Vox clamantis in deserto
Fairey the ‘inciter’
“O.G. Rips” (silkscreen and mixed-media collage on paper), by Shepard Fairey, in his show “Facing the Giant: Three Decades of Dissent,’’ at the Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Conn., June 6-Sept. 3.
The museum explains that Mr. Fairey is “among the best known of American contemporary street artists, ranging from his early images influenced by punk rock and skate culture to more recent works focusing on social justice, environmentalism and political engagement.
“Propagandist, arch manipulator, inciter, provocateur—these are all words used to describe Shepard Fairey, whom many hail as an originator of the modern urban art scene. In 1989, as a student at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Fairey ran a sticker art campaign called “Andre the Giant Has a Posse’’. The project evolved into his trademark Obey Giant series, artistic manifesto, and a global phenomenon.’’
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Will this be an easier Back Bay parade season?
Gay pride parade in the Back Bay.
Parades in the Back Bay often express loyalty to Boston teams.
(Slightly edited for NED) article by Jules Roscoe for The Boston Guardian
(New England Diary’s editor, Robert Whitcomb, is chairman of The Boston Guardian.)
Back Bay parade season used to be a resident nightmare. In summers with busy road closing events, residents and businesses have often struggled to get around, as the city provided little to no communication about how events would impact roads and parking.
But as parade season starts up this summer, neighborhood leaders say that has changed.
Since Boston’s new interim chief of streets, Nick Gove, took over operations six months ago, they say, the city has been much more communicative about how events in the neighborhood will affect the people who live and work there. The Boston Transportation Department (BTD) now posts comprehensive city-wide traffic advisories every Friday on its Web site, usually well in advance of events.
“We find it helpful that there’s a consistent process around it,” said Meg Mainzer- Cohen, the president of the Back Bay Association, which represents businesses in the neighborhood. “None of that was happening until January, when there was a new Chief of Streets. Before that, it was more episodic. It was less consistent. We would get [a notice], but it would be the day before the event. There was a real challenge with it. But it has very much improved.”
The Back Bay has already seen some events, such as the Memorial Day weekend Run to Remember in honor of first responders. Others, like the Girls on the Run Road Race and the Boston Pride for the People Parade, will be happening in the coming days.
For the pride parade on June 6, Mainzer-Cohen said that a notice was first posted to the city Web site on May 15. That let the BBA first notify its member organizations by May 18, allowing for a full three weeks of planning.
“This is the timeless absolute Back Bay story,” Mainzer-Cohen said. “The tension of street closings versus parades, versus the needs of parades, and how they benefit for fundraising, or the Boston Marathon, or the Pride Parade. These events add joy and vitality to our streets. But they do have an impact, so that’s why the notifications help. I always say, people don’t really mind so long as they know. So we think there’s overall a net positive.”
The BTD and the mayor’s press office did not respond to two requests for comment.
The Back Bay is a hugely popular location for events, with such amenities as the Commonwealth Mall and Copley Square, as well as its general historic Boston character.
“Because we are close to the Boston Common, and often the Boston Common is the start or the end of these activities, there’s a chance that we will be there a little bit more in the circuit of these activities,” said Serge Savard, the chair of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, which represents residents in the area. “But usually we manage to find ways to get them to have a minimal impact on the life of our residents.”
For example, Savard said he recently worked with organizers of a FIFA event on Newbury Street to move the start time for loud activities from 7 to 9am, so that residents would be able to sleep.
“Our residents in general are very supportive of these type of activities in the neighborhood,” Savard said. “Most of these [events] are for good causes, things that most of our residents really are taking pride in. And we’re happy to see, also, that we can have tourists and visitors that come to Boston and can enjoy the wonderful assets that we have, and to give our businesses here a chance to have good business, which is good for the neighborhood as a whole.’’
Llewellyn King: In the collision between billionaires and news coverage, the public loses
“Big Fish Eat Little Fish,” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1556)
WEST WARWICK, R.I.
Trillions, as in trillions of dollars, are being bandied about in the way millions were, then billions. But take a look at 1 trillion expressed numerically: 1,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo. Awesome, isn’t it? Twelve zeros.
The national debt stands at $39 trillion and the interest on that will top $1 trillion this year.
Very soon the first trillionaire will thunder past the post, presumably Elon Musk.
I have nothing against Musk. And I have nothing against successful people being rewarded for their talent.
