3 August 2023 to 14 August 2023 - East Wareham MA to Concord MA
Part 1 - Concord, Lexington and Salem
It was a short 80 miles or so to the hotel that will be our home while we visit the Boston area. As is typical with large cities, close campgrounds are scarce. So, we found a hotel that has a big enough parking lot to allow us to park our trailer and here we are. Discovered, after the fact, that there is a medium security prison for men just across the marshy land from the hotel. A bit disconcerting.
I will be doing a few posts for this area because of all the places we are visiting. First up is Concord, Lexington and Salem.
We visited the Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord. You can walk the old North Bridge and follow the Battle Road Trail that marks the path the British took in going to Concord/Lexington and in retreating to Boston.
The North Bridge is where the colonist militias and the British military squared off in Concord. While there is debate between the towns of Lexington and Concord on which town fired the first shot, this is the area where the first skirmish occurred. Several people were killed on both sides and the British withdrew in confusion (they never expected to be fired on by British subjects.) They were set upon by more arriving colonist militias as they marched the road back to Boston. The obelisk was erected in 1836 to document the event. The Brits were assembled at the site of the obelisk, the colonists on the other end of the bridge.
This is a 1956 approximate replica of the 1760 bridge. The original bridge was disassembled several years after the Revolution.
This is the field near the bridge where the colonists gathered in the early morning hours. It was powerful to stand in the same spot where actions occurred that sparked the creation of my country. It must have been so very difficult for these colonists to rise up against such a formidable foe as the British army.
The North Bridge crosses over the Concord River. So placid, it is difficult to discern any movement at all.
The Minute Man statue commemorates the actions of the colonists. It was cast from melted down Civil War cannons and has become the symbol of the United States National Guard (Salem was the founding town of the Guard.)
The plow points out that the Minute Man was not a professional soldier, but was a farmer, minimally trained and equipped with the barest of fighting weapons.
Three British soldiers were killed at North Bridge. One of them (unknown which one), is buried here.
The British soldiers had come to Concord to take the artillery and weapons that the colonists had collected in anticipation of a potential uprising. Among the weapons were four cannons, but Paul Revere's and other warnings had given Concord enough advanced notice, so they were able to remove the artillery and weapons and hide them elsewhere. When the British arrived, they found nothing. This is one of the four original cannons.
A typical British soldier uniform during the Revolutionary time.
The North Visitor Center that held the cannon and uniforms was the home of a descendant of Major John Buttrick, the colonial officer that ordered his men to fire on the British soldiers. The gardens have been preserved and are beautiful.
Within view of the North Bridge is the house known as the Old Manse. It was built for the grandfather of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The grandfather and his family viewed the events of April 19, 1775, from their upstairs windows of their house. Ralph Waldo Emerson lived here starting in 1834, where he spent time writing works that formed the basis of the transcendentalist movement. Nathaniel Hawthorne rented the house and lived here as a newlywed. Henry David Thoreau, who lived at Walden Pond during this time period, created a vegetable garden for them. This place was a magnet for some of America's greatest writers.
A view from the North Bridge of the boathouse of the Old Manse.
Lexington Square Green has several commemorative statues of the Revolutionary War.
This is the oldest stone monument in the country. Dedicated to the Lexington residents who lost their lives on 19 April, 1775.
Remember the "One if by land, two if by sea" midnight ride of Paul Revere? It ended here, between Lexington and Concord. Paul was captured by two British soldiers, but he was able to divert the soldiers, so they didn't capture the other two men that were riding with him. So, these two continued going from house to house to sound the alarm. The three men's actions gave the colonists enough time to move the stored arms to other places and thwart the British attempt to confiscate them. Revere was later released and returned to Boston.
Another literary giant, Louisa May Alcott, lived in her family home, the Orchard House, for 25 years. It was here that she wrote Little Women.
Lousia's father was not a good provider for his family, and it was Louisa's work that kept the family from a life of poverty. Her parents were transcendentalists and she was raised in the company of the intellectuals of the day.
Many beautiful colonial and victorian homes are in Lexington and Concord. This is an example of a large Victorian home.
A view of Walden's Pond. Larger than I expected. Just to the right, out of the picture, is a beach crammed with sunbathers.
One of our first sights of old Salem was this memorial to people who had been buried in the Episcopal Church. The graveyard is apparently gone.
We didn't have time to visit the harbor area, but Salem was well known for its maritime industry. This is a beautiful model of one of the ships that called Salem home.
There are only four existing buildings that are dated back to 1692, the time of the witchcraft trails. This home is known as the Witch house. While no "witches" lived here, the owner was one of the judges who "tested" and forced confessions, as well as oversaw the hangings.
The Salem Witch Museum portrayed the events of the witchcraft trials via very poorly done mannequin figures and tableaus. But the recorded narrative was excellent. It presented context and history leading to the events of 1692 and asked questions about whether witchcraft existed today. It ended up with the formula "Fear" plus "Trigger" equals "Scapegoat" as why the witch trials occurred, and provided other modern examples including, Japan + Pearl Harbor = Japanese American Internment, Infection + Aids = Persecution of Gay Community.
One of the people who was found guilty refused to confess and, instead of hanging, was crushed to death. Humans are so cruel.
This is a statue of Roger Conant, one of the founders of Salem (in 1626, just 6 years after Plymouth.)
Paul Revere and his sons crafted this bell.
The memorial park is dedicated to those who lost their lives in 1692 because of false charges of witchcraft.
The Charter Street Cemetery was established in 1637. We saw tombstones from the 1600s into the 1800s. Many of the judges, accusers and victims of the witchcraft trials are buried here.
Some very prominent figures are also buried here, including Bradstreet, the last governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
One of the original Pilgrims is buried here.
This home was one of the four remaining homes that dates back to the 1600s. At some point in time, it had been remuddled into a Victorian home and its history was lost. Now it has been restored to its original state. Several of the structural beams are original.
I was taken aback by the audacity of someone painting these tree trunks blue! What a defacing of nature! Then I read that this was an artwork on environmental issues and the paint was eco-friendly and non-harmful to the trees. Of course, in my skeptical mood, I told Russ one might return 10 years from now only to find the trees withering and a note stating that the paint hadn't actually been eco-friendly after all.
