March 16, 2021

Curious about birds returning to the North and hopeful to see and hear some Canda geese, Mary and I headed to the Great Meadows. The plan was to drive along the River Road, watching for geese who might have landed on the Connecticut River. And then spend some time enjoying the meadows.

On the way out of Putney, we spied a “happening” in the Basketville parking lot. We pulled over to check it out! Still a mystery but we suspect the fire department.

First a bit of background about The Great Meadows:

An Abenaki history copied from Brattleborowords.org web site.

‘Written history tells us that when the British first ventured up the Kwanitekw in the early 1700s, they found a glorious stand of yellow pine covering K’tsi Mskodak, the Great Meadows of Putney, Vermont.

George Sheldon’s History of Northfield (MA) recounts “The Indians had not burnt over the country above West River; and the meadows in Putney and vicinity were covered with a magnificent growth of yellow pines.”

“…the Abenakiak knew this place and its grove of trees well…this stalwart of the forest was called “pasaakw”—pah-sah-ah-kwah.”

— Rich Holschuh on the red pines of Putney Great Meadows

More Abenaki history can be found @ newworldencyclopedia.org

More early colonist/settlers history and Fort Putney can be found @ fortwiki.com

To find the Great Meadows entrance we looked for a stone marker for Fort Putney.

‘The marker is in the woods on the west side of South River Road at an intersection with an unmarked eastbound road that goes under the railroad tracks. The Great Meadow is not visible from River Road because of the railroad trackbed.’ (fortwiki.com)

We parked in the pull off near the stone arch railroad bridge.

Our passage to the meadows required wading through icey waters.

Once through . . . the beautiful, expansive, spacious view of the meadows.

‘This fertile floodplain, encompassing 500 acres of well-drained sandy loam, projects eastward toward New Hampshire nearly a mile, with the Connecticut River sweeping in a broad arc around its fertile expanse.’ (brattleborowords.org)