Musk has done enormous things. An immigrant from South Africa, he made his first fortune with PayPal. Since then, he has been important in solar-energy revolution, electric cars, and in leading development of a heavy-lift rocket that has made space exploration cheaper than when NASA alone was at the controls. His Boring Company still holds promise.
It is assumed, as so often, that because a person is good at one thing, that same person must be good at everything else. Whoa! Musk’s limits as a manager and a visionary were exposed when he barged about “streamlining” the government for President Trump.
It was a case of a bridge-too-far for Musk — a disaster for America that eroded privacy, critically wounded many departments and saved no money.
Whereas much of what Musk has achieved has been beneficial, his purchase of Twitter, rebranded to X, was evidence of the harm that is a part of gigantic wealth. He wanted to control not just the medium, but also the news.
Musk — although it isn’t good that he has taken steps to control the message with X — isn't the problem facing the media and the public’s right to know. When there is so much money floating around, news-media freedom is in trouble.
The immediate threat comes not from Musk, but from two other men of gargantuan wealth: Larry Ellison, co-founder of the tech firm Oracle Corp., whose personal net worth is estimated at $245 billion, and his son, David.
Together they are set to control the media to an extent not imagined and never seen. The media titans of yesteryear — Pulitzer, Hearst, Luce, Thompson, Sulzberger, Graham and Murdoch — are knee-high to the fearsome power that the Ellisons have, and which will more than double if (and it is more when than if) the merger of their Paramount Skydance Corp. with Warner Bros. Discovery is approved by regulators.
At present, the Ellisons control the CBS Television Network, CBS Sports, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, and BET. They control CBS News, and Paramount+ which has 79 million streaming subscribers.
But if the merger goes through, they will control CNN, HBO Max, and Warner Bros. Studios — a treasure trove of entertainment.
In short, they will control a huge swath of American broadcast news, information dissemination, and movie and television culture.
Their declared purpose is to incorporate more technology and more AI across their astounding current and probably future empire. That is bad for journalism and worse for movies. The invasion of the bots.
I know how media control works. I have seen it firsthand: It isn’t what is said, but what is implied or what employees feel those who own the outlet want. A casual remark can become policy; a hint of preference can become a hard rule.
If an Ellison family member were — of course, this is hypothetical — to say they hated rhubarb, you could bet the Food Network wouldn’t do a show episode on rhubarb pie making. If it were known that one of the owners of Paramount were boosters of nuclear power, movies such as The China Syndrome and Silkwood would never have been made.
In journalism, the story that isn’t covered is as important as the one that is covered. If a disease caused by a common product — asbestos is a good example — isn’t covered because the staff has heard that the media owners love that product or is invested in it, then you can bet it won’t be covered.
Consolidated corporate ownership is antithetical to free speech, creativity, and open government. No news is bad news.
News isn’t suited to the corporate world; it isn’t a fit with those whose interest is adding zeros to bottom lines. It is the pursuit by an irregular army of often eccentric individuals, who turn over stones to find out what is beneath.
Likewise, individual ownership furthers the news objective, which for me was summed up by something Dan Raviv said when he was a correspondent for CBS Radio (recently shuttered by the Ellisons), “My job is simple. I try to find out what is going on and tell people.” Write that in the corporate prospectus.
News organizations need to be owned by news people, such as Ted Turner, Bill Paley and, yes, even Rupert Murdoch.
Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of White House Chronicle, on PBS. His email is llewellynking1@gmail.com, and he’s based in Rhode Island.
The responsible thing to do
“I’m raising my daughter to be an anarchist’’ (detail) driftwood, steel screen, oil pastel), by Leslie Wilcox, in her show “Firebrands,’’ at Boston Sculptors Gallery, through June 7.
She explains:
“The translucency of the screen emphasizes the absence of the figure with a clearly ‘implied presence’ and creates a fresh approach to weightlessness. Humor is also an integral part of this work as it expands the human form by means of exaggerated scale and subjective context. My goal with this work is to redefine the body's organic shape while maintaining an awareness of its form and volume.’’
David Boutt: Of droughts and downpours in New England and beyond
Percentage area in U.S. Drought Monitor categories since 2000.
From The Conversation, except for image above.
David Boutt is a professor of hydrogeology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He receives funding from the U.S. Geology Survey.
