Abandoned Roads

I wanted to take a little time to explain how I determine what an old road was used for in the past. Some are easy, some may take a little bit of work. And like everything else in the exploration business some you can only guess. 

This picture is of a classic old road found in the woods. There is a stone wall on the left, and although you can't see it there is also one on the right. These walls were built for one of two reasons. First, they may have been used to keep livestock from wandering onto the road if they were grazing in the field. Second, they were used to keep livestock from wandering off the road while they were being driven to market.

This picture is of the same road but in a different location, here there are no walls. This means the walls in the first picture were probably to keep the livestock off of the road. If you walk along this road you will feel the surface is hard-packed. If you try to poke something into it, it will not go very far. This lets you know it was well-traveled. This means it was probably a town road and the town would maintain it. If you look at an old map of the area it will have a name. 

This picture shows an old turnpike. Turnpikes were built by private companies and users were charged a toll. They were of uniform width and, especially in Massachusetts, they were as straight as possible. The idea at the time was the shortest distance between two points was a straight line. It didn't matter if there were hills in the way, they would climb them. Sometimes the horses pulling loaded wagons would not make it. This picture is of an unused portion of the Worcester-Stafford Turnpike opened in 1829. There are not many original sections of these turnpikes as they were later used as main roads after the toll gates were removed. Stafford St. in Worcester MA is the original alignment of the Worcester-Stafford turnpike. Travel to the section called "Deadhorse Hill" and you will see what we mean by straight up.

This is another old road through some old farmland. This was not a main thoroughfare as far as I can tell. The stones in the center of the picture were used as a bridge over a small stream. This means it was used by the farmer to go from one field to another. These are commonly called cart roads. On many well-used old roads, you will see embankments on both sides. These were created when the roads were graded. A sled was pulled along the road pushing the road surface to the sides. Some of these can be quite deep.

This is a picture of a well-worn old road. It was a named town road and was a main route connecting two towns. It goes up the side of a hill and it needed constant maintenance. 

This is a picture of a very old stone arch bridge. This was also a town road. I do not know how old this bridge is but it has stood a long time. However, the last time I was there I noticed there was some logging/development taking place, and heavy equipment was using this bridge. I have yet to be back to see if the bridge still stands.

This concludes this little primer on some of the old roads you may come across during your explorations in the woods. In an upcoming post, I will explain how I find them. Until then, enjoy the outdoors and leave only footprints and take only pictures.