32 minute read
During COVID
PHOTO: WENDY CARLSON
Charting a Course Toward Activism
Abraham Keita ’20 believes in leaving the world a better place than he found it.
BY WENDY CARLSON
IT DIDN’T TAKE LONG for Abraham Keita to discover his favorite place on campus. It wasn’t the snack bar or the lounge; it was the quiet spaces of the library. Growing up in Liberia where public libraries were non-existent, he was astounded by the sheer number of volumes in the Edsel Ford Memorial Library.
Keita arrived at Hotchkiss as a postgraduate student last fall as part of a scholarship program sponsored by Leighton Longhi ’63, which provides an additional year of academic preparation for exceptional high school students accepted at Yale. With his wide smile and humble demeanor, Keita fit in easily at Hotchkiss, even though the campus’s undulating green landscape and Georgian buildings stood in sharp contrast to the place where he grew up.
Abraham, who goes by his last name, Keita, was born in a slum neighborhood of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, during the country’s second civil war. When he was five years old, his father — who was a driver for a humanitarian relief organization for refugees — was killed during an ambush. Since he stayed home to help his mother support the family, Keita didn’t start school until he was nine years old.
By then, he had already become an advocate for children’s rights. Outraged by the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in his community, he took part in a peaceful protest, demanding that the perpetrators — her foster parents — be brought to trial. Soon after, he was invited to join the Liberian Children’s Parliament, which inspired in him a passion for advocacy.
When a boy in his neighborhood was killed by armed forces while protesting against the blockades set up to contain the Ebola virus, Keita, then 14, organized a march to compel the Liberian government to take responsibility for the boy’s death.
The march sparked a national debate and eventually forced the government to acknowledge its culpability. For his work to end violence and injustice against children, Keita received the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2015, joining the ranks of youth activists Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg.
He became a member of The KidsRights Youngsters, a youth-led advocacy and awareness coalition composed of recipients of the International Children’s Peace Prize, and went on to address the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates on the refugee
crisis and the importance of justice and safety for children. In 2016, he spoke to the UN Human Rights Council about child protection. Then, in 2017, while leading a march to protest the assault of a 13-year-old girl by a Liberian government official, Keita was arrested for criminal coercion and slander in Liberia.
“When I was taken to prison, I remember my mother coming to visit in tears and admonishing me. I told her the world cannot change if you’re too afraid to act,” Keita recalls.
But he came to realize that a willingness to act would not be enough to bring about change; education was a crucial part of societal transformation.
The impact of the civil war, compounded by the 2015 Ebola outbreak, which closed schools across Liberia, took a toll on the country’s fragile education system.
“In Liberia,” Keita says, “there are around 500,000 children who have never sat in a classroom, and 1.1 million who will not graduate. Even those who do are, at times, still illiterate due to inadequate schools. When I was growing up, we never had any
After the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Keita joined the March for Our Lives demonstration for tighter gun control in Washington, D.C.
public libraries in Liberia. And I doubt there are any now. But I always read and was fascinated by books; whether it was an outdated physics book lying along the street or a damaged math book in the hand of a student, I saw books as the way and the light. There was this one bookshop in Monrovia where I would go, to just glance at books. It was a source of joy.”
He graduated from high school in Liberia in 2016, was invited to the U.S. to speak at an event on violence against children during the UN General Assembly that year. He returned twice, in 2017 and 2018, and applied to colleges. But it wasn’t until Yale offered him a full scholarship on the condition that he complete a year at Hotchkiss that he knew he would attend college in the United States. After clearing some immigration hurdles that delayed his arrival, he moved to the United States, where he continued his advocacy. Shortly after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, he joined the March for Our Lives demonstration for tighter gun control in Washington, D.C. When he arrived at Hotchkiss in the fall of 2019, he chose a co-curricular service project that included working with intellectually disabled students at a Hudson Valley farm.
Although his time in Lakeville was cut short when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the campus to close, Keita gained much from his Hotchkiss experience. Not surprisingly, when he could find some free time, he settled into his usual chair in the library, where he would lose himself for hours in literature, philosophy, poetry, or U.S. history. “I learned that time is of the essence,” reflects Keita. “Everything I did was timed — waking up in the morning, going for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, homework, co-curriculars — each activity needs to be done within a specified time. Every night, I would sit in my dorm room and reflect on all the things I had done during the day, and the feeling that I had accomplished it all was exciting.”
