Field Blog Journal 8

Jon Levinsohn

To examine the history of my site, I visited the Williams College Archives, and the house of natural history. At the college archives, the amount of information was sparse. An aerial photograph of the area in 1953 revealed that the area was mostly open, with only a handful of maple trees, which possibly may still exist as the large Norway maple that currently occupy the site, though the photograph does not present enough detail to determine if they are Norway maple, let alone estimate their age. The relative lack of trees and shrubs makes sense given the large amounts of honeysuckle, and sumac that currently occupy the area, which are earlier successional species. The lack of many species later in the successional pattern, though some small sugar maples are on the site, mostly situated very near to the river, also makes sense given these data. Given that the Norway maples are ornamentals, it is likely that they were planted, though there was no data as to when or who planted these trees.

The book, Williamstown: The First 250 Years, revealed that the oldest graves in the cemetery date back to 1820, before the cemetery was established, and it is speculated that the bodies were moved from Westlawn Cemetery on the other side of town. The cemetery was established in 1842, by a gift from Asahel Ford, however it did not yet include my sight. Later gifts expanded the cemetery to its current size, in 1887, which was purchased from the Ford family, in 1926 a gift from the Bosford’s, in 1932 a purchase from the Jones’ and the Fred Emore gift in 1932. The Emore gift was the section was said to be the section along the Green River, though several maps reveal this to not be the case. My site was on the Jones’ land, which was the largest addition to the cemetery.

A stone fence near the entrance was built in 1899, and in 1917 all buildings near the cemetery were supposedly removed. Both of these events did not occur on my site, however, as they predate the acquisition of the section of the cemetery that I studied. The various maps from the era show how varying paths of the river, especially the width and possible pond (according to the 1876 map) near my sight along with the varying amounts of winding immediately up stream. It is difficult to determine whether this is a real change over time, or due to inaccuracies in the older maps. It would not be surprising that the river would change over a couple of hundred years given the relative speed. Furthermore, the river appears to have eroded a deeper channel since the 1953 photo.  Since the property did not belong to the college, the archives provided little more information.

The house of local history had lost the majority of the data that they had on the cemetery, aside from who was buried where. However they did have maps. The land belonged to lot 297 in the original town planning, though no data on who owned the land was provided. In 1856, the Cole’s bought the land, along with a large amount of the land around, and moved to the lot from Main Street. H.T. Cole built a general store off of Water Street on the property, which burned down in 1874, and was re-built. The land itself, was used in a manner similar much of the surrounding land at the time. The H.T. Cole had a “sloping” orchard, a garden along with livestock. At this point the land was cleared of any forest had any remained though the unknown previous owners actions. When H.T. Cole aged, Charles S. Cole, H.T.’s only son and Treasurer of Williams College, took charge of the land, and bought the neighboring Walley Family’s land (which had the Walley Bridge, possibly explaining the stone ruins east of my site near the river) before 1873. Here the information concerning the site’s use and ownership disappears. I intended to pursue this further should the House of Local history find the missing binder.

As to usage of the land before Williamstown was settled, it is certainly possible that Native Americans could have had dramatic impacts upon the land, such as clearing it for growing corn. However, there is no evidence of any Native American activity in the area.

Ford Glen Brook’s past          By: Claudia Corona           11/20/09

I walked to Ford Glen Brook and I looked at it. I looked at the little brook that had less water now because the weather in the past few weeks had not been fruitful enough to provide much rain; and I saw something else.

I saw a little brook that had captured my heart enough for me to want to know as much as I could about it. I remember researching its name earlier and learning that my little brook was named after someone. It was named “Ford Brook”, in memory of “gold old deacon Zadock Ford, the edge of whose farm was washed by it” (Origins in Williamstown, p.15).  Farther into the forest, “the deepest and darkest stretch of glen through which the brook bickers along is called ‘Ford’s Glen”” (Origins in Williamstown, p.15). Zadock Ford owned land by the brook in 1796, but no other record I’ve seen shows land by Ford Glen Brook being bought until 1882.

