This summer I have spent more time driving on the Point Road, having bought a home in the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park in Willsboro, NY. So in addition to visiting our family home out there, I now live just past the family home.
One building I have looked at for years is the old, former Smith House. It has such character and I have wished for years that it would get fixed up and that it would once again feel the joy of having a family live in it.
Anyway, one day I noticed a small structure in the field just behind it, just past a few trees. Probably it has been there for a while, but it is difficult to see it against the vegetation all around there. This time, in a higher vehicle, I saw it against the sky. I stopped in the driveway and made my way through the vegetation to this object. Later on I brought my cousin, Xandra Pool, to check it out. Eventually we thought it used to carry a wind sock. Its location was not good for a plane runway, and we do not remember seeing a runway around there in the past years.
So, what is it? Why is it where it is? Another query for the readers of Essex on Lake Champlain.
Take a look at the photos above and try to identify this mystery object!
Related articles
- Sleepers (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- Eve Ticknor’s Boathouse Photos (rosslynredux.com)
- Childhood Memories of Essex (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- Llama and Turkeys in Essex? (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- The Kent Camp: John Bird Burnham and Kent School (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
How tall is it? What is the inner diameter of the circle?
The pole is probably 8 or 10 feet up from the ground. I have not measured the circle diameter, not being quite tall enough, but have learned it is most likely the wind sock for an air strip for a plane or helicopter some years ago.
I suspect that the windsock hypothesis is well founded, but I can’t help but see a vague resemblance to an “old school” lacrosse stick! 😉 Perhaps this was once the playing field of the Iroquois?!?!
My recollection of a lacross stick is with a smaller, narrower hoop section………
Unfortunately I don’t have good recall, but when I was quite young, just after WWII, my father, Charles Nichols, was an Air warden/plane spotter. He would take me with him to the Point somewhere where there was a small shed/building with pictures of planes, and a log book. He would take his binoculars, and was to record or report if he saw any of the planes on the charts. In my mind I can see a windsock on a pole there. I have here somewhere a handmade arm band with a red cross on it and the words “air warden”. I was born in 1942, so not sure how old I was when he took me there with him, nor if it was during the final years of the war or after that. I have no idea if it was in that same location or elsewhere, just that it was an open field. I hope I haven’t created yet another mystery and that it was indeed on that spot.
Thanks for sharing your memories! It could very well be that location.
I’m unable to view the photo but at one time there was an old Windsock next too an ad-hoc helicopter landing pad just off the “Old Smith House” parking lot.
Interesting, Justin. That would make LOTS of sense!