This cache is placed with MA Department of Conservation & Recreation permission, by LGVHB – Last Green Valley Hiker Brothers, consisting of CacheDweeb & Kochmedic. We’ve been hiking the Airline Trail, Tri-State Marker, and Southern New England Trunkline Trail for years and decided to bring our fellow geocachers to experience this wonderful area. Great trails to hike or bike.
The Southern New England Railway was a never-finished plan by the Grand Trunk Railway, to build a railway from Palmer, Massachusetts south and east to the all-weather port of Providence, Rhode Island. Despite never being finished, large amounts of grading and construction were done, including many large concrete supports. Evidence of this can be seen along this section of the ill-fated rail road.
Many myths arose from this unfinished railroad, including that the money for the railroad went down with the Titanic. The Railroad was conceived by Grand Trunk Railway president, Charles Melville Hays, to break a near monopoly of the New Haven Railroad in Souther New England. It was chartered in April 1910, when railroads were at their zenith of power, wealth, influenced by mileage. The railroad was to be built as a completely grade-separated airline, having low grades and long high bridges over valleys. For the SNE to go the 50 miles between Palmer and Providence, 75 miles of railroad would be required to overcome multiple ridges and rivers. In two locations, a triple-level crossing would have been required with three rail lines intersecting at or near the same spot. Of the two, one is still evident in Millville and both have only a single railroad operating through them. What Hays had to overcome in geography paled in comparison to the effort to deal with laws and men. Some of the laws had to do with crossings where the railroad intersected with streets and highways. The SNE was ordered to avoid all such encounters and built over or under every path it couldn’t block.
Hays went down with the RMS Titanic in April 1912. The connection with the Titanic was simply that Hays was acquainted with the owners of the White Star Line which operated Titanic. His body was recovered on April 26th and is now buried in Montreal. One day before Hays body was discovered, contracts were signed and construction began on the Southern New England Railway. Overnight, over 12 work camps sprung up between Palmer and Providence. Right of way were being graded, concrete abutments and piers were poured, cuts driven through ridges, fills appeared in valleys, a tunnel project began in Southbridge and bridge construction started in Webster. Construction commenced at full speed in May of 1912. All work stopped in November of 1912, ostensibly due to an inability of worldwide bond markets to finance further GT expansion, although pressure from New Haven, at the time, closely allied with financier J.P. Morgan, was widely suspected. The frenzy went into fits and starts/stops through to 1914. World War I intervened and investors in England had much more to worry about than a financial albatross in America. Lawsuits over the unfinished contracts would continue for decades.
When construction halted for good, much work was complete but the SNE never became a railroad. Remnants of the Southern New England are still evident, mostly from Palmer to Blackstone.
Hunting in MA:
Hunting is not allowed on Sundays. No person shall hunt any wildlife from September 1 through the last day of February without wearing at least a total of 400 square inches of fluorescent orange clothing above the waist visible from all sides. Recommended that walkers stay safe by wearing the same amount of fluorescent orange clothing during hunting season. It is always safe to wear required amount of Blaze Orange during hunting seasons.
DCR Hunting dates general information:
Archery: Mid- October until the first Saturday after Thanksgiving
Shotgun: First Monday after Thanksgiving until the third Saturday in December
Muzzle Loader: Third Monday in December until December 31