Sunday, April 5, 2009

Early spring brings the Boston Antique Photo Show which is not in Boston but out in Middlesex County. Following that I get the chance to visit Worcester County on the return home. This year I returned to the Wachusetts Reservoir region. Two "profile rocks" have shown themselves on old postcards. In-between those sites, I investigated a "Lover's Leap". The legend here is of a Native American couple, from different tribes, leaping to their deaths rather than allowing their opposing tribes to separate them. Apparently a couple of antique newspaper accounts mention other occurrences of people falling from its lofty ledges. The first profile rock is an isolated boulder lying close to the main highway. The second, exists (or existed) in an old railroad rock cut. It is indefinite from the old postcard what exactly is the 'profile' at the rock cut, but a couple examples were seen on my own visit. It also seems probable, after photo and image comparisons, some small portion of the rock mass may have changed over the years. And on the way home, a visit to the final resting place of John Smith the Hermit who made his home in a nearby rock shelter cave on Hermit Mountain. Toby, his favorite cat, is buried just to the rear of John.