In 1882, Alfred C. Moon bought 100 acres in what would later be known as Hopkins Forest, and within these acres was some, if not all of the land surrounding Ford Glen Brook. In 1906, Alfred C. Moon sold 40 acres to Amos Lawrence Hopkins, and in them was land by Ford Glen Brook. “By 1910, Buxton Farms (Hopkins’ land) encompassed 1,636 acres and ran from Northwest Hill to the New York state border in the West, and Vermont in the North, excluding only the Moon Lot” (Farms to Forest, p.10)…but including Ford Glen Brook. In 1912, Mr. Hopkins passed away. Alfred Moon lived on the remaining 60 acres that he had not sold to Hopkins until he died of a heart attack in 1924, the same year that Mrs.Hopkins stopped operation of the Buxton farms. A decade later in 1934, Mrs. Hopkins deeded the land to Williams College, who in turn, “rented it” to the U.S. Forest Service in 1935 for $1, with the condition that when the forest service was done using the forest for experimental research, they would give the land back to the college. The U.S. Forest Service used the land until 1968, and then they gave it back to Williams College, who has owned Hopkins forest since then.

As I looked at the brook, I remember thinking that this was the end of Ford Glen Brook interaction with humans, but then I found out that this little brook had captured more hearts. In 1905, a year before Moon sold 40 acres to Hopkins, the Williamstown Boy’s Club was founded after a judge suggested that something be done about the fact that there were many young boys without any recreational facilities to go to or use. Following A.L. Hopkins death in 1912, The Boy’s Club camp started on part of the land owned by Hopkins sometime after his death but before Mrs. Maria Hopkins, gave it to Williams College. Even though Williams College deeded the land to the U.S. Forest Service in 1935, the Boy’s Club camp, located on Northwest Hill (by Ford Glen Brook) continued using the property as a day camp, but it closed down in the 1970s because of insurance concerns that the camp had.

Another thing that I learned but hadn’t really thought about was that Ford Glen brook wasn’t created with a bridge on it. The second picture is what the brook probably looked like before it had been dammed. Ford Glen Brook wasn’t free for long, it was dammed in the late 1800s or early 1900s, I’m sorry to say that I’m not quite sure when. The first picture is another one of Ford Glen Brook, taken by Henry Art, professor at Williams College, showing the “dam”, which also served as a bridge, made to allow people and vehicles across the brook without hassle. This bridge didn’t last for long. In 1988, the bridge was reconstructed and made into a more stable and sturdy bridge, able to sustain heavier loads such as trailers and trucks.

In the end, Ford Glen Brook was not the same today. But it hadn’t been the same yesterday, or last week, or last year, or 200 years ago! Being a small brook, I never really thought that Ford Glen had much of a history, until I remembered that everything has a history, and each day that goes by makes that history a deeper one, shaped by people, climate, and time.

SOURCES:

1st Photo: Unknown, was given to by Mike Miller
2nd Photo: Professor Henry Art of Williams College

Books:
Perry, L. Arthur., Origins in Williamstown., Arthur Perry, Williams College, MA, 1894.
The Williams Naturalists. Farms to Forests: A Naturalist’s Guide. Center for Environmental Studies, Williams College, MA, 1995.

