FORGOTTEN ROADS 159 



through the so-called Beacon Hills which lie just to 

 the east of the Hoosac Tunnel, between the gorge 

 of the Deerfield River and Vermont. The villages 

 amid these hills are far above sea-level — is not the 

 cemetery in West Heath said to be "the highest 

 point of cultivated ground in Massachusetts"? — 

 and reached by highways which lead up from the 

 river and railroad over thank- you -marm rapids 

 and beside tumbling brooks. The road from Mon- 

 roe Bridge to Rowe rises something like a thousand 

 feet in one mile, which is considered a bit of a grade, 

 even in those parts. It is not abandoned — but it 

 ought to be. Before the Mohawk Trail state high- 

 way over Hoosac Mountain was built, the descent 

 into North Adams was nearly as severe. From the 

 eastern mouth of the Hoosac Tunnel there is an 

 abandoned road which leads northeastward toward 

 Rowe. It runs past a cellar hole or two, climbing 

 steeply, and suddenly walks into the back dooryard 

 of a farm, apparently entering the house. But if 

 you go around the corner you discover that it has 

 done the same thing, and then become a living high- 

 way, though a grassy one. It keeps on past several 

 upland farms, growing less grassy with each, till it 

 comes down the hill and over the brook to the front 

 porch of the Rowe general store and post-office. 



When I got to the Rowe store, twenty years ago, 

 I bought Boston crackers and sage cheese (both of 

 which could still be procured in those happy days), 

 and entered into a conversation which resulted in 

 my spending two weeks in that delightful sky village, 

 where a hundred years before Preserved Smith had 

 preached in the "old center" farther on up the 



