Settlers laid out roads, built houses and lived their lives. Over two hundred years later all that is left are the abandoned artifacts of that early life: their roads, their walls, their cellar holes and their scant records. Their pastures now largely reclaimed by the forest, cellar holes are a reminder of the families who worked, farmed, thrived, and struggled here before us. Their stone walls, roads, wells, and foundations offer a glimpse into a fascinating past and a dramatically changing landscape. Hear from a few folks who are studying cellar holes and old roads and who are taking a detailed look at the lives of our forebears. Hear about ways to protect these irreplaceable historic resources. Join us afterwards on a short nearby field trip where we'll take notes on a cellar hole or two and hear about the families who lived there. Bring a lunch.

When/Where:

Saturday, October 25, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Harris Center for Conservation Education in Hancock, NH.

Co-sponsored by:

The Harris Center
Historical Society of Cheshire County
N.H. Division of Historical Resources

Goals:

-- raise awareness of cellar holes as a historic resource
-- advance the notion of "study, not plunder" cellar holes and show why they are a valuable educational resource.
-- generate interest in research projects, including inventories or ongoing networking.

Speakers:

* Alan Rumrill, director of Historical Society of Cheshire County

* Dave Birchenough and Rick Church, researching roads and cellar holes in Nelson.

* Eric Aldrich, researching settlement and abandonment patterns of a hill-country farming commmunity and an African-American family that lived there.

* Lyme Historians - Lyme's inventory of cellar holes.

* Tanya Krajcik, N.H. Division of Historical Resources on encouraging research, protecting cellar holes, landowner concerns.

The forum will be followed by a brown bag lunch and short hike to a nearby cellar hole community in Hancock to demonstrate simple survey protocol and hear about a family who lived there.

For more information contact Eric Aldrich at ealdrich@tnc.org or Tanya Krajcik at tanya.krajcik@dcr.nh.gov