During the summer of 1981 a friend and I were sitting in a restaurant in Boston discussing our new just-out-of-college jobs. We talked about the misery of sitting in a cubicle 5 days a week and the prospect of spending the next 30 years behind a computer screen. As our conversation went on I realized I needed to find some way to make a living outside of the white collar world, and as I looked out the window near our table I saw the answer written in large letters on the window of a shop across the street: GOLD .

Let me say here that ... read blog and post your comments...

The maps and histories I write about here relate mostly to the United States and New England in particular, though the research and examples I post on this website can be applied to other parts of the country. The time frames, political boundaries and placenames are mostly colonial due to the fact that there are not a lot of written records available from pre-colonial times. In future articles I will write what I've learned about pre-colonial Native American's villages, forts and travel and trade routes.

Many towns in early America started with a good harbor if they were on the ocean, or a good stream if they were inland and the stream could support a mill. Many American towns were built on ancient Native American villages and many original travel routes were initially started by Native Americans. A flat, dry route to a good fishing spot on a river or lake isn't going to change much no matter who is using it. A south facing, level piece of ground near a source of fresh water is always going to be a desirable place to live. But towns and villages also began to be settled in areas of the countryside ... read blog and post your comments...

This is an old buried treasure lead I looked into a few years ago. The information comes from old maps, old diaries and newspaper articles. It took about a year's worth of research to put it together.

Craggy Gulch (not the actual name) is a shallow, rocky, 10 acre gorge located in a town in New England. This section of land is still in the woods today and has not been developed. The area around Craggy Gulch was last farmed in the 1890s.
In 1807 a village west of Boston needed a new steeple for their meeting hall. The townspeople donated their time and materials and built the steeple on the ground, and then had to find someone to place it on top of the meeting house. A resident was sent to the waterfront in Boston to hire some sailors and 'dock rats' to do the work. The resident returned with 5 men. All were young and fit except one. ... read blog and post your comments...

What's in a name?
You have a lead you want to track down. Maybe it is the name of a business where a distant relative once worked.
Maybe it is the name of an area which had a gold or silver mine you'd like to learn more about, or maybe you
have the name of an old school but have no idea where that school was located. Current on-line maps may help you
get started on some of your research if you look into the names on the maps.

If you are tracking down an old mine in a particular town you may still find Mine Brook or Mine Trail Road
on today's maps. If you know your relative worked at a foundry you may find street names like Foundry Rd or
Forge Road. The town you are researching ... read blog and post your comments...

Buried Towns

I've always been fascinated by local history. For me it is a form of time travel, and there's no better place to experience this feeling of time-travel than by exploring the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts.

The Quabbin Reservoir was built in the 1930s. It was created by flooding the Swift River Valley, a name given to this area by Europeans whom began settling here in the 1730s. In pre-colonial times a Native American chief named Quabbin lived in the valley. The name Quabbin means 'many waters'. ... read blog and post your comments...

Rail Trails, what a concept: smooth, safe bicycle riding with no steep hills.

We have thousands of miles of abandoned rail beds in the US. Most were built over a period of about 100 years, when railroads became the most efficient method of moving people and goods between places. Before railroads, waterways were the main transportation routes, using a combination of rivers, streams and canals. ... read blog and post your comments...

Everyone loves a story about Pirates and buried treasure.
Here is a story about Captain Kidd, written by Charles M. Skinner in 1896

KIDD'S TREASURE

Captain Kidd is the most ubiquitous gentleman in history. If his earnings in the gentle craft of piracy were frugally husbanded, he has possibly left some pots of money in holes in the ground between Key West and Halifax. The belief that large deposits of gold were made at... ... read blog and post your comments...

And another Buried Treasure story by Charles M. Skinner in 1896

OTHER BURIED WEALTH

The wealth of the Astors hardly exceeds the treasure that is supposed to be secreted here and there about the country, and thousands of dollars have been expended in dredging rivers and shallow seas, and in blasting caves and cellars.... ... read blog and post your comments...