Odiorne

New Hampshire's Odiorne State Park lies on the seacoast not more than a mile or two south, I think, from the center of Portsmouth, NH. It is also known as Fort Dearborn, and once hosted large artillery pieces installed during World War II to help protect the US from the threat of an invasion from across the Atlantic, one which never came. The guns and ordnance have long since been removed, and when I first encountered this place with my wife when we lived for two years in Dover, NH, I was impressed -- first, with the beauty of the ocean which lay just a few hundred feet from the parking lot off Route 1A…

… and then a short time later -- as we walked around the grounds of the park -- by the massive concrete bunkers which once housed the weapons and ammunition and personnel intended for coastal defense.

My brother Bruce poses with the largest of the bunkers at Odiorne. 

Trees grew on top of these bunkers -- some fairly large, others small and wrapped in tangled vines and tall weeds. Paths wandered through the woods, allowing for quiet walks among the various concrete structures. The vegetation seemed, for the most part, to have been left to grow unchecked, though I know from visits in later years that some effort is regularly made to keep it from getting too unruly. 

Another view of that large bunker, from a day when I rode a Segway through the park -- big fun!

The walking paths follow the ocean for some distance, then dip back into the woods. It's intriguing to think that servicemen posted here during the tense days of war may have walked the same paths, taking a break from staring out to sea through binoculars, waiting for the enemy ships that never appeared.

I've visited this place at least a dozen times, and I know I will go there again. Ruins by the ocean -- I mean, what more can you ask for? One of my favorite memories is of gathering small shells from one of the rocky beaches there, shells which all had convenient holes in them.

I later strung hundreds of these shells together on monofilament, and my wife and I hung these shell garlands on the tree during what was, I think, our second Christmas together, in 1983. We still have them, though they have not decorated our Christmas tree in recent years. Maybe for Christmas of 2011, they will festoon the tree once more. -- PL