Revisiting an Old Rifle Range, Testing Out a New Concept

From Dave Brigham:

I've been thinking for years about doing some Backside field trips with friends, family and any other interested parties. In the early years of the blog, when I had a handful of regular contributors, we would discuss meeting somewhere to make photos together, but I never made that happen. For the most part when it comes to Backside treks, I am, like Lenny Kosnowski on "Laverne & Shirley," a Lone Wolf.

There have been a few occasions when I shot photos for this blog while hanging out with other people: on my 2016 visit to a long-abandoned church in East Granby, Connecticut, I was accompanied by my mother; during a 2019 family vacation in Seattle, I annoyed my wife and kids by lagging behind while shooting photos in Pioneer Square; and in the summer of 2019, I strolled Boston's Fort Point neighborhood with a reporter and photographer from the Boston Globe for an article they published about ghost signs.

Recently, I began working to make my vision for field trips a reality. In the short term, I am planning on a few excursions to locations I've visited previously, inviting along anybody who's interested. Depending on how I do with this concept, I may look to make it more of an official venture, offering guided tours with history of the sites, and perks for those who join.

As you may have figured out by the video at the top of this post, I recently conducted my first "field test." I put out the call for any and all who wanted to check out the Old Rifle Range in Concord, Mass., which I first trekked through 10 years ago (see December 4, 2012, "Concord, Part I: Old Rifle Range").

I'd made a list of prospective sites to revisit, and figured the World War I-era range was a good place to start, as it's an easy hike, good for humans and dogs alike, and features the type of remnants one doesn't usually come across in the woods of New England.

When I wrote about the range in 2012, I wasn't sure exactly how the set-up worked. A commenter on the post cleared it up for me: "The metal frames/gears were protected by the concrete, which also protected the soldiers manning the targets. They lifted the targets above the concrete."

I was joined on this hike by my friends Jay and Amy, their son, Henry, and their dog, Bernice. I also had my dog, Trudy.

It was great having them along for the obvious reason of friendship, but also to discuss things about this area that hadn't occurred to me on my first visit. Jay pointed out a few spots, large impressions in the side of the hill on the south side of the site, that may indicate where small buildings once stood. We speculated that there may be more range-related stuff in the heart of this conservation area than meets the eye.

We also learned from a fellow hiker that there is quite likely a coyote den here, as this woman has both seen and heard the canis latrans at the Old Rifle Range.

I hope to fit in one more Backside Adventure before the snow flies (although I certainly explore in winter, weather depending), so keep your eyes peeled to my Facebook page and to this space for updates on that.

Anniversary Post #3: My Favorites from 2012

From Dave Brigham:

This is the third in a series celebrating the 7th anniversary of the blog (for links to the prior two installments, see the bottom of this post). This post covers 2012, which to date is the high water mark for The Backside of America with 92 posts.

I need to mention that Joe Viger has contributed some amazing photos and fantastic write-ups over the years, but I'll be linking to very few of them in this series. Why? Because Joe -- an amazing photographer who has served as a mentor of sorts to me in that regard, and a great friend I've known for nearly 30 years -- has changed the security settings on his Flickr account so that many of his photos that have run on this blog show up as broken links now. I will instead direct you to his wonderful online portfolio.

As regular readers of the blog are well aware, I've chronicled the former mill city of Waltham, Mass., quite a bit. I live in the next town over, so I find it easy to hit a few spots at a time as I drive through the city. Two weeks apart in January I posted about just such a two-bird-with-one-stone situation.

On January 13, 2012, I posted black and white photos (a rarity for me, and the blog) of Mt. Feake Cemetery in "Peaceful Rest." On January 27, 2012, in "Smoke On the Water," I told the story of Nuttings on the Charles, a boathouse that was used for roller skating, boxing, dancing and concerts.

(Mt. Feake Cemetery)

On February 25, 2012, a guy calling himself lostlosangeles shared "Gathering Nutrients" with us. A simple post, yes, but it seems so unreal, so Hollywood.

Kristen Smith takes great photos, and those she posted on March 1, 2012, in "Nice Little House" are no exception. A simple house, passed by countless times, finally lures one in. And a record is made for posterity.

It's no secret that I enjoy writing a good series. On March 22, 2012, I concluded a three-part write-up about Snow Hill in Dover, Mass. "Fresh-Air Salvation" is about an outdoor worship space, something that I, someone who does not practice religion, found very spiritual.

(Abigail Draper Mann Woodland Worship Center, the Dover Church)

Heidi Waugaman-Page posted a gorgeous photo of an old train by the roadside in Sunapee, NH, on April 14, 2012. In "Long Gone Train," she also shared a shot of a nearby garage.

The train is no longer there, nor is the spooky barn that David Burke shared with the blog in "Bakerville Barn" on April 28, 2012. That's why we shoot these places -- to document them for future generations.