Hotchkiss also gave him the opportunity to live in a diverse and interdependent community, with people from different cultures, backgrounds, and identities from all around the world. “This experience further cemented my perspective on tolerance of different people and issues. It taught me the essence of intercultural communication,” he says.
The biggest challenge for Keita was learning to navigate the classroom and course system at Hotchkiss, which was completely different from his high school in Liberia.
“In my country, including the high school I attended, I didn’t get to switch from one classroom to the other. No matter how many subjects (courses) I was taking, they all occurred in just one room, often in a single sitting except the 45-minute break period (recess) for lunch. After lunch, students return to their respective classrooms for the second half of the school day, which for most day schools is 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. But for my school, we weren’t out until 4 p.m. Unlike Hotchkiss, my school didn’t have a course catalog that students had to select courses from, and the fewest number of students in a class was 45,” he says.
Even though he had so much to offer the Hotchkiss community from his own life experience, Keita was known for his humility, according to his advisor, David Thompson, director of international programs.
“Since he arrived, he has said that this year is an opportunity to learn from others, to hear their stories, and to witness them applying their skills and pursuing their passions,” Thompson says.
With his family thousands of miles away in Liberia, Keita’s instructors became more than teachers; they became his mentors, shaping both his academic and personal life. “They taught me to analyze and critique books: a lesson that I shouldn’t always accept ‘what is,’ but seek ‘what can be’ or ‘what ought to be.’ They inspired and helped me look for answers even when there seem to be none,” he said.
After he graduates from Yale, Keita plans to return to Liberia, braced with a renewed passion to make his country a better place than when he left it.
“I believe issues of human rights are not bounded by geography; they penetrate every border and every wall,” he said.
“Whether I am home or abroad, for me, standing up and speaking for human rights is a moral imperative, and I will continue to do so, even here in the United States. Activism has no nationality. And as a global citizen, a citizen of the world, what affects my country, Liberia, indirectly affects the United States, and vice versa. This is what keeps my passion alive, the belief that we are one human family, not defined and restricted by borders.”
Dynamo A on the Mat BY WENDY CARLSON
Simone Straus ’21 is only the seventh Hotchkiss student to earn All-American recognition in wrestling by finishing fourth in the Prep National Wrestling Tournament last winter. In the process, Straus also helped to make history by participating in the first-ever girls’ bracket at the event. This spring, she spoke with Hotchkiss Magazine about her very first match, overcoming stereotypes, and her favorite move, the “Fireman’s Carry.”
H: In recent years, high school girls wrestling has grown extremely quickly, outpacing boys in popularity. Why do you think that is?
S: Girls wrestling has a unique culture of leading by example that has allowed the sport to grow so quickly. In fact, this is what inspired me to wrestle: Demetra, a friend from my former school, joined the wrestling team in seventh grade. The first time I ever considered joining wrestling was after watching her win a middle-school match. She has always been one of my biggest inspirations, and she is now wrestling at Princeton.
Similarly, at Hotchkiss, a few girls tried wrestling because they knew either Mackenzie Huang ’20 or I wrestled. It’s a domino effect that will hopefully expand until girls’ wrestling becomes mainstream and accepted across the country.
H: Tell me about your first match. How did you feel going onto the mat?
S: If I could erase all videographic evidence of one event in my life, it would be my first wrestling match in seventh grade. I had joined the middle-school wrestling team only a couple of weeks earlier, and I had never been so nervous in my entire life. My opponent was not even mildly intimidating, yet I sat in the corner absolutely terrified, because I knew I was about to engage in physical combat in front of everyone — and that was definitely going to be embarrassing. I ended up losing by one point to this boy with pretty much no skill. I was devastated, but that emotion fueled my desire to get better.
H: What is it about wrestling that you find especially compelling? It isn’t all about strength; technique and tactical moves are also key elements, right?
S: I love that wrestling is both a team and an individual sport. Team performance is driven by aggregate match points, but the outcome of your match comes down to you alone. I’ve always been hyper-competitive, and I distinctly remember my frustration during soccer games or tennis matches when a team member would not put forth much effort. In wrestling, when you’re on the mat, your teammates can neither help nor hurt your performance. You’re out there alone — no coach, no teammates, just you and your opponent. There’s something exquisite about the focus required to fight someone one-on-one. During my matches, I am completely in the zone, and I tune out everything except my opponent and my coach’s voice. There’s something beautiful in that simplicity.
