The Epping Base Line trip with Nancy Willey

On Saturday September 29, 2018, a foggy morning that soon burned off, sixteen folks got on a bus to hear Nancy Willey speak about the Epping Base Line in Columbia. The bus tour started at the Union Hall in Columbia Falls at 9 a.m. and we traveled up to Centerville to begin learning about kames, kettle holes, and to ride across a natural bridge.

Mrs. Willey told us that during the ice age the glacier that was two miles high came through and took our top soil and as it went it left boulders and rocks along the way and deposited the top soil in New Jersey. That is why New Jersey is called the garden state.

We were told that kames is a glacial land form that is an irregular shaped hill made up of sand and in Centerville it is found on a ridge that stretches from Cutler to the White Birches in Ellsworth.

We stopped in several place to enjoy the view from the hill, where we could see mountains to the West of us and views to the East of us.

We were told that the cemetery stones at the little cemetery that we stopped at were made of Italian marble and were called sugar stones as they dissolve over time and looks like sugar in a heap. These stones were used as ballast on ships as they came to the new world. Not many were left in this little cemetery.

We then stopped on the natural bridge to hear that the glacier had dropped ice that broke off on both side of the road forming a natural bridge through the woods.

The kettle holes that we saw we were told that they were formed from the receding glacier forming a hole where the ice from glaciers had broken off. One such kettle hole was to far down for our group to try to get to the bottom and to be able to get back out of it.

We then headed to the Station Road in Columbia to begin another point of interest in our tour.

Here we saw rock trains, made up of erratic boulders that were left by the glacier that came though here. We learned that the Great Heath was the largest heath in the United States and that we have lemmings residing there.

We traveled to the eastern monument spot and got out to hear that we were on a ridge where thousands of years ago the ocean came up this far. We could look off in the distant and could see the Atlantic Ocean. The barrens in front of us had turned different colors of red and we could see some foliage off in the distant that had started to turn colors too.

Mrs Willey informed us that the two markers that were at the beginning of the base line road were the only two left. The others over the years had disappeared along the road.

If you look ahead you will see an old tree stump looming along side of the base line and we were told that was called the lunch tree as in the earlier days when the blueberry farmers were working on their land they would take their lunch break by this tree.

As we traveled along the road we stopped at Frog Rock to stretch our legs and get a group picture. We were lucky that two folks that were out riding on the barrens stopped and became our photographer.

As we rode along we could see that the barrens were coming into their glory with the blueberry bushes turning red and because there are so many different kinds of blueberry clones the different shades made it look like a patch work quilt.

We came upon the area where the base line continues through the woods and a detour has been made to go out around that section. Further ahead we parked the bus and got out to eat our lunches. Here we could see the base line road coming out of the woods and making its way towards us.

After we had our lunch we traveled down the road to another spot where we all got out to hear Mrs. Willey tell us what we were looking at and to sing a song about purple mountains and fruited plains. Off in the distant we could see the purple mountains and of course the fruited plains were the blueberry barrens.

We then continued to the area where again the road goes into the trees where a few able body folks ventured to walk the rest of the way to the Western monument. I of course drove the bus to the entrance and parked. Here we learned that the Western monument had been removed and is now in Augusta for safe keeping from vandals. Many photos were taken with Mrs Nancy Willey and her plaque that was placed on near by on a erratic rock.

Our trip was not over as Mrs. Willey took us to Cherryfeld Ridge Road to see the Big Rock Ridge with all of the erratic rocks that we were told will never be removed and will stay as an historical example of where the glacier dropped these rocks. This was a site to behold as they stood out where the blueberry company had hayed this area to get ready to burn in the spring. This area harvesters will not be able to use their machines but hand rakers will be used instead to pick the area.

Our journey over the barrens with Mrs. Willey had now come to an end and we all enjoyed learning about the ice age that came through and about the last remaining base line on the East Coast.