The late afternoon light was stunning at the Pond today. Clear, golden sun spiked through chinks in the steely blue clouds and cast sharp shadows on the water. The wind was high, gusting probably to 10 mph. It was not cold, only about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but the wind and the light gave it foreboding air, as if though the prefigured winter was just behind Stone Hill and would arrive anyday. I parked my car in the usual spot and got out to survey my site for signs of former land use and the impact that human hands have had on the natural features.
Based on the surrounding terrain and its current use, my first inclination is that the terra firma on my site was at one time pastureland. The cattle grazing fields on Stone Hill are my firmest evidence, especially since they’re currently in use for that very purpose. The cow fence that runs around the entirety of the meadow, sections the area off as in a pasture, but the fence, lacking livestock to pen in, seems to be only for ornamental purposes and to divide the Wall’s Pond property from the backyards of South Street. The vicinity of the pond is obviously still maintained by human hands; the mower stripes that rim the pond and the presence of picnic tables and the bench under the red maple are clear enough indicators that the Pond is now a recreation site that is kept neat and not an abandoned pasture. Vegetation succession, the subject of next week’s blog will delve more deeply into the question of the former land use, but for now, I’ll stick to the effects of human actions on the land.
Aerial photographs from 1935 show the pond to be exactly where it is today, and to be roughly the same size as it is now. The stand of white pines along the south edge is gone, but the sugar maples at the entrance show up, as does a large tree in the vicinity of the current-day red maple. Meadows to the north and west of the pond look as open and uncultivated as they do today. The line of trees down the western fence is absent from the 1935 photo, but some sort of line is certainly there dividing Wall’s Pond from the field to the west that is now the parking lot. There appears to be a very slight color change between the Wall’s Pond field and the parking lot field, perhaps indicating the difference between a pasture area and a cultivated area, but the map alone is not strong enough evidence upon which to make a ruling. Next week, when I examine vegetation succession of the site, I can gain divine just what that field was once used for. Regardless, the field had a very clear path running through it in 1935.
The 1952 aerial photograph also shows a path or road running through the parking lot field as well as the first beginnings of construction on the Clark that was indeed started that year. The massive white pines that I see today are in neither picture but the hemlock stand to the southeast is present in both. Both pictures also show a tree where there is now only a finger of marshy border vegetation at the northeast corner of the pond. The pond itself seems unchanged from the Wall’s Pond of the early and mid-20th century, which suggests that the pond was not created as an ornamental feature for the Clark, which was one of my original hypotheses about its origin. The pond obviously predates the museum. I remember Professor Art mentioning in lecture that Wall’s Pond is a man-made pond, which stands to reason considering its placement among pastures. The practical utility of having a consistent water supply for cattle supports the creation of a pond near a pasture, and Christmas Brook, while it does not visibly connect to Wall’s Pond, flows past it and could, at some point, have supplied water to it. Regardless, the Pond has been around for at least 74 years, perhaps much longer. The Coffin Map showed no water where Wall’s Pond is now so perhaps the Pond was created by human hands in the 19th century. An investigation of tree succession will tell more.

Eric Outterson

November 20^th, 2009

Natural History of the Berkshires

History

This week, I began an examination of the past which extended beyond the speculation of past visits to the Stetson parking lot woods.  It began with a visit to the college archives to see if I could get a better look at my site through aerial photographs over time.  Linda Hall greeted me at the elementary school and asked “Are you Eric Outterson?”

When I responded affirmatively, she promptly handed me a large box with many folders.  She told me, “In this box we have folders of most of the aerial photographs of the campus, and folders of photos of areas of the campus labeled by their location.”  I stared at the intimidating box, and decided that the only way to get through it was to start opening the folders.

In the aerial photographs box I found a large collection of photographs extending from the 1930’s onwards.  Unfortunately for me, most of the aerial photography was of campus icons like Thompson Memorial Chapel, Griffin Hall or West College.  The small patch of woods that now makes up my site is situated behind Thompson Memorial Chapel and Griffin Hall.  As a result, many of the angles on my site were not great.  Most were photographs which cropped out the trees.

Though there was a slightly larger timeframe in which I could see my site, from the limited set of photographs that remains, aerial and otherwise, I have approximately 3 windows of time in which I could see my site well.

These were around 1900, 1941 and 1962.  There was also one illustration from 1889.  In the illustration, there was a small stand of trees immediately behind griffin hall (labeled 16) and behind Goodrich (Old Goodrich).

Williamstown, Mass. Drawn and published by L. R. Burleigh. Burleigh Lith. Est.

Burleigh, L. R. 1853?-1923. (Lucien R.), Troy, N.Y., 1889.

In later photographs, like those from around 1900.  In this photo dating before 1902 (we know that it’s before 1902 because the chemistry annex which is visible in the photo was removed from griffin hall), there is a shot of where my site was taken potentially taken by amateur photographer Cyrus Morris Dodd.

