Going there is most of the fun!
Imagine seeing a whole troop of Swedish and
Finnish workers walking through here!
Go
for a walk in Rockport, and not only can you enjoy nature—you can also imagine
the scene from a century ago.
Look
at the forest trail in the picture above, and imagine scores of workers, mostly
Scandinavian, striding through the woods, lunch pails in hand, on their way to
put in a full day in the granite quarries.
You
can almost see them now--- throngs of
Swedes and Finns. Rockport gained
its name from all the granite on Cape Ann . From about 1820 on until after 1945, Scandinavian
immigrants came here, generation after generation, to do the back-breaking work
of blasting huge granite chunks from the quarries.
Pigeon
Cove, the northern part of Rockport, was where the Korpis, Seppalas, Carlsons,
Johnsons and Hautalas lived. They walked
through these woods to go to work in the quarries. Today, seventy years after most quarries
closed, you can still see little clues to the life they lived.
Men quarrying granite, 19th century. Photo
courtesy of Cape Ann
Historical Museum
The granite
these men quarried was carried on huge flatbeds pulled by oxen. They carried it down to a pier nearby and
hoisted it aboard barges which took the massive blocks down the coast to New York and Washington ,
where much of it is still in place in buildings there.
Flat Ledge Quarry in Rockport, with ocean in the distance.
It’s a peaceful scene now, but imagine that quarry empty of water, with men and
oxen across the wide bottom, removing the granite. In 1872 they built a railway to replace the
ox carts in moving the granite down to the seashore.
All those
Swedes and Finns, and some Norwegians and Danes, too, were a big change when
they joined the original collection of old Yankees in Rockport. Many families had worked in quarries back in
their home countries, and so the hard work of drilling and chipping and
hoisting was no surprise. Neither was
all the granite dust these men breathed in their 12-hour shifts.
The women,
and even some men in these families still have the traditional costumes of
home, and every June at the Summer Solstice they celebrate Midsommar (Swedish),
or Keskikesä (Finnish) or Midtsommer (Norwegian) or Midsommer (Danish) in
Millbrook Meadow and down at Spiran Hall, Scandinavian headquarters in
town.
In the old
country there are also bonfires, but in Rockport we wait until the Fourth of
July, when we have a large Fireman’s parade followed by a huge bonfire.
Finns, Swedes, Norwegians and a few
non-Scandinavians
join to celebrate Midsommar in our Millbrook
Meadow
If you come
here to Rockport, we have some great trails for jogging or walking, and for
cross-country skiing in the winter. Walk
right up Summit Avenue ,
very near the train station and you are soon at Pool’s Hill where you can take
one of several trails that lead you into dense woods for several miles,
traveling through Dogtown. Dogtown is
some 4000 acres of rock strewn watershed woodland, pocked with quarries,
between Rockport and Gloucester .
Three
hundred years ago, a few families of the most colorful sort lived in
Dogtown. [Read Anita Diamant’s novel, The Last Days of Dogtown for a fascinating
look back at those days. It’s fiction,
but the real history is about as quirky.]
Pool’s Hill, looking out over Rockport. The workers trooped
down this snowy path all winter. If the
snow got too deep, they had to take the tram.
Here are the remnants
of an old wooden derrick, held together with steel bands, with old cables still attached, left over from
the Nineteenth century.
A town with
several miles of Atlantic coastline also has some delightful trails that take
you right along the water’s edge on “The Atlantic Path”.
A river of boulders and rocks rolls down a hill in the woods
south of Rockport. This may be the result of the glaciers that covered Cape Ann 21,000 years ago.
This is Steel Derrick Quarry, a popular Rockport swimming
location. This is also a backup water
reservoir for the town.
This is the Atlantic Path—a narrow footpath
right along the tops of the cliffs.
The Personal Navigator offers these books
and papers:
Rockport
(MA) Anchor Number 4, Published Annually by the Rockport Board of Trade 1953 Rockport ,
MA Rockport ,
MA Massachusetts
Zeppelin-Weltfahrten
Vom ersten Luftschiff 1899 bis zu den Fahrten des L Z 127 "Graf
Zeppelin" 1932. Cigarette-picture album with 264 silver-bromide photos and
one metallic Weltflug-Gedenkmünze seal. [In German] 1933 Dresden , Germany London Bridge
Detroit,
MI: Souvenir of Detroit, Fully Illustrated, containing a sketch of Detroit's
History, Resources and Points of Interest 1891 Detroit, MI: Alvord & Co. History, attractions, including two
bicycle clubs; the Detroit Wheelmen welcome visiting wheelmen. Pictures of City Hall, Police Court, Police
Headquarters, High School, Cass Public School, Water Works, Detroit Museum of
Art, Michigan Central Depot, Bird's eye view of Central Market; Michigan
Avenue; many views of Woodward Avenue; Bagley Fountain, Detroit Opera House,
Belle Isle Park, many more. ~80 pp. 17 x 15 cm. Paper booklet, slight nick in
top left corner at spine, very good. (7341) $48.00. Travel
Contact me at scoulbourn1@verizon.net
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