Jeannine and I took a short weekend trip up to Ogunquit, Maine this past weekend after her appearance at the Boston Authors Club event where she received an honor for her book "Borrowed Names". We stayed in Ogunquit, but during the three days we were there, we wandered around the area. One of the places we wandered to was the Fort Stark historic site in New Castle, a place I blogged about on this April 3.
We had gone there in March of this year, but because it was so early in the season, the site's parking lot wasn't open, and we only got a glimpse of some of the outside. This time, we were able to park and walk around the whole place -- well, except for some areas which were fenced off or boarded up. It was still pretty cool, though.
As we walked around, I kept trying to match up what we were seeing to my memories of our original visit there about twenty-seven year ago… and I discovered to my chagrin that nothing there really jibed with my somewhat vague memories of that first visit. It is altogether possible that twenty-seven years ago, the site looked much different. Perhaps it was not as well-tended as it is today. I should do some research on that.
In fact, I should do some research on Fort Stark, because one of the questions I had when we were looking at the now-empty gun emplacements was "What kinds of guns were there, and how did they shoot out to sea?" I was curious about this because there did not appear to be any firing slots through the thick walls of the emplacements, and those walls were high enough that unless the guns were REALLY tall (which doesn't make much sense), they would have had to have had their barrels elevated at a very steep angle to clear the tops of the walls.
You might see in the following photos what I mean. There were two of these large gun emplacements.
In one of them, growing near where one of the large shore guns must have been installed years ago, Jeannine spotted some red flowers, part of the abundant wild plants growing in many places around the fort.
She identified them as Columbine -- here's a closer-up shot of some of them.
This is a view looking south, I believe, from the area atop the wall around one of the gun emplacements. (Please excuse the imperfect stitching of the photos which make up this panoramic view -- I'll try to tweak it later to make it better.)
And these are a few views from the lower levels.
I'm not sure what this little shed in this next photo was for, nor why that huge concrete cylinder is lying tilted on the rocks like that. This was near the end of our visit -- that's Jeannine on the right beginning our walk around the Fort on the rocky beach on its eastern side.
I was glad that we had the opportunity to see more of the fort than we had on our previous visit, but I would like to learn more about it and go back armed with that knowledge, so that what I saw there would mean more to me. -- PL
P.S. Click on this link for a satellite view of Fort Stark via Google Maps -- it shows pretty clearly the two large gun emplacements.
Fort Stark on Google Maps
Intriguing photos! Especially that last one with Jeannine on the right -- it really plays with my sense of scale and perspective.
ReplyDeleteOgunquit's a place we love to visit, too. But we've never seen Fort Stark. If we're in the neighborhood again, we'll have to stop by and see if the columbine has made any more inroads.
"amygreenfield said...
ReplyDeleteIntriguing photos! Especially that last one with Jeannine on the right -- it really plays with my sense of scale and perspective."
I'm not sure, but that MAY have something to do with the way that the program I use to put together panoramas -- Panorama Maker 5 -- treats "barrel distortion" in photographs.
Or it may have something to do with the sort of "casual" way that huge concrete cylinder seems to have been discarded… just leaning up against a little hill of weeds, as if it were a lot smaller and weighed much less.
"Ogunquit's a place we love to visit, too. But we've never seen Fort Stark. If we're in the neighborhood again, we'll have to stop by and see if the columbine has made any more inroads."
I think if I have time on our/my next visit, I want to try to draw some of the sights there.
And here's a little mnemonic device to remember where Fort Stark is located in New Castle, NH:
Step One: Think of Jeannine.
Step Two: Think of her book "Borrowed Names".
Step Three: Think of one of the key people in that book, Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter Rose Wilder Lane.
Step Four: Jumble Rose Wilder Lane's name up a bit, and get "Wild Rose Lane".
Step Five: Go to the end of Wild Rose Lane in New Castle, NH, and you'll be at Fort Stark.
I actually used this trick to remember what the address was on this last visit. -- PL