Seeing Is Believing

It'd be great if newspapers showed more pictures, I often mumble to myself...they have fine coverage and writing...but never enough pictures. Well, the print version, anyway. How many news readers have actually seen the twice-broken dike in Hadley? The clearing of the old Mountain Park site with it's wetlands issues? The ever-widening, ever costlier sink hole on the Manhan Trail..? This is a job for the internet...

Kelly had her best friend down from Maine visiting for the weekend, so the kid and I were left to our own devices for the whole of Saturday, and decided to take this meme on the road...

We ventured first up to the location of the former Mountain Park, to see the progress being made in the renovation of that historic old site. I've noticed some major clear-cutting that can be seen from the highway whenever I pass by. The park is long gone but it's still a popular recreation area. A lot of people come up through Mt. Tom Ski area entrance road, park on the bridge over I-91, and hike. bike or stroll all over the old Mt. Tom ski/alpine-slide area and even older Mountain Park grounds. There is a gate at the park but it's left open; Presumably the owners are allowing the public to continue to use the grounds while the work is ongoing.

The land is being well cleared of unusable trees and the shattered remnants of whatever buildings still happened to be standing. Even the graffiti-splattered old mini golf course, one of the last recognizable structures that was left of the nearly 100 year old park, is finally gone. An old parking lot pavement still exists, and there are utility poles that still reach into the property. A couple of old foundation slabs can be seen here and there...



Other than that, pretty much all that remains as far as standing structures is the big pavilion.



It's a pretty spacious piece of land, and it's rumored that the site is being set up for an outdoor concert venue (or casino..?) by property/entertainment mogul Eric Suher. It's a great spot for just about any venue, with few if any residential properties nearby, and plenty of rolling acreage over looking South Hadley in the distance.



It also looks like they might be leaving a couple good stands of trees in place...



But down at the bottom of the huge inclined property is what looks like the area that had recently caused the Holyoke conservation commission to force a work stoppage at the site, when trees were cut down too close to -or maybe in- a wetlands buffer zone.





It would be great if in fact the property does come to be a popular venue of some sort (maybe not a casino, but we'll see...) that brings people back to these long-storied hillsides for entertainment once again...

Back in the car for view number two, the Manhan Trail's costly collapse. But first a stop at the Mt. Tom coal-fired power plant on the way, for a quick picture. The plant has been in the news recently for installing all kinds of pollutant-cleaning equipment and further transforming the plant from one of the three dirtiest power generators in Massachusetts into one of the cleanest.



The amounts of mercury and other pollutants being pumped into the air, and subsequently the fish and other wildlife and us, is supposed to diminish significantly...

Ok, on to the Manhan. The hole has gotten a whole lot hole-ier, even since our last couple of visits. As it is now Evil Kneivel would have to think twice about jumping it.



But dare-devils of other stripes happened to show up while I was there. This biker decided to test his luck against the forces of gravity.



And the other bikers that came up showed their resiliency to all obstacles, by huffing around what can not be ridden over.





Hopefully the trail will be repaired by the end of summer as planned. Work is scheduled to begin after this spring's high water levels have receded...

And speaking of high water levels; on to the next as-of-yet-unseen-story: The ailing dike along the Connecticut river in Hadley. This is a favorite stretch of conservation land for Kelly and I, and we often take a detour from the Norwottuck trail to catch the sunset from the edge of the river here. And like at the Manhan, we were surprised to learn that we had been passing over a potential disaster all these times.





The dike was found to be cracking last summer, and repairs were started. But before the repairs were completed, the dike collapsed. It's now in the process of being earnestly and expensively re-repaired. It's an important job with not much time left, as a potential flooding of much of the area would happen if the river rose to dangerous levels, as it sometimes threatens to do in the spring time...

Since we're in the area, one last thing on the way home; the building of the massive Lowe's Home Improvement building, adjacent to the Long Hollow Bison Farm on route 9 in Hadley.



A huge project being built on one of the last green patches along route 9, despite much concern from Hadley residents, and unfortunately being carried out at a time of plummeting home building/renovation markets...



A project being eyed warily by the neighbors...