Technique is critical in wrestling, but strength is also a major factor. This has been my primary hurdle in my Hotchkiss wrestling career. Even while lifting yearround and wrestling lean at 120, I’ve found it difficult to compete against men with twice my muscle mass. Even when my opponents lack technique, sometimes they just overpower me. Although these losses frustrate me, I focus on what is in my control: improving technique while making incremental steps in strength.
Coach Cooper Puls ’11 congratulates Straus after her exhausting final match at Nationals.
PHOTO: ARI STRAUS
H: What was it like to compete in Nationals?
S: Competing in Nationals was an amazing, surreal experience. The arena at Lehigh University was packed with hundreds of wrestlers from across the country, with a jumbotron tracking matches across almost a dozen mats. As part of the first Girls Division at the National Prep Championships, I watched and wrestled national champions and members of the Junior Olympic Team. It was a humbling experience and a reminder that I still have a lot to learn. My dad flew up from Florida to see me compete, and my family watched the livestream online.
H: What’s going through your mind when you face an opponent?
S: Match preparation is just as much a mental game as it is physical. In the past, nerves killed my performance, so I’ve practiced techniques to psych myself up. To get in the zone, I repeat Coach Puls’s words to myself: It doesn’t matter who walks out there on the mat. I can win if I wrestle the way I know I can. However, my match preparation continues to evolve and improve, because half the match is won mentally before the first whistle is blown.
When I step on the mat, I always have my first move in mind. During most matches, I experience tunnel vision: I see only my opponent, and I hear only the referee and my coach. I get in the zone in a way that I’ve never really experienced
outside of wrestling. I try my best to maintain this focus and ferocity for the whole match, and if I don’t give that up, then I’m happy.
H: What’s it been like to be one of just a handful of girls on the team?
S: When I began wrestling in middle school, the only other female wrestler had graduated, and I was terrified of how isolated I would be as the only girl on a boys’ team. That mindset — that wrestling is exclusively a boys’ sport — was not unexpected. Even when I wrestled year-round and won a spot at Youth Nationals, no one took me or my place on the team seriously, nor did they accept me as a wrestler or as a person. In contrast, Hotchkiss wrestlers embraced the possibility of a female wrestler. Meeting Coach Puls and the team was a huge factor in my decision to attend Hotchkiss. My teammates respect me as a person and a wrestler, and they meet me with excitement and motivation every day. This dynamic has allowed me to not only improve, but also to love wrestling more than ever before.
Last year, Hotchkiss had seven female wrestlers, which is a record for the School. The team will continue to grow, and we hope to bring home more wins for all of our Bearcats!
H: Have you had to work against the “tough girl” stereotype of women wrestlers?
S: Definitely, and I think that has been one of the hardest things for me to overcome personally. In middle school, especially, I was not really accepted as a wrestler because I did not fit the “tough girl” image. Right before one of my first matches, a mother of another wrestler stood up and screamed at me: “Look at her! She’s weak — that is NOT a wrestler. Get her the hell off the mat!”
Unfortunately, I’ve gotten a lot of similar comments from kids. The most common reaction I get from boys is them looking me up and down, laughing, and saying there’s no way I’m a wrestler — I look like a girl. At first this upset me, but by eighth grade I learned to not let these comments get to me. Instead of trying to put on a “tough girl” facade, I painted my nails hot pink before every match. I love delivering the unexpected to people who may have pre-judged me based on my appearance, like that mother or boys who laughed or pointed at me. What I hope to teach these people is that you can “look like a girl” and still be fierce, and you can look like a “tough girl” and be fierce. Strong is beautiful, and beautiful is strong.
H: This has typically been an all-boys sport. Did you at first wrestle against boys in your weight class at Hotchkiss, and what was that like?
S: Other than the rare phenomena of all-girls tournaments, I’ve wrestled only boys until this past season (my junior year), the first in five years of wrestling. I started wrestling as a weak, intimidated 110-pound girl. To me, these middle-school boys were the most intimidating people I’d ever seen. I was equally terrified of getting beaten horribly and by the awkwardness that came with being in middle school and learning a combat sport with boys. But I loved the sport and the satisfaction of facing the fear and discomfort head-on. By eighth grade, wrestling boys was my norm, and the larger shock was seeing any other female wrestlers.
