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The Housatonic Heritage Walk through Dark Hollow was led by Tom Key Saturday, Sept. 6.
Patrick L. Sullivan
LAKEVILLE — Tom Key led a group through Dark Hollow in Lakeville during a Housatonic Heritage Walk on a drizzly Saturday morning, Sept. 6
Dark Hollow is about 175 acres of preserved land bisected by a seasonal dirt road that runs between Farnam Road and Salmon Kill Road. The group of 10 or so gathered near the Farnam Road entrance, just past the property that was once a home for the indigent.
The Salisbury Association Land Trust bought the property in 2002, helped by a large donation by the Belcher family.
The land trust takes a “forever wild” approach to the land. If a tree falls over a trail or the road and blocks passage, it will be cut.
Otherwise, the land stays the way it is. However, there is a sign on a downed tree at the start of the trail.
Key said the tree is too high up to be safely cut with a chain saw. So hikers either have to go around, or simply go under.
The sign refers to this, obliquely, with a reference to “aquatic fowl.”
Or “duck.”
This joke took a while to sink in among the hikers.
Volunteers have removed all sorts of things from Dark Hollow over the years, including mattresses, bedsprings and assorted roadside debris.
But since the land trust volunteers keep an eye on the property the amount of trash has decreased significantly.
One of the enduring tales of Dark Hollow is the one about the tombstone bearing the name Charlotte Remington.
Key came across the tombstone some years back. It had two sets of dates on it, adding to the mystery. The land trust board decided they didn’t want it, so Key dragged it into the woods off the path and covered it with leaves.
The next time he went up the ridge it was back in its original spot. Then the stone disappeared again, this time for good.
It has not returned.
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Iron history at Beckley Furnace
Sep 10, 2025
Members of the Friends of Beckley Furnace, from left, Dolores Perotti, David McCunn, Bobby Anderson and Geoff Brown, were on hand on Sept. 6 to give tours.
L. tomaino
EAST CANAAN — On a quiet Saturday morning, Sept. 6, at the Beckley Furnace in East Canaan, it was hard to imagine that the peaceful, green spot where the blast furnace stands was once filled with buildings, horses, carts, workers, smoke, and heat from the furnace.
Friends of Beckley Furnace guide David McCunn stood by the furnace saying it could reach temperatures of 2,700 degrees.
At the top of the furnace a mixture of charcoal, iron and limestone was poured into it. Melting iron filtered down to where workers guided its flow along a channel on the way to be cast into “iron pigs,” bars of iron, from which iron products would be made in Lakeville, Limerock, Amesville, and other towns.
These bars would be made into such products as cannons, cannon balls and wheels for railroad cars.
The waste from the iron making process, known as slag, was carried to the other side of the Blackberry River. McCunn and fellow guides Bobby Anderson and Geoff Brown, said that the slag, still there, covers 23 acres and is 90 feet deep.
McCunn pointed out a “salamander” resting at the side of the furnace. Iron had become fused to furnace bricks. The furnace fires needed to be kept going. “Fires go out and a salamander results,” said McCunn.When this happened, he said, “They had to shut down and break the furnace apart to get it out.” McCunn said it happened about once a year. The salamanders were often thrown in the river.
McCunn said this location had all that was needed for the furnace. “Water power, limestone, iron from Salisbury and plenty of trees to make charcoal.”
Beckley Furnace when it was in production with its buildings intact. Provided
A path up a small hill leads to the turbine which the Friends of Beckley Furnace uncovered and restored. The turbine, powered by water, provided the power to pump air for the “blast” which made the process of making iron more efficient.
The furnace is named for John Adam Beckley of the Forbes and Adam Iron company who built it in 1847. In 1858 it was bought by the Barnum and Richardson Company and produced iron until 1918 or 1919.
Geoff Brown indicated that the advent of another metal was the beginning of the end for the iron industry in the northwest corner.“The Holleys were respectable local iron people,” he said. “One of the sons went to England and saw the Bessemer Process. He saw the future coming: steel.”
Brown said Holley had told people on Mt. Riga in Salisbury he’d be back with something to keep the industry going, but instead he went to Pittsburgh. Brown mused about how changed the Northwest Corner would be had steel come to Salisbury.
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What’s journalism — and what’s not
Sep 10, 2025
We know that our community values its journalism. The generous contributions from readers and the steady support from our advertisers is evidence that you value the job we do in providing a weekly report on the goings and comings in your towns and in the region. But how about the larger world of American news consumers? A recent study by the Pew Research Center on “How Americans View Journalists in the Digital Age” reveals that most us put value on the role of journalists in society, even as they see their influence declining.
The study also explores the mixed views of Americans when it comes to the various types of content that journalists provide. Respondents in the study are either unsure about or actually don’t think that someone who compiles and shares someone else’s reporting, or offers opinions or commentary should be called a journalist. Someone who conducts his or her own reporting would be — yes — a journalist. The highest certainty about who Americans qualify to be journalists falls to anyone who writes for a newspaper, followed by television and radio reporters, including radio news show hosts. Newsletters, podcasts and social media posts largely fall into a “not-journalism” category. However, the study also found perceptions differed by age group. Four in ten adults aged 18 to 29 said that “someone who posts about news on social media is a journalist,” while in the ‘65-and-up’ group, only 14% considered social media posts as the work of a journalist.
Americans are most likely to see journalists as those who conduct their own reporting. The staff at The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News produce original content. We are present at meetings, events, community fairs, sporting events and elsewhere in the community to report what we see and hear.We are journalists producing our own content.
In what might be a commentary on today’s world, the study found that 59% of Americans say journalists are “extremely” or “very important” to the well-being of society. But 49% also say journalists are losing their influence. In past surveys by Pew, journalists have been less trusted to act in the best interest of the public than other institutions and professions, including the military, scientists and police officers.
When it comes to what Americans want from their news providers: Honesty, intelligence and authenticity top the list. And those attributes are followed by kindness — meaning that it’s important to Americans at large that the people who provide their news display kindness. Americans care far less about wanting humor, charisma or popularity from their news sources.
In today’s polarized society, it is encouraging to see that Pew found three-quarters of Americans believe that journalists should report both sides of an issue or event, giving all sides equal coverage. That’s also in line with the perspective of U.S. journalists themselves, according to an earlier Pew survey.
What do you think?
How do you view journalism in the digital age? Who counts as a journalist? What matters most to you from a journalist? Do you agree that both sides of an issue deserve equal coverage?
Let us know by emailing publisher@lakevillejournal.com
(To read the full Pew report, go to: pewrsr.ch/4fDZmnll)
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