Learning to Read the Landscape

There is a wealth of information buried throughout the town's records, as there is in the land itself. An almost at random decision to try to locate the site of a mill shown on the 1853 map of Woodbury in the Town Clerk's office led me to this site that with its stone work hints of a possible former industrial use. The 1853 map says merely "mill". A search through the land records suggests that perhaps Wait Leavenworth owned this mill in 1853. Unanswered so far are the questions of what was being milled here? Who ran the mill? How long was it in operation? When did it stop, and when were the buildings supporting it torn down?

As we progress through the history process, we have to learn how to read the landscape and decipher the tantilizing clues scattered throughout the woods. Was this apparent ditch a sluice serving the mill operation? As we discover more about this site and how it was used, I will provide updates. We are using it as a test site for learning how to use a combination of the physical sites and documentary evidence to uncover the Hidden Industrial History of our little corner of paradise.

The larger questions we will be asking of the landscape are questions about how human activity has altered the flow and nature of the water in our area. What have those changes meant? To our modern eyes, the landscape has a changeless quality to it with its rocks and trees. One doesn't have to go far from the center of town to feel removed from modern traffic and concerns. But the uses to which the land was put in the past may prove to have significant implications for us in the present. What impact do those activities of the distant past have on erosion, or water quality, or even water quantity today? How do we use the past to learn how to be good stewards of the natural resources we have today? If we learn that there were a small myriad of dams throughout our area, will we also learn that we have gained - or lost - in the process?