You can see goats in the picture grazing on the large stretch of land that is now the lower Stetson parking lot.  To determine where the current Stetson parking lot woods is, one must be careful, because in 1904 Griffin Hall’s foundation was moved 100 feet northeast.  After estimating the 100 foot move, it seems that in my site, you can see a few trees but nothing very lush.  It’s hard for me to guess what they might be exactly

Looking ahead to 1941 it looks like there are more trees in the area that are my site.  It’s still difficult to identify any of them, but they do not look at all cultivated.

In photographs that follow, it seems that woods slowly gains more density even though the areas around it are always well cut by grasses and other things.

Between the founding of Williamstown in 1753 and the first visual evidence of the land being cleared in 1890, the trees were largely cleared.  I venture to guess that the trees were actually cleared much earlier, possibly around the 1830’s when Williamstown was at its agricultural land peak or in 1827 when Griffin Hall began construction.  After Griffin Hall’s construction, the land was largely cleared and used as pasture.

From 1900 onwards it seems the small number of trees increased quickly.  In photos of the Roeper center construction the stand of trees looks very thick, approximating what it looks like today.

            My site, Tyler Woods is located just behind Tyler House. In the past, Tyler House used to be known as Psi Upsilon. The building was built where a previous building had once been in 1925 and was converted into a fraternity house. Tyler Annex was built much later in 1972. The Record reported that planning of the building began in October 3^rd, 1925 and construction on Tyler House commenced on May 18^th, 1926. Members of the fraternity named the house after one of its members: Lt. John Cowperthwaite Tyler (Warren, 55, 56).

            Tyler was a member of the Williams class of 1915. After he graduated from Williams College, he went to continue his education at M.I.T. Here, he studied aeronautics and mining and majored in engineering. He graduated from M.I.T. in 1917 and joined the French Escadrille Branch soon afterward. In 1918, he was sent to fly for the U.S. Army during World War I. While he was on a mission to bombing an enemy railroad, he and his comrades were attacked and his plane went down. This occurred on September 21^st, 1918 (Warren, 55).

            Williams College received the right to use Tyler House as a residential facility in 1966 (Warren, 56), and that is what it is used as today. Thus, Tyler Woods has had at least a hundred years of exposure to human activity.

            Before the Tyler plot was owned by Williams College, it was most likely owned by the Huntoon family, specifically Eliza M. Huntoon. The deed to the land states, that the Huntoons had possession of the land in 1904 and at least until 1909. Although there is not that much information specifically relating to the ownership of Tyler Woods, it is possible that some of its nearby neighbors such as the Jeromes, Hewitts, and the Tenneys may also have owned parts of Tyler Woods since their properties bordered the woods according to a map created in 1904.

            I hope to be able to take a corer and determine how old some of the larger trees in my site are. This may give me a sense of how old the forest is. Was the forest here before the Huntoons obtained it in 1904?

            Not too far from Tyler Woods, Williams College also used to own a farm. Is it possible that Tyler Woods used to be a pasture or cultivated area? If this is true, then when did the forest begin to grow and take over?

Syndicate Road Woods

Human History and Impacts

 

The Syndicate Road woods have an interesting human history from the origins of Williamstown, their association with the college and their use today.  Today, the woods are not maintained by humans, though their size is limited on the west by Syndicate Road and the east by the Poker Flats fields.  Their terrain, flora, and use in the past, however, seems to be very different than it is today. 

            The first piece of evidence we have is a map from 1843 plotting the original land divisions of Williamstown.  This map shows the original plots for each townsman, as well as areas coded as meadows, pine or oak forests, as well as the first and second 50 acre plots allotted to each member of the town.  Where the Syndicate Road woods now stand appears to be part of the “1^st 50 acre” section.  This most likely means that an early settler cleared the land and used it for agricultural purposes.

