A huge problem we had trying to meet with our archivist was actually meeting with an archivist, as well as getting access to information that would help us with the project. We were able to meet with reference librarians at the local public library and look at the information contained in the vault, however archive materials were limited (no surprise there).
There was also some issue with trying to explain exactly what we were doing as an overall project. It was difficult to explain how we would be using the information while we didn’t exactly know what it was we were looking for in the sites. Deciding which sites we wanted to look at was difficult as well, due to the fact that we were not sure what information was available to us. We tried to name a few locations, such as Mt. Greylock (tallest point in Massachusetts), however there was no information on that particular location.
We asked about Natural Bridge State Park, and there happened to be some information in the vault. There was mostly old information such as pamphlets which described the location, the trails around the location, and other small amounts of information. There was a few books but those did not contain much information, only some quick facts in the first ten or so pages, with the last thirty or so pages being completely blank.
Other options for this location include actually going to the location as well, as there are tours offered, so more information can be gathered through other means (not solely by archives).
Another location we thought of, however not until much later, is the Hoosac Tunnel (there are multiple spellings for this location including Hoosic, Hoosack, Hoosick, and probably a dozen more). The location itself is full of much history, lore, and even ghost stories, which adds some mystery to the entire area.
The location itself is a railroad tunnel, and seeing as North Adams is a hub for all things train, this seems like a really good idea to explore the archives. Although we haven’t seen the physical archive materials for this location as of yet, there is some online archives as well as a literal train museum which can no doubt help us.
Other locations we discussed included the following, with some of the reasoning behind it
- Mt. Greylock – Location of J.K. Rowling’s Ilvermorny School (American School for Wizardry). The tallest point in Massachusetts. A “fun” fact: Mt. Greylock is not actually a mountain, it is about 8 feet short of being considered an actual mountain.
- Natural Bridge State Park – Beautiful location with easy access and cool rocks! Access into the gorge possible to see the natural bridges from the bottom. Includes glacial striations (or ‘grooves’) – the tracks from glaciers moving!
- Harriman Dam, Whitingham, VT – “Morning glory” spill way, reservoir. Very cool looking! Although in VT it is about 40 minutes from us so we decided against this idea pretty quickly.
- The Bridge of Flowers – man made bridge which is covered in a flower garden. Self explanatory, however does not bloom fully till late spring/summer. (We’re definitely going anyway, even if we’re not writing about it!)
- Hoosac Tunnel / Railroad – North Adams is big for their railroad so my initial idea was just “railroad.” The Hoosac Tunnel became the focus at that point due to the fact that it is surrounded by so much lore/history/ghost stories/etc. The entire location is very interesting and also nearby, which is good. There will be a lot of information that we can gather about this location as well.
It will be interesting to discover more about the locations we have chosen, the Hoosac Tunnel and the Natural Bridges. Being in this area there is a lot of information that one just picks up simply from day-to-day conversation. It will be interesting to separate rumor and lore from truth that we will discover while conducting research into the areas.