How can you tell that this little patch of woods in the western end of Raccoon Creek State Park used to be somebody's home site? Daffodils. They're a telltale sign that a farmhouse used to stand here.
These are definitely "heirloom" daffodils. Look how dense and lacy they are compared to the ones that bloom in most modern yards. The state forced landowners off their property in order to establish this park in the 50s and 60s, and so you find the remains of old homesteads all through the forest. But this one is particularly odd.
This stretch of forest sits alongside an old road that is no longer open to vehicles, but it joins up with a public road nearby, at the edge of the park. Several years ago, while exploring this area, I noticed a hammock here in these trees. There was someone relaxing in the hammock, though I didn't approach to ask any questions. I couldn't tell the person's sex or age. And just today, on a fluke, I walked past here again, only to find this curious woodland shelter. It looks a little like Eeyore's house.
And just behind the shelter, in the same general area as the daffodils, there is an old water well. Note the backside of the shelter and the old road to the left in this photo, the well to the right.
Up the hill a very short distance, there are artifacts strewn outside an old foundation. Here you have a broken shard of pottery, a nicely fashioned bit of cast iron, and part of an old metal pail.
Here are the shallow remains of a long-ago cellar. But the interesting thing to me is the fact that someone keeps coming back here to spend time. Someone has built a little shelter in the old former front yard of the farmhouse. My guess is that it's the same person who sets up his or her hammock here in the summer.
There's nothing particularly beautiful or interesting about this little stretch of woods, so why would someone keep coming back here to spend hours at a time? My guess is that this was once his or her home...or maybe their grandparents' house. They come back here to feel close to the people who used to live on this land and work it. They come back here because it makes them feel connected to long-dead loved ones, and to the past, and to their own younger selves. This photo shows where the old lane leaves the park.
In fact, I found all kinds of ruins in the park today. Old CCC cabins that were intact several years ago are now demolished. Only the chimneys remain.
This is a different chimney, and you can see the foundation of the cabin laid out in stone in the foreground.
Even the interesting old stone cottage at the old mineral spring has been torn down. Just four years ago, I found it looking like this.
I did like the look of this old one-room cabin in Group Cabin Camp # 3. I'm even thinking about how to bring a group out here to occupy it...
No comments:
Post a Comment