Meet Me at Horseshoe Mountain
Visit the Horseshoe Mound While You Still Can (Day 89)
Today, horseshoes.
A couple years ago I held a little book meet and greet at the art gallery of a painter friend of mine, Byron Carr, in Hopkinton. The event was held at the site of an old building that used to be a blacksmith shop.
That blacksmith, Joseph Derry, would stack up his old horseshoes in a tremendous palace of iron outside his front door. I mentioned all this at the time - and now - because that stack of horseshoes is still sitting there.
Byron no longer has his shop there, but the horseshoes remains. All this came back to me because another friend and New Boston historian, Dan Rothman, showed me some truly beautiful shots of another blacksmith shop that was in business around the same time as Joseph’s shop.
Trufant’s was located along Route 136 up in Francestown and these pics, courtesy of Dan, are part of a startling collection of old photos that belong to a collector named George Lane. (I’ll definitly be writing more about that collection.)
Anyway, the funny thing is that I don’t really have a story to tell about all this. I just really love the pictures, the old shops, the giant horseshoe mounds, so large you can just smell the iron. It’s not nostalgia that I feel toward all this, but I do feel connection somehow and maybe a sense of responsibility.
Just two guys, about 20 miles apart, just trying to make a living and stacking thousands of horseshoes in lovely, artful piles. That’s something that ought to be remembered. Even more so now because Byron tells me that the old tavern in Hopkinton is scheduled to be torn down, and along with it, I imagine, the horseshoe mountain will come down as well.
Now’s your last chance. Swing down Main Street in Hopkinton and give the mound a look. Time is nothing but a gossemer strand connecting us to our past. Sometimes you can barely see that stand. Other times it’s right there, right in front of you, in the shape of a crumbling, rusty, beautiful pile of horseshoes.
Housekeeping: Just a quick mention to all our Day By Dayers, I had said that I was going to write about a special trip we took on Saturday to find a ship wreck, but that story will come out in a couple days instead in conjunction the my column in Manchester Ink Link. Thanks for being patient!
Meantime, thank you to everyone who send in their Book Shelfies yesterday. There’s still time - take a picture of your bookshelf and email us!
Moving on, don’t forget to share and suggest our little community here to folk who might have an interest. We love seeing subscriptions go up!
Till tomorrow, be nice! Onward!