Hello from the Stone Farm!

50 people turned out for our last Hike of the Month of 2015 to the historic Stone Farm and the geographic Center of New England. The stake and flag mark the spot!

We are excited that the Stone Farm has been selected by the Land and Community Heritage investment program and a number of other conservation organizations for financial support to protect it from future development with a permanent conservation easement.

For more information on the Stone Farm and how you can help support the conservation campaign to keep it's 200+ acres available for farming and forestry click here.

The Last Wonder

Our final hike celebrating Dunbarton’s 250th anniversary will be to the historic Stone farm on Saturday, December 19.

We have few recent claims to fame in Dunbarton. However, in 2006, Boston University’s Center for Geography and the Environment calculated that the Center of New England lies in our town. Who knew!

The Boston Globe subsequently published an article about this discovery, revealing that the Center of New England, situated at 43.117199 degrees latitude and -71.593498 degrees longitude, sits at the intersection of Stone and Guinea Roads on the Stone farm.
 
Stonehurst, as it is called, was the last working dairy farm in Dunbarton. During our excursion we’ll view some of the most impressive old stone foundations in town, including the remains of an 18th century tavern that was once a stopover on the road from Canada to Manchester and Boston.  
 
The tavern keeper's daughter, Mary Beard, married James Stone of Henniker.  They settled next door to her father in 1809. It was their son who built the farmhouse where Judy and Jim Stone more than 150 years later raised their two children on a dairy farm.  
 
Today, the fields are leased for hay and the woods are managed for timber and other wood products.  We'll hear some of the stories those fields and woods have to tell about the property's history.
 
An effort is underway to conserve this remarkable 200+ acre piece of our agricultural roots and heritage and we’ll give an update on that as well.
 
Meet at 10 a.m. Dress warmly. We'll be mostly on roads but will do some bushwhacking so wear appropriate footgear. Approximately 2 hours. Please park on the side of Guinea Road.

Note: The southern end of Guinea Rd. is an unmaintained dirt road. It is advisable to drive to the Stone farm from Grapevine Rd.

For more information contact hike leader Margaret Watkins.

On a clear day you can see forever

Among the Wonders of Dunbarton are the outstanding vistas from our hills. As the poem below attests, you can see most of New Hampshire from atop our small town.

From Mill's Hill on Route 13 looking north on a clear day one can see all the way to the Franconia Range and Mt. Washington in the White Mountains. Mounts Kearsarge, Sunapee, Ragged and many others are regularly on display as well.
 
From Burnham Hill to the south, the Uncanoonucs, Joe English Hill, Mt. Monadnock and Crotched Mountain are prominently visible.
 
Join us Saturday, November 21 at 10 a.m. at Sowle’s Christmas Tree Farm on Route 13 (132 Stark Highway North) for a guided of the view north. In addition, Conservation Commission member Stan Sowle has offered to give us a quick tour of his Christmas tree farm (trees not on sale until Nov. 23). If time allows we’ll later take in the view from Burnham Hill.
 
If you have binoculars, you may want to bring them along.
 

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From Dunbarton

by Eleanor Vinton
(Former Poet Laureate of New Hampshire) 1974
 
These are the mountains from Dunbarton Hill,
The curving Uncanoonoonucs to the south
In Goffstown, where the mountain laurel thrives,
Joe English, in New Boston bears the name
Of an Indian guide whose kindness to the whites
Cost him his life. Monadnocks, Pack and Grand,
You feel McDowell’s music in their shade.
There’s Crotched, now grown famous as the place
Where lame may learn to walk and deaf to hear.
Look to the west, there is Mount Sunapee.
In August, artists, craftsmen gather there.
Kearsarge, landmark of Potter Place and Warner,
A place for picnics and wild blueberries.
There’s Ragged where the skiers congregate.
Now look far off, Cardigan, Moosilauke;
There’s Lafayette, Garfield, the Sandwich Range,
Tripyramid and Whiteface. Farther north,
The tallest one of all, Mount Washington.
Cog railway’s there, and Tuckerman’s Ravine
Where you can ski in June, if you can climb.
Now look for Passaconway, Paugus, Moat, Chocorua, the legendary peak,
Mount Ossipee, the Belknaps. You can see
Most of New Hampshire from Dunbarton Hill.