About two-thirds of the U.S. is in some stage of drought in late spring 2026, yet at the same time the country has been seeing more intense downpours. It might seem contradictory, but both are symptoms of rising global temperatures.
The reason has to do with the water cycle.
Water influences every aspect of our lives through a delicate cycle that transforms liquid water into vapor and back again.
As the Earth warms, more of that precipitation is arriving in intense storms that deliver more water than the landscape can handle. When storms drop a few inches of rain over a few days, the water sinks into the soil, nourishing plants and replenishing groundwater. But during heavy downpours, the rain can’t sink in fast enough, and much of the water runs off instead, often fueling flooding.
Water also evaporates faster in warmer temperatures. So, despite an increase in total annual precipitation nationally, the landscape is drying out more rapidly as temperatures rise, resulting in more severe and frequent droughts.
My colleagues and I are documenting these broad shifts and what they mean for the future of the terrestrial hydrological cycle – the water cycle on land – and the people and ecosystems that depend on it. The effects are occurring across climates around the world.
Hydrological cycle out of sync
Fundamentally, the terrestrial hydrological cycle is controlled by two things: precipitation that adds moisture to the ground and evapotranspiration, meaning water that evaporates either from the land back into the atmosphere or from plants releasing it through their leaves.
Over the long term, the total amount of precipitation that falls, minus the total evapotranspiration sending moisture back into the atmosphere, determines how much water moves through the hydrologic system. That affects stream flow, soil moisture and the amount of water sinking into the ground and recharging aquifers.
During heavy precipitation in the U.S. Northeast, water is rapidly routed through the shallow subsurface rather than reaching deeper soil and groundwater storage. Julianna C Huba, et al., 2026
When this balance shifts or becomes out of sync with its natural state, it affects how water moves through the landscape. And that directly influences where water is available and how much is there.
These shifts in precipitation are occurring alongside longer growing seasons that allow the land to accumulate more heat. As temperatures rise, drier air also pulls more water from the landscape, increasing the risk of drought.
The changing timing of precipitation can result in counterintuitive feedbacks, as recent studies in the Northeast have shown.
In one study, scientists at Harvard Forest found that more intense storms are delivering greater amounts of water at rates exceeding the soil’s capacity to retain it. For example, in 2023 they found that high-intensity events in their research area made up about 42% of the year’s total precipitation.
When more precipitation is concentrated, with long gaps between storms, the surface soils have time to drain and dry out. This has contributed to drier atmospheric conditions as less water is available to evaporate from the land.
This effect from bursts of heavy rain with dry periods in between shows up in data. My research group at UMass found in a separate study that while wet years in the Northeast are becoming more frequent, dry years are also becoming more frequent.
Data collected by scientists with Harvard Forest, near Petersham, Mass., from 1964 to 2023 shows how precipitation has been increasing, with a large percentage of it coming from downpours. Samuel Jurado and Jackie Matthes, 2025, CC BY-NC-SA
During the wettest years over the past decade, we found an accumulation of approximately 2 inches of water in the shallow ground, contributing to higher water tables, more frequent flooding and damage to infrastructure during heavy rainstorms.
Conversely, during dry periods the landscape dries out rapidly, resulting in drought advisories, fires, water restrictions and crop failures in what is normally one of the wetter regions of the U.S.
Finding solutions
Many states are now incorporating climate science into decisions about infrastructure and land use to better understand the risks ahead. Massachusetts, for example, created a climate data clearinghouse to make research and data widely available. It also invested in computer models to examine potential future scenarios of water storage on the landscape so communities and farmers can prepare.
Communities can boost their resilience to extreme storms with urban designs and construction that take flood risk into account, include careful drainage as more areas are paved and add features such as rain gardens, riverside parks and bioswales that move and hold more water where needed.
To manage dry years, communities can implement conservation measures, such as limiting outdoor watering, subsidizing low-flow toilets and showers, and using water pricing to encourage more careful use. They can also teach residents how to use less water and generally be more mindful of water use.
On a larger scale, a new study using computer models indicates that more aggressive efforts to reduce the drivers of climate change – particularly reducing greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels – can reverse the trend of extreme precipitation, eventually returning to rates seen in the 20th century.
Until that happens, however, the world will have to adapt to a changing hydrological cycle.
