The Quest to Locate Marker B&N

-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:

Martin's mentioned link to information on the tristate marker located in the Connecticut River known as the "Mud Turtle Monument."

*New England Historical Society, Six Places That Used to be Part of a Different State

Vernon, Vermont, History

I placed Mine on Conservation

 

After we left the Navy, and though Wayne had been a resident of Vermont for his entire life, we purchased our first home in NH as the lender wouldn't extend to us enough money to afford a home on the VT side of the river. We asked the realtor to find us a home with more land and less house and he found us a former hunting camp, turned year round house which frankly was ready to be torn down.  I had an immediate love affair with our little white and grey camp house that sat on just short of two acres of land and a whole lot of sand. 

It was a level parcel with a front yard full of stumps and each stump had a tire painted white on top of it. The backyard had more stumps, dilapidated sheds (one for parties), old car parts and the most beautiful American Beech tree I have ever seen.  The driveway was lined with massive Eastern White Pines that every year covered our roofs and the ground with a thick bed of needles.  The side lot was made up of Eastern Hemlock, oak, more pine trees and birch. Oh and there was some debate as to whether or not  our single car garage had been built over the property line of our neighbors 75 acers of mature woods. But a local builder who had once done some work on the neighbors house assured us that he had witnessed an agreement between the two parties that moved the property line less than a foot to the south in order to make the garage fully within our property. 

This is where Wayne and I went on to have three more children. Wayne went to work at VY and in his spare time, with he help of neighbors and family, he rebuilt our phoenix from the sill plate to the shingled roof. 

After many good years of building a life there, our neighbors put their house and property up for sale. Had I been smart about it, I would have asked to buy the lot to the side of our garage; but the thought hadn't crossed my mind as we had never had an issue and we couldn't even see their house from ours. New owners moved in and all seemed peaceful. 

One day a friend asked me if I had heard that my new neighbors had been approved to build a firewood operation. As abutters, I was surprised that the town hadn't officially notified us of the application and approval of the project. At first, I thought with 75 acres, it wasn't going to be much of an issue; but then other residents on the road began talking about the scale of the operation, logging trucks, dump trucks, buildings, a mill, and an access road. Finally one friend woke me up saying that this landowner planned on trucking logs into the operation which was to be built directly behind our house! The new owners apparently wanted to build their business the furthest they could from their own house. 

We inquired with the town and Wayne had a conversation with the neighbor about our area being zoned rural agricultural that ended with our neighbor threatening Wayne with a pig farm. Wayne said to him, "I don't believe that you are a pig farmer." To which he rebutted that our children would not be invited to his grandchild's birthday party and that our garage was on his property. 

Ironically, while living in Vernon years later, I won a piglet at the Winchester Pickle Festival which we raised and later gave to our nephew who owns a farm. 

I am going into great detail about this to help others understand the lengths to which neighbors will go to settle a disagreement and how having rules in place can settle an issue. We appealed to the town, who said that their hands were tied. That inquiry resulted in our neighbors clear cutting the massive pines all along our shared property lines. This caused our home to shake so violently that I thought it would come clear off of its foundation. I called the town which fined him a prescribed amount for logging without a permit. I should note that it was within his right to cut every other tree on the property line with a permit.

Having received his message loud and clear, I phoned a friend who was familiar with the ins and outs of municipal governing and they suggested that I write a letter to the NH State Attorney General's office. I received a call in short order and was told the following. When a municipality doesn't have zoning in place to address an issue, it defers to state regulations. That in of itself is a pretty powerful tool, but we were covered by zoning and the town had approved the project. The AG continued by informing me that under the state definition of rural agricultural zoning, a farm must produce more product than it processes. They notified the town that our neighbor's proposed business did not fall within the parameters of  the designated zoning. The town quickly rescinded its approval. 

At this juncture you are probably scratching your heads. Why I would tell a story about Hinsdale, NH?  Allow me to explain; many here in Vernon say that we have no zoning in town and so residents and land owners are free to do on their property as they wish. This is true to an extent, but I would argue that we do have a form of zoning in place. Perhaps the word zoning doesn't exactly apply; but please permit me some leniency on the topic. Vernon has a Farmland Conservation Commission and so we have land that will in the foreseeable future, remain as farmland. The Current Use Program is also in play for forested land. These programs limit development on conserved parcels.

We  have S2 (and a proposed S1) wetlands which carry with that state designation, restrictions on those wetlands including (among other things), a fifty foot buffer around them. Add to this species of concern and we might need an expert to explain all of the rules pertaining to working around them.

