603 INFORMER / WHAT DO YOU KNOW?
A Lupine Truck Road A mysterious sign leads to a wildlife wonderland STORY AND PHOTOS BY MARSHALL HUDSON
I
was eastbound on NH Route 25A somewhere between Orford and Wentworth, when the first hand-lettered sign grabbed my attention, “Lupine Tour ... 4 Wheel Drive Vehicles Only ...” I just happened to be driving a four-wheel drive pickup, so this seemed like an opportunity not to be bypassed. I made the turnoff and started up gravel roads that got narrower and steeper with each turn. The sign at the next intersection read, “High Clearance Vehicles Only!” and I wondered what I was getting into. The next sign suggested that I “Go Slow” and then, “Please Stay On Road.” I was hoping not to end up in a ditch, so staying on the road was agreeable to me. Although the sign did make me contemplate turning around. I ended up in Quinttown, an area mostly forgotten about in the southeastern corner
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of Orford. Quinttown was named after Benjamin Quint, a sailor who served with John Paul Jones during the Revolutionary War and settled here in 1788. Census records indicate there were at least seven Quint households by 1840, and it was once a thriving village of over 200 people before the Civil War. With the construction of the railroads and free land out west, Quinttown steadily declined, and by 1910, fewer than 40 people called the village home. Today it’s mostly forests, cellar holes and history. I drove through a gate and another sign told me I had just entered onto the “Thomson Family Tree Farm & Wildlife Habitat Area.” New Hampshire is a small state and I had met Tom Thomson before — he and I have bumped into each other and worked on mutual projects a handful of times over the last few decades. I contacted Tom and
The Thomson Family Tree Farm & Wildlife Habitat Area is a hidden gem.
we met up for a personally guided tour of this lupine truck road. Tom and his wife, Sheila Thomson, purchased this 1,060-acre tract in 1989 from International Paper, a multinational forest products company that was then selling off much of its New England landholdings. Most of the accessible portions of this property had been aggressively logged prior to the Thomsons’ purchase and the land needed attention. The initial goal was to establish vegetation on the disturbed slopes to hold the soil. An access road was needed to facilitate cleanup and stabilizing of the
When the lupine are in bloom, the Thomson Tree Farm is open to the public.
