The Forgotten County Road
In 1820 a county road was laid out from Norway to Bethel through Fifield's Mills (now Greenwood City). This soon became the preferred route through town for travel and commerce, replacing a route to the west that ran over Patch Mountain and then northward to what would become the Irish Neighborhood. Still, those who traveled the "middle road" had complaints, and in 1837 forty-two residents of Bethel, Greenwood, and Norway petitioned the county commissioners to alter the road "so as to avoid Felt's Hill, Whittle Hill, and Pool's Hill (so called)." Their petition was granted. Three new sections of road were built, and in 1845 two of the old sections were discontinued, being now "of no benefit to anyone."
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| From the Oxford Democrat of July 25, 1837 |
The road over Felt's Hill—later called Rowe Hill—remained in use, but another was built to the west, under a ledge and along the easterly side of Twitchell Pond.1 Whittle's Hill lay south of the bridge in Greenwood City, and the road that ran over its foot was moved closer to Hicks Pond.2 Pool's Hill was named for a family that settled early at the south end of Mud Pond. The hill that rose on their farm extended into Norway, and it was over this hill that the county road ran until moved down to run around its base. Traces of the discontinued section of road still exist in the woods there, waiting for discovery.
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| Detail from 1914 USGS topographical map showing location of Pool homestead |
A short distance from the pond, not far from the current Greenwood Road, the access path to the Far Winde-A-Way Nature Preserve crosses the abandoned highway. Up on a rise south of the path is a cellar hole. Asa Pool bought this land in 1820, just months before the county road was laid out. It is impossible to say whether his family's homestead or the road, which brought traffic close to the dooryard, was built first.
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| Cellar hole of house near discontinued county road |
Heading up past the cellar hole and into the woods, the old road takes a slight turn to the east and soon finds itself running between two widely spaced stone walls erected during its brief heyday. These walls appear in LiDAR imagery as raised lines on either side of the road's path. LiDAR—Light Detection and Ranging—uses airborne lasers to produce images of the "bare earth" without trees and other vegetation. The images may show evidence of human activity not apparent to the naked eye, or guide on-the-ground research by revealing features of possible interest.
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| LiDAR image showing cellar hole and discontinued county road running between stone walls |
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| Discontinued county road with stone walls on either side, roughly fifty feet apart |
The old road's junction with the Richardson Hollow Road lay west of the current intersection. In March 1845, after the new county road was opened and shortly before the old one was closed, the town voted to discontinue "that part of the road which runs from Daniel Stevens to the County [road] as lies west of the County road as now traveled." The discontinued section of town road is visible in the image below.
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| LiDAR image of discontinued section of Richardson Hollow Road |
The old county road proceeds south, crossing North Norway Road (formerly Hayes Road) and the town line, and continuing over Carter Hill (as it came to be known) in Norway. A stretch of the road here is maintained as a snowmobile trail.
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| LiDAR image of discontinued county road over Carter Hill in Norway |
The road emerges in the backyard of a home on Morse Road in Norway.3 It then becomes Don Hunt Road before rejoining the Greenwood Road and heading toward Norway Village along its original course.
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| LiDAR image of southern end of discontinued county road in North Norway |
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Notes
1. This road, too, would be relocated. Greenwood voters passed over an article in 1853 “to see if the town will choose a committee to pertition the County Commissioners to discontinue the County road on the east side of the twitchell pond ... and locate the road on the west side of said pond." A petition to that effect was submitted in 1855, and the road was subsequently moved. Nicolaus Harithas, who owned a camp on the east side of the pond, asked the commissioners in 1928 to reopen the old road, but his request was not granted.
2. This discontinued section of road was described as running past the house of Edward Whittle to "the four corners near the School House." Its course began on the present Greenwood Road near Clyde and Colista Morgan's former home and ran across the Morgan-Holt field to the junction of Hayes Hill Road and Schoolhouse Road.
3. The road arrives here at the original Noble's Corner. Norway residents petitioned for the discontinuance of "the old County road from Nathan Noble's Corner in Norway to Greenwood line" in October 1842—three years before the two Greenwood sections were closed to traffic. The corner then migrated to its current location, about 500 feet to the east.
