Schoolhouse Cellar Hole
Forest CommunityThe large white pine tree rooted in one side of this foundation probably started growth after the foundation was a hundred years old. Other white pines have colonized what was once the school yard, and a black birch grows from the cellar's floor. There are pitch pines within 200 feet of the cellar hole, and the forest composition is similar to the nearby forest with pitch pines. GeomorphologyThe soil parent material is the 13,600 year old deltaic deposit of sand and gravel that also underlies the pitch pine forest and the town landfill and sand quarry. However, this location is lower in elevation, and is on the slope that was once the underwater face of the delta. The sediments here are finer, and the soils less droughty. The stone foundation suggests that there are more rocks in the soil here than at other places on the delta, although the rocks could have been carted from elsewhere. GigaPanThis panorama is made from 128 images taken on October 16, 2009. It covers a field of view of 145 degrees. |
HistoryThe Salisbury Town Forest was originally designated as the town's school lot, and early in the 19th century one of the first schools in town was built near the lot's western border. This one-room schoolhouse was near a cluster of homes that was one of the town's early settlements. The locations of some of these homes are marked by other cellar holes on an adjacent property, but the area has probably not been inhabited for more than a century. Important Species
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