February 13

Thinking about the stream that leads from Asnebumskit to Streeter Pond. This time of year is favorable to hike the lower woods, provided that the snow isn’t too deep. It is relatively easy to pick out the deer trails in the woods, with the lack of ground cover and obscuring tree leaf, plus the poison ivy that is a ubiquitous menace is at bay.

Follow the stream to Streeter Pond, and skirt the shoreline to the opposite side, where Grove Street elbows into Pond Street. Here, another stream outlet drops more insistently as the landscape falls into a miniature valley that descends toward Pine Hill Reservoir. Roughly 100 feet from Streeter Pond, the creek veers away slightly to the northwest, and there is the remnant of a trail alongside. Though I doubt that this trail receives more than a handful of curious hikers in the span of several years, if you follow it along for roughly 1/10 mile into the woods, there is evidence of a time when this area must have been quite active with human industry.

It took me a moment to realize what I was seeing, when I came upon a fairly large pit that was situated between where the trail had veered away from the stream and the water, which was flowing more quickly on account of a fairly modest drop in elevation. The pit was filled with about a foot of snow, perhaps less in those areas were the filtered sun could reach. The give away was the stone lining in the side walls, partially obscured by years of in growth from the surrounding vegetation. I suspected that this was at one time a foundation, and its location next to the stream strongly hinted at a potential mill.

Sure enough, just near the stream, not 25 yards away from the old foundation, was an unmistakable millstone, roughly 30 inches in diameter, sitting amongst other debris of the forest. The stone was badly covered in lichen and moss, and heaven knows how long it has sat there. What a curious find, seemingly so far from the center of our town, yet an important vestige of its settlement past. A 1961 booklet I obtained from the town’s Historical Society indicates that the old Pine Hill Farm operated no less than three mills on this creek site somewhere between 1755 and 1830.