Sunday, February 21, 2010

Dogtown, Boulders and Inspirational Carvings








While the poor old COG worked today, the Son of and I took Dog of COG for a walk in Dogtown.

Dogtown is the site of an early settlement of Cape Ann and has a really interesting history. Abandoned as a settlement in the 19th century, it is now a huge wild wooded area owned by the adjoining cities as a recreational area. In places, you can still see remnants of stone walls and the foundations of early houses.

Geologically, it's a terminal moraine, and it looks as if some giant baby threw their boulder/blocks all over the ground. One of the odder things about it is the Babson Boulders. During the Depression, Roger Babson, a local millionaire, hired unemployed stone masons to carve motivational sayings on about three dozen boulders. We only saw a few of them -- 'Truth', 'Work', 'Kindness', 'Spiritual Power', 'Loyalty', and 'Be On Time.'

And, that's the Dog of COG standing in front of 'Courage'.

Other stones we will look for on future trips in better seasons are 'Get A Job', 'Help Mother', and 'Never Try, Never Win' amd more and better, besides.

If you are curious, there is more information and better pictures at Wikipedia, Click Here for the link.

Note: this is an additional site, addressing ViVi's wish to see what's on all the Boulders: Click Here for Babson Boulders

2 comments:

Vivi said...

I was hoping the Wikipedia link would list the 36 boulders. Are there STAY OFF THE WEB and BLOGGING IS PROCRASTINATION?

I love how HELP MOTHER has such a 1930's syntax about it.

I love how a millionaire was helping local out-of-work people to earn a wage, in a way that lasts to this day and many years beyond. What are the financiers of AIG and Goldman Sachs doing to help their local out-of-work people?

The Bride said...

I agree about the philanthropy - what a good guy to hire unemployed immigrant stone cutters. Also, what a delightful thing to have left behind.

I think your suggestions (Stay off the Web and Blogging is Procrastination) would be worthy additions.