April 2009 - The Legend Of Old Fifty Crooks

April 2009
I had recently gotten a copy of a new book that detailed some aspects of New Milford history that hadn't been written about before and was finding it interesting since I love history and especially when it is local history that I can feel more closely connected to. The book focused on the northern boundrys of New Milford and how there were laid out and surveyed in the mid 1700's. I know, it sounds a bit dry but between all the technical stuff was a lot of information about the people of the time period and how they lived and worked. There was one mention in the book that really struck a chord with me though. The survey team who was sent to make the northern boundry of New Milford were making their way from west to east across very rugged terrain making large piles of stones at predetermined intervals when they had to climb a mountain in what is known as the Merryall section of town. This mountain is known as "Rock Cobble". But the interesting notation that they made was that they came upon a stone house built on the side of the Rock Cobble mountain. Understand that this land was not privately owned at this time so whoever had built this house had done so without purchasing the land it was on! A colonial era squatter if you will. To make matters even more enticing it was said that a Dr Warner lived in this house and was known by a peculiar knickname, "Old Fifty Crooks". Hmmmm, an eccentric person hiding on land he didn't own who had a knickname that suggested he might have been a criminal. This had the making to be a really good treasure hunt!
I immediately started to wonder whether any traces of this old house could still be found. I looked at some maps and the area was still wooded and remarkabley remote. There is a swamp at the base of the mountain which hinders access from the most direct approach. Private land and very steep rocky terrain blocked other entry points. I kept driving around this area wondering just how the heck I was going to get in there. I realized that the only way I could get on that mountain was to approach it from the back side. This meant that I had to climb up very steep terrain and go over the peak and about halfway down the other side to the most likey area that house could have been erected.
There were a few puzzling aspects of this story that just didn't make sense to me. The most glaring of which is why a squatter would go through the trouble to build a house made of stone on land that he didn't own? That would be a huge undertaking only to have the possibility of having to leave if it was discovered he was there. It didn't seem very likely dispite how remote this area actually is and was. My guess was this: I think that the story had gotten changed over the years from people telling their own version of it just like when kids play the telephone game and each one changes the message just enough so that in the end the message is nothing like it started as. I think this house was just a wooden house, probably just a simple log cabin and because it was on Rock Cobble Mountain the story was changed to a rock house by someone who misunderstood or misheard whomever told it to them. That makes sense to me.
So one day I go off in search of the Rock Cobble house by hiking up the backside of the mountain. It's very steep but the terrain isn't too bad.

I notice some flat areas that had been dug out of the side of the mountain a very long time ago and it took me a few seconds to realize what these were. These were the bases of very old charcoal mounds. The hills of CT were thick with forest back in the colonial days but they were immediately harvested for their wood to make charcoal because the iron industry was booming in nearby towns. The wood was stacked and a smoldering fire was started inside that produced the charcoal and this of course had to be done on site where the wood was harvested...on the side of the mountain.
So I headed further up the mountain finally reaching the top with my lungs burning and my legs feeling like jello. There was a big stone wall on the top that immediately caught my eye. The land had been cleared at some point for fields. I started down the other side while asking myself where I would build a house. It wouldn't have been on the peak because it would have been exposed to the wind coming from the west. It would have been sheltered by the mountain down on the east side if possible. There didn't appear to be much level ground to build on but I walked toward the most level area I could find.

I could see water flowing out from the side of the mountain in the form of a small spring and thought to myself that the house would have been close to this. Water is essential and houses are always built near a water source so this spring would have been a prime factor in choosing where to build a house back in the 1700's. As I came upon the mouth of the spring I could see that some small stones had been placed around the spot where it flowed from the hilside. This raised my hopes of finding the house because here was proof that someone had once used this spring as a water source. I looked for a dry area that was level enough for a house and this led me to a spot about 100 feet away that looked promising.

At first I saw what I thought was a pile of dead trees that had fallen on top of each other but as I looked more closely I could see it was more than that. There were a few logs left from a log cabin that were cut and notched together to form the corner of this very old cabin. I could see the faint outline of the rest of the cabin too where all the logs had rotted away but left a slight hump from the debris deposited when the were completely decomposed. This was exciting! Could this be the Rock Cobble House? Could any trace of a log cabin really have survived that long in the elements? It was hard to say, I don't think it is impossible but it was probably very unlikey. There was only one way to find out. I had to use the metal detector in hopes of recovering something that I could attribute a date to. After about a hour of detecting, I was convinced that this wasn't the home of Old Fifty Crooks after all. I was finding late 19th century artifacts and nothing that I could have been made earlier. It was probably a mid to late 1800's hunting cabin and nothing more. The only notable find was a single penny that I found about 200 yards from the old cabin from the 1820's that was at the base of a large domed rock.. Exciting, but not proof of an earlier homestead like I had hoped. It was probably lost by a hunter who had been sitting on the rock when it fell out of his pocket.

So the legend of Old Fifty Crooks lives on. I may make another hike into the area at some point to check a few other places but I don't expect to find anything. If there ever was a rock house on that mountain it must have been completely disassembled with the stones ending up being used for stonewalls.

Sunday December 6th 2009

I had the idea for this blog a few months ago while making one of my frequent treks out into the woods but it wasn't until this morning when I was climbing a mountain in Kent CT that I really decided to do it. I'm not really sure what purpose this serves other than for me to share a little bit about myself but hopefully there are some of you that will read it and find some enjoyment because it may relate to your life as well.
I'm not going to get real deep into my emotions and bare it all here for the world to see. I think the messages will be more subtle than that. This is a blog about things that I find in the woods. There are many great things just out of eyesight from the roads that we all travel, probably more than you realize if your not the type that is inclined to do a little exploring. Sometimes they are well hidden and other times they will glare at you and say "what took you so long to find me?". I'm not going into this looking for specific types of things to share with you all. You are going to notice that I will usually make these explorations with my trusty metal detector in the hopes of finding the long lost treasure of ages past but that is certainly not all that I'm looking for. Sure, I want to find that old Mason jar full of gold coins that someone tucked into a special hiding place many moons ago but I will also have my eyes open for the strange and interesting naturally occurring wonders.
I'm going to just stop this introduction here because I'm not a writer or poet, my words aren't going to be enough. I need to show you what I find with pictures to help me tell the story. I hope you find something here that interests you but if you don't, it's OK too because in the end...I did it for me.