Our town is host to the Roaring Brook Wildlife Management area, a state owned wildlife management area that also has specific permitted uses and restrictions. This is in addition to the Fish and Wildlife owned and managed Hatchery Pond and our Municipal Town Forest, each with their own set of specific rules.

"Vermont law declares that lakes and ponds of the state and the lands lying beneath them are held in public trust for the benefit of all Vermonters."*  The Public Trust Doctrine further includes brooks, rivers and ground water. 

As any would be developer knows, The Natural Resource Board in Vermont oversees Act 250 permitting,  "reviewing and managing the environmental, social and fiscal consequences of major subdivisions and developments in Vermont"**

I only have a tea party knowledge of state zoning and other land use regulations in Vermont. Most of what I understand comes from personal interest in specific aspects of these rules. For example, after moving into Vernon and converting our dining room into a fourth bedroom, the state removed the burden of septic tank and leach field regulations from individual municipalities and now regulates all such systems in the state. If we ever were to replace our system, we would be required to upgrade to a four bedroom system or remove our fourth bedroom. Septic system approval (or not) limits land use.

I hope that I haven't lost you yet because here comes the big finale!

Vernon recently created a designated town center for which they consulted experts and residents to help with planning what the center might encompass in the future. Currently it includes farmland, municipal property, our school, businesses and private homes. Adjacent to this center is the Governor Hunt House recently acquired after considerable strategic planning by the volunteer group, Friends of Vernon Center. The house formerly affiliated with the Vermont Yankee site and gifted to this non-profit group, will become our community center. Grants were applied for and awarded for these projects and those accepting the grants must adhere to their stated use. 

Vernon has a selectboard appointed Planning Commission which is charged every eight years with producing the Vernon Town Plan . The next plan is due in 2026. It states right in the introduction that the plan is in part, "...designed to chart a course for development that will benefit future generations..."* 

I recently attended by public invitation, a strategic planning event hosted by the Planning Commission and held at the Vernon rec for the purposes of gaining insight from the public regarding the former Vermont Yankee site.  Most of the small group in attendance were officially involved with town business in one capacity or another. A few of us were just plain old residents. (The ball game across the street however was packed with spectators!) After a thorough presentation, we were given a sheet of stickers so that we could place a sticker on each of the ideas we thought should be pursued in the event that the town obtains the site in approximately six years. Two of the dots provided were a different color than the others and were to be placed on what we thought to be most important.

 I placed my two dots on Conservation & Abenaki. Why? Because aside from valuing conservation, I know that state and federal incentives exist for projects that include these sorts of things in their plans. Low income housing and solar fields also are incentivized and those were choices too. Of course it is possible that the town may choose to set up a Tax Increment Finance District (bonds) instead of pursuing grants, or it may choose to pass altogether on inserting itself into the future of the site.

People who serve on committees, show up to meetings and those who vote, are the ones who help to make decisions. Ordinances, rules and laws are in place because those who showed up, successfully negotiated to put them in place. 

Recently a resident expressed what I have heard from many over the years, they wish that Vernon had remained as a part of Hinsdale. They view NH as having more liberties than Vernon does. Because of my response, "you have options" may have on the surface seemed curt to others, I thought that I would dedicate today's blog to explaining myself. -Norma Manning

 Existing Land Use Town of Vernon VT, May 2018 

*Town Plan Vernon Vermont

**Natural Resources Board, Act 250 Program

And It Lives In The Connecticut River

 Working in kindergarten, my days are filled with gobs of imaginary play with all things princess, unicorns, friends and ballerinas. It's a lovely magical world where favorite colors range from purple to pink, to rainbow and every story involve ponies, kittens and puppies. Trust me when I say, we ran out of glittery stickers months ago.

It's also a world where my days are filled with sharks, snakes (so many snakes), dinosaurs, hot lava and space travel emergencies. It's a lovely adventurous world where favorite colors include orange. Every story involves wolves, spiders, chickens and Megalodons. Trust me when I say that my job description includes, "must be able to morph into a zombie upon request."

I get it, I really do. I spent years swimming with my toes curled up after watching the 1975 film JAWS; but I'm going to ask my readers to open up their minds to exploration much in the same way that a kindergartner does. I implore you to indulge yourself with curiosity and ignore your learned revulsion for the creepy, the mega and the crawly. 

