INTRODUCTION:
Part
1:
Nearly
a decade ago while wandering in the woodlands on the hillside above the
current-day Maplewood Golf Course complex in Bethlehem, NH, I discovered the
structure shown in the photo below.
Over
the years, I occasionally thought about this discovery. However, I never aggressively tried to find
it again since I didn’t have my GPS with me at time of the initial sighting,
and was therefore uncertain as to the precise location of the structure. But recently, I’ve developed an interest in
LiDAR imagery. By using that technology
I was able to locate the structure, obtain its GPS coordinates, and then easily
navigate to it.
Shown
below is a LiDAR image with a red arrow pointing to the structure that was shown
above in the first photo.
Located
near to the structure shown above, was the old Maplewood Hotel, which was in existence from 1876 to 1963 when it was
destroyed by fire. Shown below
is an old photo of this grand hotel during its glory days.
It’s possible that
the structure I found might be the remains of a reservoir associated with the
old Maplewood Hotel. There are two pieces of evidence to support this notion, as shown in
the two images shown below.
_ The FIRST
image is an old map from 1890 that shows a reservoir located at a spot that
closely coincides with the location of the structure that I found.
_ The SECOND image is a clipping from an article
on page 12 of the 28-Jun-1879 edition of the White Mountain Echo. In the last sentence of this article,
mention is made of the “extensive
reservoirs on the adjoining hills”.
Part
2:
And as
bonus, there was an unexpected “Part 2” to my recent wanderings and
re-discovery of the structure described above!
Once upon a time, there was a popular hiking destination located on the
hillside above the old Maplewood Hotel.
It was called Cruft’s Ledge and it provided magnificent views of the
Presidential, Twin, and Franconia mountain ranges. I have searched for this spot on several
occasions, but never found it. I had
hopes that LiDAR data might be useful in locating this spot. But
once again, no luck! HOWEVER, during my
search, I unexpectedly came across an old logging cut that provided a view of
the Presidential Range that is seen in the photo below.
~ THE
END ~
