March 2012 Newsletter

The Northern Rail Trail Newsletter Spring 2012

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WHERE ARE THE MILE MARKERS?   

Where did the historic granite mile markers go? It’s been a mystery ever since volunteers began work to convert the abandoned corridor to a trail in the mid-1990s. And we forgot about them, until we learned that Merrimack County had almost all of theirs in situ. Now, though,with the Northern Rail Trail mostly complete for 24 miles from Lebanon into Danbury in Merrimack County, FNRT is bound and determined to and and restore them, if we can. Here’s what we know: one post remains, overlooked in remote Grafton near the Danbury town line. All twenty-three between there and downtown Lebanon disappeared. If the mile markers are missing from one county, but not the other, it doesn’t make sense that the B&M RR salvors took them. Each post weighs more than a thousand pounds, so that whoever appropriated them was equipped with both a powerful machine to lift them and a good-sized truck to haul them away. Given that, it appears that abutors didn’t collect the posts as souvenirs either, but rather that an experienced crew pulled them up wholesale for whatever reason.The mile markers were and are State property. Two posts have been located on private property in Lebanon, where they are being used as house numbers. Their guardians have generously offered to return them to the trail this season. In the meantime, we continue to follow rumors and leads as to where the others mightbe.Got any ideas? Contact us at mail@northernrialtrail.orgIf the originals are not found, FNRT will initiate an Adopt-a-Mile Marker program later this year.

MILE MARKER RESTORATION IN MERRIMACK COUNTY   Ed Hiller, mile marker restorer extraordinaire, is pretty sure

the granite posts came from the Swenson quarry in Concord.                           

“The old Northern Line erected them, not the B&M, to note

the distance between Concord and White River Jct. The old

C for Concord underneath the B for Boston seems to prove

that,” he says. Just as interesting, when the B&M absorbed

the Northern in 1888 the posts were moved to accommo-date

distances to and from Boston, rather than to and from

Concord. He figures the twelve-by-twelve inch, seven-foot

long steles were hauled three-tenths of a mile south of their

original mid-Nineteenth century location.

Friends of the Northern Rail Trail, Grafton County, Box 206, Enfield, N.H. 03748Ed Hiller repainting mile marker in East AndoverTRAIL

FUNDING EVAPORATES   www.northernrailtrail.orgIf budget cutters in Congress have their way, nearly all funding for trails will be eliminated from the next trans-portation authorization bill. Both Recreational Trail Grants, which provided 98% of the money needed to build the Northern Rail Trail, and Enhancement Grants, the big daddy of local funding across the U.S., are – at the time of this writing – to be zeroed out. Over the years the small – $30,000 max. - RecTrail grants have been of tremendous aid to regional snowmobile clubs, as well as non-motorized trails groups. Our most recent use ofRTP funds ($5400 in Sept. ‘11) resurfaced and improved drainage in a half-mile of trail in Enfield village. There were to be RTP grants in 2012, but a Transportation Dept. audit determined that too much money had been given out in previous years in error, resulting in ‘12 funds being sequestered. (Except for N.H., which had been underfunded by $600,000. Don’t get excited, NHDOT will allocate the money to general purposes, not trails.)On the big money side, last summer FNRT,Merrimack County used a $300,000+ Enhancement Grant to make the eight-mile connection from Potter Place to the Danbury town garage, essentially connecting the two rede-veloped portions of the Northern corridor into the longest rail trail in the state. All we can say now about fund-ing is that thankfully conversion work began in 1996 and that we had volunteers with get up and go that made completion happen. Most of all we’re damn glad that we rebuilt those thirteen bridges in pressure-treated woodthe second time around!

PROGRESS ON THE MASCOMA RIVER GREENWAY  As they have for fifteen years, the rails in place west of APD Hospital continue to frustrate both the beginning of the MRG project and the completion of the Northern Rail Trail to its designated western terminus near Timken Aerospace. Threats to Federal funding that would likely finance the work darken the picture and, what’s worse, NHDOT now requires municipalities to shoulder almost total responsibility for maintaining the corridor. The City of Lebanon’s attorney has been negotiating with the state for months, but an agreement has not yetbeen reached. Compared to the management agreement for the trail east of downtown, the more “onerous” terms now demanded by NHDOT suggest that the agency no longer considers that rail service will return tothe Northern corridor. (Oh, really…)WEBSITE

REFRESH FORWWW.NORTHERNRAILTRAIL.ORGFinally! James Chenoweth of Lebanon, you are our new hero. Better maps, better info, better email, better ev-erything, including QR capability. Trail users will be able to scan codes posted at entry points, with their HHDs taking them directly to the site. Check it out and send us a message. In addition, a volunteer at FNRT-MC created a universal site for the trail at: northernrailtrailofnh.orgThis one-pager allows a visitor to view the entire trail, then click on north or south for details.

GRAFFITI, TRASH & TREES – HELLO TRAILADOPTER!If you come upon graffiti on bridges, rocks, signage or wherever, as well as trash or downed trees, get in touch at mail@northernrailtrail.org so that we can attend to it. On balance, the trail is quite free of litter and vandal-ism, but FNRT sincerely welcomes any “Trail Adopter” – formal or informal – who will keep an eye on any section, however short.

The  Payne Road overpass, just west of the dam on Lake Mascoma, is one location in need of parenting, as is the area around the laundromat in Enfield. Go for it! And while we’re on the subject, THANKS to those un-known-to-us trail users and neighbors who have been tidying up the Northern for years.

Bridge railing replacement, Canaan, August, 2011. Dick Corr, of Enfield, Lead carpenter. Job funded by memberships.

WHO WE ARE

Dick Mackay, Hanover, Chair • Ken Warren, Lebanon, Trail Master • Earl Brady, Enfield • Will Hively, Canaan   Lonnie Larrow, Lebanon • Amelia Sereen, Lebanon • Linda Zoller-McKibbin, Enfield

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