(Bakerville Barn in New Hartford, CT)

The blog has lost touch with David Burke, which is really too bad, because he took some great photos. In his May 12, 2012, post, "Stanley Works," he shared an amazing shot of a shuttered Stanley Works factory in New Britain, CT.

Pete Zarria (a nom de plume; say it out loud) has benefited the blog in at least two ways: sharing fantastic photos, and covering a good portion of the Midwest, allowing us to fulfill a bit more of our nationwide mandate. On May 16, 2012, he posted a shot of a great old sign in Marshalltown, Iowa -- one of dozens he has shared with the blog over the years -- in "Advertising Ghost."

My May 18, 2012, post, "Aqueduct, My Friend," (yes, I enjoy writing headlines, and often use musical references) represents the most exciting type of Backside post for me, in that it is about a place that took me completely by surprise.

I'd driven past this stone marker numerous times before I finally pulled over and investigated. Click through the link above to see what I found.

On May 21, 2012, the blog ran the first installment of a week-long look at graffiti. That was the first and only time we offered up a series in that format. I'd like to do that again. "Graffiti Week, Part I" featured several shots I took at Cat Rock Park in Weston, Mass. Here again this represents something I love about exploring: I went looking for, and found, remnants of an old ski hill, but I found much more than I could ever have expected.

(Long-abandoned snack shack at Cat Rock Park.)

Pete Zarria takes a lot of photos of old service stations, some of them restored. He shared a few from Kansas and Illinois with the blog in his July 2, 2012, post, "Fill 'Er Up, Part II."

(Nicely refurbished gas station along Route 66 in Kansas.)

Those who have any familiarity with Cambridge, Mass., might be surprised to learn, as I was a few years ago, about the extensive canal system that once ran through the city that's home to MIT and Harvard University. In "Where's the Gondolier?" from November 5, 2012, I shot photos of the last remnants of that system, Broad Canal along Memorial Drive.

I have found countless spots to explore over the years by using Google Maps. Once such site was the "Old Rifle Range" that popped up one day as I looked online for places to wander. On December 4, 2012, I wrote about and shared photos of the range in Concord, Mass., that dates to World War I. "Concord, Part I: Old Rifle Range" was the first of a three-part series about the Boston suburb that was so important to the Revolutionary War effort.

Every year around Christmas on the Backside of America Facebook page I share the photo that David Burke posted on December 25, 2012, of a chimney in Canton, CT, with a Christmas decorations on it. You can see it at the "Merry Christmas" post, but not in real life. It was dismantled to make way for a shopping complex.

Here are the prior two installments:

"Anniversary Post #2: My Favorites from 2011"

"Anniversary Post #1: My Favorites from 2010"

Coming up next: my favorites from 2013, including a mural, long hidden from view, that surfaced temporarily before being dismantled; great stuff from the Midwest and Southeast by Pete Zarria; an amazing roadside religious icon; and a post about an important part of my childhood, revisited.

Concord, Part I: Old Rifle Range

From Dave Brigham:

Concord, Mass., is well known for the important role it played in the Revolutionary War, and for the famous authors who lived there in the 19th century, among them Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau and Louisa May Alcott.

Over the 20+ years I've lived in and around Boston, I've explored Concord and nearby towns a little bit. I've gone to Minute Man National Historical Park and Walden Pond, and shopped in the town center.

But the four-part series about the town's out-of-the-way spots that I'm launching here, doesn't cover any of those topics. Rather, I focus on places that I'd never heard of until one recent day when, after consulting Google Maps, I took a drive and did some hiking through the quaint former farming town.

Google Maps has become my go-to tool for Backside adventures. This time, I focused on the area about 15 miles northwest of where I live. I scanned the map and almost immediately "Old Rifle Range" popped out at me.

That was all I needed to see.

I found the site without too much trouble, and began hiking in. I wasn't sure exactly what I would find, but the map at the beginning of the trail indicated that there were four "targets" along the trail.

I didn't know exactly what I was looking for, however, so when I saw a few shallow areas that looked a bit like foxholes, I somehow thought that's all I was going to get. But before too long I came across the first cement berm, and I got excited.

There are metal spikes driven into the berm. I don't know anything about guns or firing ranges, so I'm not sure what the spikes did. After a short hike up the path, I found the second berm, which had hardware positioned in front.

I presume these racks held targets, and that the gears moved the targets forward and back. I learned after doing some research online that the range dates to World War I. The Army used it to train troops from distances of 200, 300, 600 and 1,000 yards.

The last target area was the most distinctive for a few reasons. First, there was graffiti on the wall.

Second, a tree had grown up and around a piece of the old hardware, making for a very, shall I say intimate, arrangement.

In the next three parts I'll post about abandoned railroad tracks, a restored water tower at a defunct farming site, and some rusty vehicles near a farm with my family's name on it.