‘Between calm and unease’
Work by Michael McGrath in his show “Soft Signals,’’ at the Morrison Gallery, Kent, Conn., through July 12
The gallery says that Mr. McGrath’s work “explores the tension between calm and unease in everyday life, drawing on natural phenomena, personal memory, and close observation of his surroundings. It lingers in moments when the familiar begins to shift, when something subtle feels off and harder to name. Recent work reflects on living simply while sensing underlying instability, where images hold both quiet wonder and a steady, low tension.’’
‘The highest treason’
“The highest treason in the USA is to say Americans are not loved, no matter where they are, no matter what they are doing there.”
— Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), American author, in A Man Without a Country. He served in the U.S. Army in World War II, when he was captured by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge and then held as a prisoner-of-war in Dresden, Germany. There he survived the devastating firebombing by the British and American air forces in 1945 by hiding in an underground meat locker. His experience led to his novel Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death.
He lived for many years on Cape Cod.
Heading south against slavery
The “Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment,’’ a bronze relief sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, opposite 24 Beacon St., Boston (at the edge of the Boston Common). It depicts Col. Robert Gould Shaw leading members of the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry marching down Beacon Street on May 28, 1863, to depart the city to fight in the South. The memorial was unveiled on May 31, 1897 and is the first civic monument to pay homage to the heroism of African-American soldiers. “Happy” (?) Memorial Day.
Take that or a drought
“Flood St. Francisville, La.,’’ by Lois Dodd, in the show “American Conversations,’’ at the Ogunquit (Maine) Museum of American Art, in the show “American Conversations,’’ through Nov. 15.
The museum says:
“A defining feature of the exhibition is its evolving nature. Throughout its run, pairings will shift regularly—whether by substituting one work to reframe the other or by introducing entirely new conversational pairs. This approach mirrors the fluidity of conversations shaping American art and life, emphasizing that the meaning of ‘America’ is neither static nor singular.’’
‘Utilitarian cathedrals’
Mixed media on canvas by Vermont artist Dona Mara Friedman.
She says:
"Old, abandoned barns speak to me of a highly productive time in our American history. Built by hand, with wood cut from the surrounding area, they often contain individual architectural features that are prized by designers. I see them as cathedrals for utilitarian purposes – sitting in agricultural settings, they are American icons that keep my relationship with history alive.
A spiritual connection to the land began early in life, leading me to study herbalism. A desire to be closer to the earth, drove an eventual move to a rural setting over 20 years ago. My artistic vision perceives these familiar country objects and scenes around me as extraordinary, which relates to a childhood fantasy of life on a farm as preferable to growing up in suburbia. The open land, old barns, plowed fields, hay bales with mountains beyond become shapes, colors, textures, that are expressed with a contemporary sensibility. My use of mixed media, oil, acrylic, collage and wax allows for a complex textural surface with individual coloration that completes my perspective of rural settings.’’
This painting can be seen and purchased at Ellenbogen Gallery,in Manchester, Vt.
See:
FIFA Fan Festival in Boston
Hoped-for spectacle at much-disliked City Hall Plaza.
A Boston Guardian article (slightly edited for New England Diary) by Brandon Hill
(Robert Whitcomb, New England Diary’s editor, is chairman of The Boston Guardian.)
Boston City Hall Plaza will be a FIFA World Cup hot spot this summer, with a host committee-led fan festival in partnership with the city expected to bring from 5,000 to 15,000 viewers to the plaza over the course of a day, from June 12 through June 27.
A May 5 neighborhood briefing outlined what residents can expect when the FIFA Fan Festival takes over City Hall Plaza for the duration of the World Cup group stage. City officials emphasized large crowds, shifting traffic patterns and a slate of free public programming designed to anchor Boston’s role as a host city.
The event was billed as the central hub of World Cup activity across the region, with live match broadcasts, cultural programming and interactive fan experiences concentrated at the plaza.
Planners at the meeting said that the site will have a capacity of about 5,000 people at any given time, but daily attendance is expected to far exceed that as fans cycle in and out. Matches will be shown on a large central screen, with three to four games played daily during most of the group stage.
The event is free to attend, though a registration system will be implemented and capacity limits will be monitored. While capacity limits may temporarily restrict entry at peak times, attendees will be allowed to come and go throughout the day. Officials clarified their expectation that many attendees will cycle in and out of the area from game to game.
The fan festival will close by 11:30 p.m. on “15 of the 16 days.”