Wayne and I spent time at the Vernon Dam fish ladder watching for fish thru the two rectangle cutouts in the cement bunker-like viewing area. Our first customer attached itself to the smooth glass, defying the rushing water's attempt to sweep it away. When it detached from the glass, it's face reminded me every bit of someone who forgot to put their teeth in. However, with its disk shaped mouth attached to glass or not, it still sported five circular rows of fish grabbing hooks. Let me tell you, those hooks appeared to get progressively bigger the longer I stared at them! In the center there were three serrated teeth which I later learned are attached to a "tongue-like cartilligous rod"  These teeth scrape the fish gaining access to its bodily fluids upon which it feeds. Did I mention that it also had a cute flowing mustache all around the outside of its mouth? Try to think about it like (albeit fleshy) whiskers on a kitten helping the sweet little kitten to feel it's way around. Oh, and they are also for helping its jawless mouth to suction onto fish and flat surfaces. 

How are we doing with that childlike curiosity? Would it be helpful if I told you that adult Sea Lampreys begin to loose their hooks and don't eat while in the Connecticut River?  They are here for only a short while, living off of their fat reserves on their way to tributaries to spawn. Once they lay their eggs in a shallow gravel nest, they perish. Lamprey larvae live in the river for as many as ten years as they casually make their way to the ocean. "These larvae burrow into the mud filtering out algae, small organisms and waste as food"  I suppose that I should have lead with this information. 

Two enchanting fish eyes, one on either side

 plus two parietal eyes that detect polarized light 

Seven gill slits on each side

Water pumping both in and out through the gill slits, allowing lamprey to remain attached and still take in water 

A poor swimmer with two dorsal fins and no pectoral fins.

The second dorsal merges with their anal fin. 

A boneless ancient fish

Living and feeding as adults in the Atlantic Ocean for two years

Returning to the river in late May and early June. Bringing within them, valuable trace elements from the ocean and depositing them into the river 

Making their way into brooks in which they spawn.  In death becoming food for mammals, insects and other fish,

A chance to glimpse 340 million years into the past.

as they climb up the Vernon fish ladder 

Suctioning themselves to one flat surface after another, never to return.

Sea Lamprey, a story older than the dinosaurs.  A story where our  native anadromous fish hero is mistaken for a related lake dwelling invader who makes fishermen squeamish. Persecuted by man due to an ugly face and imagined to be a snake, Sea Lamprey face threats by polluters, loss of tributaries and dams. Consumed by man and all manner of creature, our hero spends the entirety of its time in its river home functioning to the benefit of the river's ecosystem. Oh if only Sea Lamprey had glittery rainbow mermaid scales covering its long flowing body as it swam in the magical world of the Connecticut River!  - Norma Manning

Addendum: A reader questioned if there are any other migratory / anadromous fish in the Connecticut River besides the Sea Lamprey. What a great question! Shad, Salmon, Blueback Herring and Alewives are all anadromous fish found in the Connecticut River. I found this information on the Connecticut River Conservancy site.  This site states that we also host a catadromous fish the American Eel which is born in the ocean, matures in rivers and estuaries and then returns to the ocean to spawn and die.  

Resources and Further Reading:

1) Slideshare, External Anatomy of a Lamprey- Class Agnatha

2) Biodiversity, Labratory2: Fishes and Amphibians, The Jawless Fishes

3) Connecticut River Conservancy, Sea Lamprey: The Ancient Fish

4) Quizlet, Sea Lamprey

5) Canadian Rivers Institute, Sea Lamprey, Petromyzon Marinus

6) Connecticut DOE and Environmental Protection, Sea Lamprey (Petromyzon Marinus)- Anadromous

7) NIH National Library of Medicine, Feeding and Breathing in Lampreys

8) Wikipedia, Lamprey 

What The Hay?

 It all begins innocently enough, the stuff that fairy tails are made of really.  Birds take wing to the rolling hills of Vermont in hopes of finding that perfect match by calling out, "Cheerily, cheer up, Cheerily, cheer up" loosely translated as I am here my love, be happy! They become lovebirds if you will, and together they feather their nest in which to raise a brood or three. Young children everywhere are lifted up by adults so that they may peer in with wide eyes to count a clutch of Robin blue eggs and witness first hand the miracle of the birds and the bees - sigh.

I used to hand write an annual letter in the spring to Wayne's Gram Thelma, first from Florida and then from South Carolina in order to announce to her that the Robins had begun to make their way up to Bellows Falls.  After Gram's passing, a few of these letters were returned to me, reminding me of the hope that the first robin's of spring bring to all generations- double sigh. 

