entry point from which to find Martin's marker. There is a pull off on the left headed south, between the Hucklehill marker and the beaver ponds.
Wayne and I were comfortably doing nothing one afternoon when I suggested that we needed to take a photograph of each of the markers that we already knew the location of:
Guilford on Rt 5 Near Gains Farm.
Hucklehill road
Scott road. Some of the markers have both VT on one side and MA on the opposite.
and Rt 142's marker is laying on the ground near where it once stood
Martin asked that I mention, " that I've (Martin) been in touch with some state highway people who are supposed to work with their counterparts in Massachusetts to periodically inspect and maintain these monuments, and that I'm (Martin) hoping they can make some progress on repairing the broken one on 142 (just off the church driveway), and the pushed-over-by-plows one on Hucklehill Road."
I should also mention that Wayne and I spent a good deal of time attempting to locate the markers east of Rt 142 which we think are located at the train tracks or a former location of train tracks in the woods, and in a field. The land is posted so we did not pursue those any further. Martin has included a link to an article on the tri state marker located in the Connecticut River and known as The Mud Turtle which I will add at the end of this post.
Enough already, let's go for a hike! The hike in to the marker took a bit over an hour but it took less than an hour to hike back out. With the recent storms, the ground was soft with three to six inches of organic matter covering rocks. It's best to wear shoes that support your ankles on this one and I used a single trekking pole as well. Expect to go up and down for the duration of the hike. Using the yellow diamond management area boundary blazes and pink surveying tape, it was easy to stay the course. Poison ivy is present as are plenty of sticks and a few downed trees. We came across two dry brooks, so be aware that they could be flowing if hiking during wet seasons.
The Crepe Myrtle was in bloom
Having researched the maps, calculating the distance and using a directional on his phone, Martin lead the way.
I'm not making excuses or anything, but I did work a full day prior to going on this hike and those guys seemed overly eager to find those blazes while I prefer to stop and touch the mosses.
Hello? Wayne?
Did anyone else notice this eft?
or this tussock moth? (thanks Kirk for identifying it)
Hey, there is plenty of deer scat around here!
I think this is a fawn's! (ok so I asked Helen about it being smaller)
Guys? Guys? Maybe they took this random ATV trail.
I'm kidding of course, they pretended to look for blazes while waiting for me to catch up. Martin even directed my attention to the Chestnut Oaks in the area.
We were rewarded by a sweet view
We came upon a concentration of blazes, a survey stake and a road that headed deeper into the wildlife management area. We however, continued along the border.
I told Seth who worked on the State Line Trail located in the Vernon Town Forest about the survey stakes. Seth explained that the original granite markers may not be exactly at the correct point. He said modern surveys are more accurate and that surveying had been taking place up there. Martin speculated however that these are private property owner stakes.
It wasn't too much further up the slope that we spotted the marker
Celebratory pictures! This B&N marker had nothing on the VT facing side of the stone.
I can't thank Martin enough for including Wayne and I on his quest. I highly recommend that this summer families adventure out to find these markers and learn about the history of setting the VT, MA and NH state borders. I won't go into detail about it now other than to mention that historically, Vernon has been a part of NH, MA, NY and VT!* - Norma Manning
Further reading:
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