            It appears that the Tallmadge family owned the land during this time, because there are records from 1887 documenting the sale of this land by the Tallmadge family.  The Tallmadges also owned a 72 acre farm plot in what is now the Hopkins forest to the west of the Hoosic River, and sold that land to Hopkins in 1889.  In 1887, according to the president’s report from that year, a group of men bought the Tallmadge land who planned on building a housing development.  A 1889 map shows that Park Street ended at Baxter Road, but the president mentions in his report that the men built Syndicate Road to connect Park Street with North Street.  This road was most likely a dirt path however, because a sketch from 1939 comments that the intersection with Baxter Road marked the “end of improved road.”  In the end, nothing came of the housing development and the area was sold to the College.  At the same time the Huntoon lot, which included lands east of Syndicate Road and the area that is now Cole Field, was sold to the College, and the land was then used as the college farm.  The area was still being used as farmland in 1938, as shown by the aerial photograph below.  The photograph shows the Thompson Infirmary and the Cole Field house, and the area that is now Cole Field and the Tennis Courts was plowed in sections of farmland.  Besides these landmarks there was very little vegetation, and it appears that one could see Eph’s Pond from Thompson because the area was not blocked by heavy forestation as it is today.  Note also that Syndicate Road is still just a dirt path marked by wheel tracks in this photograph.  To the east of this path, where the Syndicate Road woods site now exists, there were a few trees of an indiscernible species speckled along the road. 

            The next piece of pictorial evidence is an aerial photograph taken in 1962, also shown below.  Here, in only about a quarter century, the amount of foliage in the area has grown at least three-fold since the last picture was taken.  The tennis courts and Cole Field have been constructed, and it does not appear that the Poker Flats field is being used as farmland anymore.  The trees in the area seem to be a mix of both deciduous and coniferous, and at this point Syndicate Road has been paved and has become an official road.  Mission Park and the parking lots behind it were not built until 1971.

            The natural history of the Syndicate Road Woods is noticeable in the terrain of the woods today.  The trees represent those that are usually in existence in old areas of cultivation, especially paper birch, red oak, sugar maple, hemlock, beech and yellow and black birch.  There is little human impact within the woods besides the telephone lines that run north/south along Syndicate Road.  The Syndicate Road woods present an interesting history of a land that was once cultivated and is now very much untouched by human hands.         

Gordon Smith

Natural History of the Berkshires

11/17/09

Field Blog 8: Land Use History for Mission Park

The area that is now known as Mission Park has undergone several changes since colonial settlers first laid eyes on it.

The area that would be my site at Mission Park occupies an area at the north end of housing lots as shown on the original colonial plan for Williamstown that was drawn in 1749. To be more specific, I believe it occupies space touching on housing lots 48, 50 and 52.

For a long period of time between this 1749 map and 1806, it is believed that the area was a hay meadow that may have also been used for grazing animals. The flatness and smoothness of the topography of the current Mission Park also indicates that it was plowed for crops at some point as well during this period, though when is again uncertain.

Though Samuel Sloan was not the original owner of lots 48, 50 or 52, it is known that he acquired the property containing Mission Park sometime before 1806. This is clear because the area, before it was renamed, was known as “Sloan’s Meadow.”

In 1806, there was a fierce thunderstorm raging over Williamstown, and five students, including Samuel John Mills (class of 1809) were caught in the storm on their way back from a religious congregation. These young men took shelter under a haystack in Sloan’s Meadow, and while they were waiting out the storm, began to talk of the word of God. The course of their conversation led them to decide that they would start spreading the “Gospel on a global basis.” And in this way, the American Foreign Mission was born.

Almost 50 years later in 1854 the College Society of Alumni and the Board of Trustees decided to purchase 10 acres of the land surrounding the original haystack, and renamed the area “Mission Park or Grounds” as a historical park. In 1867, the marble Haystack Monument commemorating the 1806 event was raised in the park.

Since this time, there has been relatively little change to the overall land use of the area. Williams College has maintained the area as a historical park, which seems to have involved groundskeepers maintaining the surrounding area. Trees were grown and trimmed, and based on their diversity, it would not surprise me if at least some of them had been planted purposefully for aesthetic reasons. In addition, the area seems to have been kept for the most part clear of bushes, though it is uncertain how long this clearing has been taking place.

There also have been several building projects completed in Mission Park. In 1895/6, Williams Hall Annex was built in the area that currently contains the Mission Park dormitory. This building was used as an infirmary until 1911 when Thomson Infirmary was built to the north. It was converted into a dormitory by 1919, and was used as freshmen housing starting from 1922.