In addition to match viewing, the festival will feature a cultural showcase between games, with local performers, artists and community groups invited to apply online for the chance to make use of the space.
City officials stressed that Downtown residents should prepare for noticeable impacts, particularly around transportation and public space usage. While presenters said there were no plans for street closures related to the festival at this time, “there will always be the chance for the Boston Police Department to be able to do so, depending on what’s happening in the road at that time.”
Parking restrictions will be enforced using the already existing special event signage, and officials urged residents to watch for temporary no-parking tow zones, particularly around South Station, which is being used as a central public transit hub for fans travelling to and from matches at Gillette Stadium.
Other city services will also be expanded to handle the influx of visitors. Public Works and Parks and Recreation said they will increase staffing focused on cleanliness, while the Transportation Department will deploy traffic management teams to high-congestion areas.
To support navigation, the city plans to roll out temporary pedestrian wayfinding signage across Downtown and Chinatown, along with a digital map of publicly accessible restrooms, drinking fountains and other amenities. Officials said additional water stations and portable restrooms will be installed where needed.
Beyond City Hall Plaza, the city is planning a series of six free neighborhood watch parties and is "picking which matches based on the diasporas and communities that we have here in the city,” such as the Haitian, Cape Verdean and Colombian communities.
Residents were encouraged to use the city’s 311 system to report issues or request services throughout the event period, which is expected to be one of the busiest summers in Boston’s recent history, coinciding not only with the World Cup but also with other major events such as the Tall Ships celebration.
After the horror
“The March of Time,” by Henry Sandham (1842-1910), showing Civil War veterans parading during Decoration Day in 1896. The days wasn’t officially renamed Memorial Day until 1971, though people had called it Memorial Day for many years.
Looking at 200 years of Lowell, an early industrial dynamo
“Washer Woman” (oil on canvas), by Wendy James, in the group show “200th Anniversary of Lowell,’’ at Whistler House Museum of Art, Lowell, Mass., through June 20.
The museum says:
“Lowell holds a pivotal role in American history…. Its textile mills transformed manufacturing, labor, and urban life. Today, Lowell’s preserved canals, mills, and neighborhoods stand as enduring symbols of American ingenuity, social change, and the complex legacy of industrialization.’’
“Through paintings, drawings, sculpture, fiber art, printmaking, and photography, experience the rich history and culture of Lowell through varying perspectives in this exciting show.’’
“From exterior and interior locations of the textile mills, to urban landscapes, and cultural events in Lowell, the exhibition includes artists Debra Poklemba-Anderson, Maureen J. Baker, Elena Behrakis, Margo Behrakis, John Brickles, Troods, Eileen Byrne, Sally Chapman, Robert Louis Del Russo, Linda Demers, Dave Drinon, Michelle Durand, Neal Emmer, Wendy Foy, Diane T. Francis, Claire Gagnon, Tom Gill, Chrissy Theo Hungate, Suzanne Hodge, Wendy James, T.C. King, Dennis Lucas, Richard Marion, Megumi Matsuki, Patrick McCay, Sandra J. Peters, Sharon Premo, Jim Roberts, Bill Tyers, Michael Vieira, Felipe Zamora, and Sandra Zappala.
Chris Powell: Fewer students; higher teacher pay; missing fathers
MANCHESTER, Conn.
What does it mean that, as the Connecticut Mirror reported last week, Connecticut's birth rate is the ninth lowest in the country and that the state's public school student population has fallen steadily since 2006, from 578,000 to 498,000, down nearly 14 percent in 20 years?
Counterintuitively, it means bigger paydays for teachers and school administrators.
Mere taxpayers might think that such a big reduction in students would prompt school systems to economize, but they'd be wrong. For state government, always in thrall to the teacher unions, has enacted a law -- the so-called minimum budget requirement -- that virtually prohibits school boards from reducing their budgets even as enrollment declines. The law maintains that if a school system spent a certain amount this year, it must spend at least that much every year forever. Economizing is actually illegal.
The premises of the minimum budget requirement law are, first, that spending equals education, and second, that keeping government employees happy is government's highest objective -- that any efficiencies in government should flow not to taxpayers but to government's own payroll.
Of course these premises are absurd. Connecticut has been increasing per-pupil spending for decades only for student achievement to decline. Higher spending has correlated with lower results.