H: How have the coaches approached working with girls on the team?
S: What I love about Coach Puls and Coach Dittmer is that they coach us as wrestlers, period. There are few distinctions between working with girls or boys. After I won an unlikely match to earn a Varsity spot, Coach Puls explained that he had no reservations about what I could do as a wrestler. From that moment on, he continued to push me to get better. It’s tough, but I not only embrace the grind but also appreciate the fact that he won’t take it easy on me because I’m a girl. He knows that my gender does not define my success or my character as a wrestler.
However, some gender distinctions are necessary. For example, Coach Puls has taught me moves that focus more on technique rather than strength. Regardless of gender, the coaches are equally caring and proud of each Hotchkiss wrestler in moments of both success and failure. They share those moments of celebration or frustration, but they’re always there to get us right back on our feet and focus on the future. I could not be more grateful for such supportive coaches and fellow Bearcats.
H: After Hotchkiss, would you want to pursue wrestling at the college level?
S: Wrestling truly has my heart, and I would love to pursue the sport beyond Hotchkiss. However, I’ve dreamed my whole life of going to a school like Duke University, and unfortunately, no schools of that caliber have a women’s program yet. So it seems wrestling will have to wait on the back burner. However, I can already envision asking to practice with the team.
H: What’s your favorite move and why?
S: My favorite move is called the Fireman’s Carry. A lot of moves in wrestling, like the foundational Blast Double, require brute strength and are made much easier with height, so when facing much stronger and taller opponents, I have to look to more creative moves. The Fireman’s Carry requires a feel for momentum and timing rather than just height or strength. It’s also a showy, crowdpleaser move, especially when it’s a girl lifting and flipping a boy onto his back. I love surprising people.
Coach Puls poses with Straus after the All-American presentations on the podium.
Math Teacher and Coach Extraordinaire Dave Bolmer ’73
BY ROBERTA JENCKES
Whitney Gulden ’12 remembers being in awe of her advisor David Bolmer ’73, instructor in math; he seemed to possess almost psychic powers.
“While I have had many incredible teachers, particularly at Hotchkiss, I have never had another teacher who was so invested and caring about his students in every aspect of their lives. If I missed a class or was on red card, Mr. Bolmer would call my room immediately to check in. If I did badly on a test or quiz, he might even know before I did.
“Coming into Hotchkiss as an upper mid, I had a difficult transition, and Mr. Bolmer was a huge part of my support network,” she says.
David Bolmer grew up on the Hotchkiss campus in the 1960s, the son of longtime math teacher Stephen Bolmer and his wife, Peggy. Young David enjoyed all the quiet pleasures of life at Hotchkiss. On slumbering spring days, he would regularly watch baseball practice or sometimes tennis. In the evenings, he went to movies, plays, or concerts on campus. It was the perfect life for a child with a lot of interests. Wouldn’t becoming a teacher after college and returning to Lakeville be a slam-dunk?
Well, not necessarily ... Bolmer took a little time to study the matter and to take some learning detours on the way to making a decision. As a student at Hotchkiss, he had especially liked his history courses. So, that was a possibility. “But, I thought, I’m going to be like my father and teach math,” he says. “It’s either right, or it’s wrong.”
“I liked sports,” he says, “but I was never a great athlete. As a prep, I played thirds football, basketball, and baseball. In my last two years, I played JV golf and was on the varsity basketball team senior year.
PHOTO: WENDY CARLSON
DAVID BOLMER ’73
“I always had good coaches,” he says with spirit. “At Hotchkiss, you were a teacher who happened to coach. I remember most that they were enthusiastic. They were always out there; they always had a plan.”
After Hotchkiss, he entered the U.S. Naval Academy. “At that time, I thought, I wasn’t going to be a teacher. I wanted to travel and get out.” After three semesters at the Academy, he decided to leave; a career in the Navy was not for him. For a year, he took college courses and did odd jobs. Then, in the summer of 1975, he got a job working at a summer camp. He found he really liked working with the kids at the camp. That was his aha! moment. He decided then to become a teacher. Enrolling at Springfield College, he studied secondary education with a major in math.