In 1926, the Theta Delta Chi fraternity house was moved next to Williams Hall Annex, and was renamed Sage Hall Annex. In consecutive years, the two buildings served a variety of purposes: football training housing, dining halls, housing for returning veterans and their families after World War II, and others. Eventually, Williams Annex was torn down in 1968, and it is believed that Sage Annex was moved off of Mission Park.

In the late 1960s through 1971, the current Mission Dormitory was constructed. Mitchell-Giurgola and associates designed the building, and in 1970 the clever architectural design of the building earned its builders a Progressive Architecture design award. The building was opened in 1971, and had cost the college $5,400,000.

As can be seen, the land of Mission Park has been for the most part unchanged since it was made into a historical park: it has not been cleared or plowed, but neither has it been allowed to develop and have succession as would a natural setting due to those who maintain its grounds.

This is a drawing that appeared in Durfee’s Biographical Annals in 1871. As can be seen, the surrounding area is for the most part empty of trees. Keep in mind, however, that this is an artist’s interpretation of the site, and that the monument is actually much smaller than it is portrayed here.

Sage and WIlliams Annexes are the two houses below Williams and Sage Halls where Mission Dormitory now stands. My site (between the annexes and the halls) seems similarly forested then to how it is now.

Mission Dormitory when it was under construction in 1971. The trees in my site look nearly identical to the present.

Stephen Maier

19 November 2009

Throughout the semester, our class has been discussing the impact of human touch on the natural environment people live in. We have been trying to uncover the secrets that the land we live upon holds. Acute concentration is often necessary for one to discover key elements within a site. An understanding of the land and its soil is also important in fully revealing its natural history.

In the West Clark Woods, there are several instances of noteworthy human intervention that caught my attention today, November 19^th, 2009. First, an old link of barbed wire is hidden in the brush along the forest floor. Occasionally it will sink its teeth into my pant leg and resist my getaway. This dangerous fence was used as a means of containing the cattle and horses in a designated grazing area before the wooden fence was assembled along the top of the hill. Now there are segments of this old fence hiding in the leaves serving no purpose, yet putting visitors who enter at risk. Another sign of human intervention, yet very subtle, is a large rock pile at the base of the hill, slightly above the water level of the wetlands. This may appear simply as a pile of rocks to someone who is unaware. However, as one learned on the history in this site, I recognize that this heap of rocks is too concentrated in one small area for it to be naturally occurring. Years ago, when the cleared land on Stone Hill was being cultivated, rocks were cleared from the fields and transferred downhill on stone sleds and dropped in one location, accumulating many rocks in one area. A third sign of human intervention is a long strip of thin, bent, rusted metal. Its use may be speculated; however, I am not certain how, or for what, it was used. I imagine it once belonged to a machine that helped assemble the barbed wire fence. There are several large slabs of concrete scattered in the West Clark Woods and I found one cinder block. Clearly, this plot of land has experienced some human activity over the past couple centuries.

I would be missing potential clues if I were to neglect the signs of natural existence here. I sought out evidence indicating that humans had opted to leave the land alone. The first indication was the rocks scattered throughout the woods. If this land were once used to cultivate crops, there would be land without rocks, for rocks would damage or interfere with plows. In addition, this land would be relatively flat facilitating the planting and sowing processes. The landscape of these woods is hilly. A farmer would undoubtedly grow frustrated while collecting his crops. He even may have tipped his tractor in a daring attempt to plow this sloped terrain. Not only is the land hilly, but also it is uneven. Flat land would suggest that prior inhabitants leveled out the plot for agriculture. However, mounds and pits are apparent, which are the result of natural events. Trees grow tall and die, just as humans do. When trees die, they become weak while still erect. It may only take a firm breeze to knock one over uprooting the base. A hole, or pit, is left in its wake, and as time passes the dirt contained in the lattice of roots falls to the earth and forms a mound with the decomposing tree. This resulting “bumpy” landscape is indicative of natural existence, leading me to conclude that this land was never cultivated.

