Mystery

I was riding my little fold-up bicycle (the one I keep in the trunk of my truck) on the Amherst end of the bike path a few days ago, and decided to investigate a dirt path leading off toward the swamp which lies on one side of the paved path at that end. The dirt was soft and muddy in spots, and with the small wheels on that bike, pedaling was pretty difficult. But I persisted for a ways, and at one point came upon a clearing.

Apparently, there was once some sort of manmade structure there… but all that remained of it was a concrete pad and bits and pieces of rusty metal --something that might have once been an oven... 

... and a few small-diameter pipes.

I looked at the site later on Google Maps, to see if I could get any clues to what it might have been. But it was still a mystery. It seemed an odd place for a house, and also appeared to be too far away from the railroad tracks which run behind the swamp to have been some kind of rail station. It had to have been something… but what?  -- PL

Addendum 02-26-12: Thinking about it some more, I realized that the bike path itself used to be a railroad track... and that might put this mysterious ruin within a reasonable distance to be some kind of station. I should probably ask around and see if anyone knows what it was.