His first teaching job after college was at the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA, followed by four years at Peddie School in Hightstown, NJ. Then, while teaching at Hawaii Preparatory School, he volunteered to coach golf at a resort course nearby, an experience that proved helpful later. In the winter, he was a diving coach at the school.
When he returned home for Christmas from Hawaii, he learned from his father that several faculty were retiring from the Math Department. “If you’re thinking
Top: In the classroom; Center: 1960, in front of VS apartment: from left, brother Tom, father Steve and Dave, and brother Mike ’72; Bottom: Dave, in his Misch senior photo, wearing his Dad’s Navy cap from WWII of applying, now is the time to do it,” his father advised. The following fall, four new teachers joined the math faculty, including Bolmer.
For more than 30 years, he has been teaching his favorite course — honors precalculus. “It’s challenging. Part of my job is to make it difficult, because the kids are so bright. ‘If you are looking for an easy A,’ I say to the students, ‘This is not the course for you.’ And most of the kids like that, that it is challenging. We can have preps, lower mids, and upper mids in the same class, which also makes it interesting to teach.”
The holder of the George P. Milmine ’18 Teaching Chair, Bolmer has made enormous contributions outside of the classroom. The record he has compiled as a coach since 1986 is nothing short of phenomenal: 968-337- 22. As head coach of volleyball, he has led the Hotchkiss team to become Founders League Champions an astonishing 15 times between 1987 and 2010. His record in volleyball was 355-92 over 28 seasons.
As head coach of boys varsity tennis, he led teams in 1998, 1999, and 2015 to Founders League Championships, and as head coach of girls varsity golf, he led the 2019 team to Founders League victory. In March of this year, he was honored with the Archibald A. Smith Award for coaching excellence. The prize was established in 2015 and named for Arch Smith, a headmaster of Trinity-Pawling who led the school for 25 years. It is awarded annually to “a coach for lifetime achievement and commitment to the Founders League ideals of educational excellence, sportsmanship, and outstanding competition.” The description seems tailormade for Bolmer.
“David arrived at Hotchkiss in the fall of 1986,” says Co-Athletic Director Robin Chandler ’87, “and he has coached almost every season since that time. There have been 102 seasons over the past 34 years, and David Bolmer has coached in all but six of those seasons.
“David’s teams are known equally for their talent and success as they are for their sportsmanship. In addition to this rich history of mentoring and teaching young student-athletes on the courts and playing fields, Coach Bolmer is also known in the prep school ranks for his
Photo taken in November 2011: Whitney Gulden ’12, left, and Ice Lekometros ’12 (team co-captain), with Coach Bolmer
constant dedication not only to the various coaching associations of NEPSAC (volleyball, squash, tennis, and golf), but also for his commitment to making sure that all student-athletes have positive experiences through athletics.
“What David has given to Hotchkiss athletics is unparalleled,” says Chandler, “and the legacy he leaves behind is one for the record books! He is one of the most devoted and supportive faculty members at Hotchkiss.”
In 2004, Bolmer’s commitment to his students and to the teaching life received special recognition when he became the first recipient of the Lufkin Prize, which recognizes faculty who make a significant contribution to the character development of Hotchkiss students. The School’s dean of faculty at the time, B. Steven Albert, spoke of Bolmer’s pure and uncomplicated approach to his craft. “Dave knows his
ROBIN CHANDLER ’87 CO-ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
students well, and they know him. They know that he values honesty and that he is honest in all of his communication with others. They know that he values compassion, and he demonstrates that every day in his work with students, in and outside of the class.”
Alessandra Nicolas ’95 echoes this description of her former teacher, who, she says, is still very much in touch with her. “Mr. Bolmer’s friendship has meant a lot to me and, in a way, has continued to connect me to Hotchkiss,” she says. “He is Hotchkiss, he really is! It is special to me that for over 25 years I have remained in contact with my former high school math teacher and volleyball coach. Mr. B knows not only my parents, but my husband, my father-in-law, and, now, my 16-month-old son. As a matter of fact, my son Bronson’s favorite toy is ‘Baby’ — a Hotchkiss teddy bear that Mr. B gave us when Bronson was born.”
In the future, Nicolas hopes she still will be able to visit with “Mr. B” when she comes to Lakeville. And she will — Dave Bolmer has bought a house about a mile from Hotchkiss and plans to stay a while.
