Last week I wrote about Bob Turco and antler shed hunters. Vermonters have always felt a strong gravitational pull to the natural world. This is why we collect stuff.
Driftwood is something we have all picked up or admired as we walk the beach or riverbanks. There are a small number of driftwood hunters today. They’re still around, but they keep a low profile. I used to see them at flea markets. Some have a better eye.
These driftwood hunters know when to walk the Connecticut River. After spring runoff, once ice is out and the river returns back to its original level, is a good time to look. They find all kinds of driftwood. It could be a weathered, pressure-treated board, showing interesting, elongated grain. It could also just be a branch or root that took its form from years of tumbling and drifting.
Each piece is to be judged by the eye of the beholder. Some hunters have a better eye. The photo with this article is a piece of driftwood I bought from a driftwood hunter years ago. We both saw what could only be a walleye. It’s about 25 inches long, and weighs almost nothing. One passerby, not knowing it was driftwood, commented, “What a beautiful sculpture.”
We all live here. If we slow down and open our eyes, we will see such natural wonders all around us.
Wasp nests
Another thing many of us collect is wasp nests. You might find one hanging from a branch in your backyard, or maybe in the woods. They can be quite large. I have seen them 16 inches high and 10 or 12 inches in diameter. Make sure there are no current inhabitants.
Stone structures and Indian arrowheads
Another strong magnetic pull for Vermonters is the earth itself. Since the earliest introduction of Europeans to Native American culture, the white man was aware that he was not the first to inhabit this area.
Many interesting stone structures were encountered by colonists. Today you can still find these Native American structures in Andover and Mount Holly.
We’ve always picked up Indian arrowheads whenever we found them.
Today, on Route 103 out of the Stone Village, on the left is what I call “the Merrill Stevens barn.” This barn belongs to the Town of Chester Water Department. This is where the solar farm is today. We have at the historical society a collection of arrowheads found at this site by Merrill Stevens.
In those days a plow was drawn by horse or oxen. The plowman walked behind the draft animal, holding the wooden handles of the plow. From this vantage point and speed, the plowman would notice an arrowhead as it was turned over, stop the team, and bend over to put it in his pocket. We have his collection of arrowheads at the historical society. Some arrowheads from his collection date back 8,000 years.
Archaeologists have documented arrowheads and other finds from this site. For thousands of years, this area was a camping ground for Native Americans travelling to the fishing grounds in Bellows Falls. They came from northern New York, Canada, New Hampshire, and Maine. Many of these arrowheads are made of a stone that does not exist here.
Burl
Burl is another natural wonder. It was in the antiques business where I learned about Native American burl bowls and dippers. They could be worth thousands of dollars in the 1980s. Burl is a growth or wart on a tree, usually maple, ash, or cherry. Its grain remains unequalled. Again, there were a few Vermonters who recognized these objects needed to be saved.
This week’s old saying. “Frankly, Scarlet, I don’t give a damn.”