And so it was with eternal optimism that I requested of Wayne that he install our brand new outdoor carpet into our newly renovated gazebo. Wayne and I accomplished two big projects last summer, one was to scrub and paint our deck and the other was to scrape, prime, paint and finally put a new roof on the gazebo. Unbeknownst to me, one woman's gazebo is another's birdhouse. 

At first I assumed it was an innocent miscalculation and with a little redirection things would work out.

I removed the strands from the gazebo, thinking that the Robins would get the hint and move to the nearby tree. This only resulted in them becoming more determined.

Not to worry, they only thought that I meant move it over to above the door. I gave them a little more encouragement and they returned the favor in kind.

Wayne called from the road as I was drilling a pilot hole in a ceiling beam to install a hook. Though I had him on speaker, I was much too flustered to carry on a conversation about my plan of action. I retrieved my colander from the shed that I use to wash garden vegetables before bringing them into the house to wash again. I hung it from the hook and stuffed it with the grass I had gathered from the...well everywhere.

They began to bring in what appeared to be shredded lawn furniture, produce nets and strands of tarp. I'm not sure where they found them, but they even brought in cassette tape! The worst of it however, was when they deposited beak full after beak full of mud on the railings which promptly cemented onto and removed some of the fresh paint. 

Clearly an eviction notice was in order and as any observer can plainly see, these birds had options. Even so, I lugged out the old wood step ladder, placed the colander in the tree and filled it with their treasures. 

At last a compromise was struck, and all that I needed to do was sacrifice my rose bush.

Well this went on for some time and to the point that I thought that the poor creatures would die of nest building exhaustion. I waffled between wanting to remove their haystack, sympathy, and being curious about how all of this would end.

It was about this stage in nesting, when my daughter Helen dropped in to surprise me on Mother's day. Now Helen works in shore and seabird conservation and so I frequently use her as a resource for posts about birds. It was when Helen informed me that she had "never seen anything like it", took a picture and remarked, "It doesn't even have a nest cup yet" that I finally understood the breadth of revenge exacted by these angry birds. If revenge wasn't the reason for this Picasso in progress, than I honestly didn't know what the hay was going on here!

Hay is right, for while these birdbrains were still gleefully building, I came upon this broken robin's egg with a partially developed chick inside (sensibly) beneath a Horse Chestnut tree. While I took several pictures of the eggs contents, I won't post those here.

The discovery of the spoiled egg, was soon followed by the most beautiful pictures of perfectly rounded and cupped nests with bright blue eggs inside of them as posted by joyful birders on the Vernon VT Facebook group page. When the chicks arrived one by one, I cringed and graciously issued heart emojis to each and every one of those pictures. Tick tock, clearly either the rosebush robins or myself had been driven cuckoo! 

Fearing the former, I went in search of more traditional feathered friends and noticed a pair of Eastern Phoebes perching near our woodshed and making frequent flights into it. You can imagine my elation at discovering a perfectly dainty and cupped nest made from moss and mud in the rafters!

The Phoebe nest, being such a conforming and beautiful nest, I reasoned that I could blindly snap a picture and of course I could expect perfect results worthy of posting in the Vernon Facebook group.

"Helen, do you think it would be okay if I removed the cowbird eggs from the phoebe's nest?"  I argued my case to no avail when she informed me that Cowbirds are native birds and it would against the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. 

Brown Headed Cowbirds are brood parasites. They go around sneaking their speckled eggs into other birds nests, sometimes destroying or removing eggs already in the nest. Because they don't have to build nests or care for growing chicks, they can spend their free time laying more eggs. The rightful owners of the nest must feed (in this nest) two additional chicks which hatch sooner than their own chicks do. The poor nestmates must then compete for food with the much larger, faster growing cowbird chicks.* So much for perfect.

As I write this blog, the robin's nest measures in at 18x15x20 with no end to construction in sight.  So while my neighbors share chick pics, I arguably host the largest birdhouse in town. I already have a plan for next spring's nesting season. I'm going to locate the gazebo screens that I had Wayne take down when we first moved in and have him reinstall them (sigh). 

Oh, and to answer that age old question, "Is nest building innate or learned?" Even though I posted further reading arguing both sides, based on the mess in my gazebo, I'm guessing that the answer is learned. - Norma Manning

Further reading:

* The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Brown Headed Cowbird

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, American Robin Range Map

Journey North, Robin Life Cycle

Journey North, How to Build a Robin's Nest

Psychology Today, How Birds Nest

Audubon, The Migratory Bird Treaty Act Explained