A soil pit would ratify this conclusion; however, tools are not readily available for use, disabling me from digging into the earth for verification. I drove to the Rosenburg Center to borrow a shovel, but the caretaker was not in. To my dismay, the shed was locked and there was nothing useful lying around the gardens. However, I took this as a blessing in disguise, for digging in the West Clark Woods would be illegal considering it is private property. I imagine the soil in my site would be identical to that of the Torrey Woods, a site we visited two days ago that was never used for cultivation. Its soil had three distinct layers: the O Horizon (organic), the A Horizon (organic-rich and clay-poor), and the B Horizon (clay-rich). If we had dug deeper, a fourth layer (the C Horizon) would have been apparent. Had a shovel been at my disposal, I imagine I would have seen an identical scheme, with the three layers indicating no plowing activity had ever occurred.

I believe my site may have fallen victim to the hands of lumbermen. I believe it was once used as a wood lot. After consulting images taken from this past spring, I believe it is a secondary wood lot, perhaps a hemlock wood lot, for there did not seem to be any rich primary wood lot flowers, no spring ephemerals. I have previously noted lycopods and asters in my site, which are both indicative of a secondary wood lot, leading me to be confident in my assessment.

These sounds were recorded on October 26, 2009. The picture, incidentally, was taken earlier in the season. Access the YouTube video HERE!

video can be found HERE!
It was a mild and overcast today at the Pond. The breeze was quite calm and the air was a balmy 59 degrees – balmy, that is, for Homecoming weekend, rather a chilly time in the past few years. I had a borrowed video camera in hand and set out to capture a basic tour of the site and its environs for a video blog entry. The following is a written interpretation thereof that I hope will explicate some of the features I have been describing, up until now, in writing alone.
I moved first to get some shots of the two mallards patrolling the mostly-glassy pond surface. Today I identified both a male and female mallard – until today I cannot remember having seen a male mallard on the pond. The difference is most apparent in the plumage. The male is largely white with stripes of black and brown on his body and a dark green on his head to attract attention during mating. The female has more mottled plumage, she is brown and grey throughout, that presumably better hides her from predators. The difference is most apparent when they dive for food and the male shows his white underbelly to the sky for a few seconds. Here I have captured them from two angles, the first looking east from the west bank and the second looking north from the south bank. The first segment ends with a look at the huge red maple at the north end of the pond which has been leafless longer than any of the trees at the site.
I progress counter-clockwise around the pond from there, and the next few seconds of footage show the grove of tall white pines from the south bank where they stand. The white marble walls of the Clark’s permanent collection gallery can be seen adjacent to the pines, as well as a small parking area. The white building to the west is the Williamstown Art Conservation building which stands between Wall’s Pond and Stone Hill. The conservation building is usually responsible for most of the ambient light and noise at the site, especially at night, but today its nearly ubiquitous mechanical hum are absent.
At about a minute and a half I moved into the bordering vegetation on the southeast bank to show a small outflow cut into the grasses and weeds by excess water. The footing was soft here so I hesitated to go much further towards the water, but as the video pans across the far side of the pond, take notice of the “leaning” white pine in all its precarious glory. The frame lingers again on the white pines at the south end and then sweeps across the length of the pond. Next week will include a history of the site and some background information on past land use there – those pines are the tallest trees on the site, but it will be interesting if I can divine from photos and other evidence just how old they are and how long they have dominated the Wall’s Pond skyline.
The video turns next to the eastern meadow that buffers the backyards on South Street (the large brick building is Fort Hoosac, first-year art history graduate program housing and the site of my encounter with the hawk and the crows two weeks ago). The following shots again show the pond from the eastern edge. For reference, the area to the right of white pines and bare-branched sugar maples is what I have been calling, in past blogs, the “entrance” to the pond. The cow fence along the far side of the pond has also come into my entries in the past weeks. Populated with now-bare sugar maple, ash, and beech, this strip of woods was where my one close encounter with animal life came during my night visit to the site.
At around two minutes and thirty seconds, the camera turns to the thickest area of bordering vegetation around the outside of the pond. The plants in this area have browned considerably since I first saw them in full late-summer bloom, but they continue to provide a marshy barrier to the mowed and unmowed areas around the outside of the pond. The last shot was taken from the north end, panning south and east from the cow fence, across the whole of the pond, and ending at Fort Hoosac.