If state residents were aware of the law's contempt for them, they might express resentment to their state legislators and the governor and demand an explanation. That would be awkward.
But no one in authority wants people to be aware of the law. The majority party, the Democrats, is controlled by the government employee unions and particularly the teacher unions, and while the Republican minority in the General Assembly dares to complain about taxes generally and specifics like high electric rates, most Republicans are too scared of the teacher unions to criticize the law.
That leaves news organizations to pursue the public interest by publicizing the law and holding legislators and the governor to account for it. But their coverage suggests that most news organizations in Connecticut also think that money equals education, so they see no problem.
Hamden state Rep. Josh Elliott, challenging Gov. Ned Lamont in a primary for the Democratic nomination for governor, is the perfect representative of far-left educational ideology.
In an interview the other day with WTNH-TV8, in New Haven, Elliott outlined his platform: "The first thing we're going to do is make sure that we fix our tax structure -- that we have what Massachusetts did, a 4 percent surcharge on people making $1 million or more." The extra revenue, Elliott said, would be "sent back to municipalities to make sure that the quality of your education is not dependent on the ZIP code you're born in."
That's the school spending myth in action. Yes, student performance is terrible in certain municipalities, especially the cities, but it's not because of a lack of spending. It's because two-thirds or more of the children there are being raised by only one parent. Most lack a father in their lives and thus receive half or less of the financial support, guidance, discipline, and intellectual and physical stimulation children need.
The problem isn't school spending but poverty and per-pupil parenting. But it can't be discussed in polite company because, to some lefties, fathers and intact families seem a mortal threat to the ever-expanding government that seems to want to make everyone dependent in generational poverty, not self-sufficient.
The other day, U.S. Rep. John B. Larson, being challenged by former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin in a primary for the Democratic nomination in the 1st Congressional District, accelerated in his race to corner the lefties likely to dominate the vote.
Larson joined two leading national lefties -- Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar -- to introduce legislation to have the federal government finance free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack for all students every day.
Why stop there? Why not also pay teachers to take their neglected and unfed students home with them at night, or at least start inquiring officially into the disintegration of the family?
Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years (CPowell@cox.net).
‘To dig for clams’
1677 map
Clam digging on Cape Cod.
—Photo by Invertzoo
“The luscious lobster with the codfish raw,
The brinish oyster, mussel, periwig,
And tortoise sought for by the Indian squaw,
Which to the flats dance many a winter’s jig,
To dive for cockles and to dig for clams.’’
—From New England’s Prospects (1639), by William Wood, in which he celebrates the great protein factory of Massachusetts Bay.
Unpatriotic to lie under it?
Quilt, probably made in Philadelphia, circa 1870 (red, white, blue, beige, printed on solid calico and white cotton), in the show “Keeping Alive the Remembrance: Commemorating America’s Founding, 1776-1876,’’ at Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
The gallery explains:
“Drawn from the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery, this focused installation commemorates the nation’s 250th anniversary. The works on display, all made between 1776 and 1876, reveal how artists working in different art forms preserved a sense of vital connection to the founding during the country’s first century. By recording portraits and illustrating key events, artists shaped the American visual imagination in ways that still resonate today.’’
A New England ghost town
Remains of a building foundation in Hanton City.
Excerpted and slightly edited from an article in ecoRI News
(Read about other New England ghost towns.)
“Clues are weathered from centuries of rain, snow, ice, heat, and humidity, but not terribly difficult to find if you enjoy hiking. Scattered throughout the woods behind Fidelity Investment’s corporate office park off Douglas Pike in Smithfield, R.I., are traces of an old school, a small cemetery, cellar holes, abandoned wells, remnants of an old quarry, a threshing rock, and a maze of stone walls all slowly being reabsorbed by the wild.
“Hanton City, which holds the remains of a Colonial-era village or hamlet, fits the ghost town description quite nicely, which is one reason why it’s also known as ‘Ghost City’ and ‘Haunted City.’ The community was deserted long ago, and has been uninhabited ever since, at least by humans.
“The village is fairly spread out, with some structures being a quarter-mile to a half-mile away from each other. The Hanton City Trail provides access to the long-ago community. The village is off the former ox-cart road, on both sides, and land ownership is today a mix of privately owned (Fidelity and vague limited liability companies), conservation land (Audubon Society of Rhode Island and the Smithfield Land Trust), and publicly owned.’’