Sunday Dec 6th 2009
I woke today with the urge to go exploring. If you know me at all you also know that I have this underlying need to find stuff. This is my form of adventure. It carries over into my work as an antiques dealer and my chosen recreational activities such as metal detecting. I just like discovering things. So when I see a mountain, I tend to look at it and say "I wonder what's up there?".
That's exactly what prompted me to go explore this particular mountain in Kent CT this morning. I had been looking at it because it looked like a difficult climb. I figure that would be enough to deter 99% of the population from ever going up there so the likelihood that I may find something that most are not aware of is greater....at least in my mind.
Last night it snowed for the first time this year. It was only a dusting but when I was young I had a tradition that I would go hunting on the morning of the first snowfall every year. I never once shot anything on those hunts but it was never really about that anyway. One time I did see a family of Bobcats making their way across a steep rocky slope and I knew that this was something special that not people had ever seen before. It was things like that which kept me going back into the woods.
I drive out to Emory park in Kent which just happens to sit at the base of this mountain I want to climb.

This gave me a good spot to park where I wouldn't have to worry about getting towed or being on private property. I started into the woods carrying my metal detector in one hand and a small shovel in the other knowing full well that both of these are going to make this climb a lot more difficult. I think I was testing myself though. I wanted it to be hard today. So I started up toward what looked like the steepest area. There wasn't a lot of snow but the inch or so accumulation still made for very slippery and dangerous conditions. I almost immediately came upon a very rocky area that looked like it contained a lot of jumbled rock caves and hiding holes.

My first thoughts were that it looked like a great place for a bear to hibernate. Maybe this was because I saw a bear just a week or two ago which was the first time I had seen one in this area.
I made my way along the foot of these high cliffs and steep slopes until I saw a route that I thought I could manage going up. Just as I reached the foot of the area I wanted to ascend I noticed some large tracks in the snow. I'm not expert on animal tracks but given the size and shape of the tracks I figured that they had to be bear. So I felt my earlier concern was now justified. Here I had to make a decision, should I continue on my chosen path in the direction of the bear tracks or pick another route? Keep in mind that these tracks were made after the snow stopped falling which was only a few hours before this. Well, maybe it was due to some frustrations that I have been having in my personal life lately but I decided to ignore the potential dangers and continue on toward the bear. Probably not a smart move but I wanted an adventure today and the sense of danger made me feel alive. I moved cautiously pausing frequently to listen for any bears or angered animals that might give me a warning before I came too close to their home. In the difficult climbing, I lost the tracks but I could see a big overhang area with a flat spot that just looked like a place a bear would call home. I fought with myself for a couple minutes trying to decide if I should go right over there to that spot....and I did. I didn't find any bears but the adrenaline level was high and it felt good.
I pushed further up the mountain climbing the rocks which were covered with moss. Moss gets incredibly slippery when it is wet or frozen, this was a combination of both. I checked my cell phone to see if I had a signal (I did) so I knew that if I fell and was injured that I could make a call and hopefully be rescued, at least that's what i told myself. Finally the slope became more gentle (still like 35 or 40 degrees which is very steep) and I could walk without really climbing anything. There was a lot of underbrush and fallen wood here which made it difficult still but at least the danger of falling was behind me for now.
At the base of this mountain not far from where I started up there is a camp of sorts that caters to wealthy NYC types who want to experience the "country". As I was nearing the summit I could see an area that had been cut and most of the bigger trees were felled. I guessed this was probably a scenic lookout on a hiking trail that most likely originated at that camp. I was right. I got up to the top and there were trail markers and nice place to look out over the village of Kent in the valley below. I spent a while just taking it in.
After I felt I had my fill of the rewards of the climb I thought that I owed something to the mountain for this experience so I took out my wallet and speared a dollar bill on a tree branch near the lookout spot. This probably seems silly and pointless, obviously the mountain didn't need my dollar but I felt that I needed to make a small sacrifice for what the mountain had given me so I left it....right or wrong.
After deciding on a direction to head down I picked a route that looked like it may offer some interesting sights but wasn't too steep because I was pretty tired from the climb up. Well...it was like that for a short distance but then it got very steep and had a lot of underbrush making it super hard to find a path down. I fought my way down cursing the whole time. This wasn't really fun, it was just hard and again very dangerous. Finally I made my way to the base of this area only to find that the slope was gentler but the underbrush was 10 times as thick. I pushed through prickers and a tangle of saplings for about 15 minutes while snow was falling off of them and going down the back of my coat. Finally that misery was over and I was in open woods again and not far from where I had started.




There was some signs of people camping in this area which was the first I had seen on this trip. There was even a primitive shelter which I snapped a picture of. I turned on the detector here as I had done a couple times so far but nothing was to be found. I'm glad, good campers don't leave behind any traces of their stay.
Another couple minutes and I was at the bottom of the mountain and back to my car which is always a welcome sight after these treks. Can't say that I found much up there on the mountain but I had a great time and it helped to clear my mind of things that I wanted leave behind for a little while.

On my way out of the parking area I noticed this sign. I couldn't tell you any good reason for it having a depiction of ET buckled up and holding up his glowing finger....I'm just glad it exists.