Whose Woods?

     Part of my hope in searching the deeds at the Sherman Town Hall Vaults was to understand how the dozens of fields enclosed by stone walls were used by 19th residents on Hardscrabble Road. Alas, the vague descriptions of the era, "a pile of stones," " a soft maple tree," combined with nature's changes to the landscape make this difficult.

     I wanted Marge Josephson, of the Naromi Land Trust, and Gloria Thorne, of the Sherman Historical Society to see this massive stone wall, located at the northern boundary of my father's old place. It may be the zig-zag wall that one of the deeds references. It is eight or ten feet wide, located perpendicular to a perennial wet section between two other fences, its purpose not clear.

     We walked the land which, when Hidden Hollow was subdivided by its new owners, was donated to the Naromi Land Trust. I'm glad that section, with other curious stone structures, possibly a sheep fold, is a conservation area.