David Carroll’s history of the Warner River valley from glaciation to the present has completely omitted the 150 or so years when it was massively disrupted by the building and operation of the Concord to Claremont railroad.

Although now mostly reforested, RR builders completely recontoured the valley to accommodate the railroad as can still easily be seen today and for the next 100 years or so snorting coal burning locomotives ran several trips a day up and down the valley. By contrast, a few people walking or biking along the abandoned RR right of way seems pretty benign.

James Sindelar

Hopkinton