When the Great Outdoors is Right Next Door
BY WENDY CARLSON
Finding Solace, Solitude, and a Bit of Hotchkiss History along the Larsen Perimeter Trail
WHEN WIDESPREAD LOCKDOWNS
went into effect earlier this spring, throngs of people headed for the great outdoors, including some members of the Hotchkiss community who had an opportunity to explore the School’s natural surroundings with the help of a new trail map. For all other trekkers, we offer this armchair hike along the sevenmile Larsen Perimeter Trail — no boots or bug spray required.
Created through a generous gift from the Larsen family — brothers Jonathan ’57 and Christopher ’55, P’82, ’88; and Mark ’82, and Chad ’88 — the trail connects the core campus, the athletic fields and golf course, Fairfield Farm, and the surrounding woods, fields, and wetlands. The continuous footpath highlights the natural beauty of the woods, pastures, and farmland, as it traverses Beeslick Brook Woods, Sucker Brook, and Fairfield Farm.
A hike along the Larsen Trail also provides a glimpse into the School’s deep connection to the land throughout its history. From the crumbling remains of the ski jump to the hand-built cabins to the pastures of Fairfield Farm, the walk through the woods brings the School’s past to life.
The trail first enters Beeslick Brook Woods below Sprole Field, a stone’s throw from Lake Wononscopomuc, the state’s deepest natural body of water and one of the defining features of the Hotchkiss landscape. It seems unfathomable today, but during Hotchkiss’s early years, the School harvested its supply of ice from the lake.Workers cut great slabs of ice that were hoisted into a sled-like contraption and hauled by a team of horses up to the icehouse, where they were covered in sawdust and wood shavings and lasted the entire year. A 1937 article in the Hotchkiss Record reports that the School once used 250 tons of lake ice each year for faculty residences without refrigeration and for cooling water in the dormitories.
The School owns more than 500 feet of shoreline, and the waters are used for sailing, canoeing, kayaking, paddling,
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and swimming, as well as providing an outdoor classroom for environmental science and limnology students. Over the years, countless students have been inspired by the shimmering beauty of the lake, among them Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Archibald MacLeish, Class of 1911. Reading one of his very first published poems, “The Canoe by Moonlight,” which appeared in the School’s literary magazine, one might surmise he was inspired by this pristine body of water.
Crossing Route 112 from the lake access road, Larsen Trail begins as a dirt road and quickly narrows into a footpath as it passes Beaver Pond. In the School’s early years, before a proper sanitation system was installed, these wetlands were nicknamed the Stink Swamp since, after being handled by a series of cisterns and pumps, the School’s sewage gradually leached into the marsh. On the far side of Beaver Pond is an observation platform, built more than 30 years ago by a group of seniors and English Instructor Blair Torrey ’50. Over the years, it has been rebuilt; from the deck, you can observe kingfishers, herons, osprey, snapping turtles, and the occasional otter.
From here, the path enters Beeslick Brook Woods, a 200-acre tract of land that the School acquired in 1923. Several interconnecting trails thread through the span of hemlock, ash, pine, oak, cedar, and sugar maples; hidden among them are several wooden shelters that have been used for student retreats. Many of the original wooden structures were built under the watchful eyes of George Van Santvoord, Class of 1908, the School’s fourth headmaster and an avid naturalist and outdoorsman. He established the Woods Squad, then called the Woods Committee, a group of roughly a dozen students who learned how to cut firewood and build shelters.
Ranger’s Cabin, which overlooks Long Pond, is the oldest of the three remaining Duke-era cabins. It is also the best preserved, due to the efforts of members of the Classes of 2007 and 2008. Several other cabins and shelters were built in later years, including one named the Mars Hotel, built by Grateful Dead fan Charles Whittemore ’77. When he died in 1989, his family established a fund to help maintain the
PHOTO: WENDY CARLSON
Top, Kiosks with maps have been installed on the trail; a totem pole borders a stream, and a boardwalk cuts through a wet portion of the footpath. trails, bridges, and cabins. Other students from the ’70s constructed wooden shelters, including Terrapin and Shelter from the Storm, although the Ranger’s Cabin is the one most frequently used by the current Outing Club. Inside, the once white-washed walls and rafters are covered from floor to ceiling with names and remembrances written by former students.
Just up the trail from the Ranger’s Cabin, you can hear the cascading Beeslick Brook Falls, as water spills over giant slabs of limestone bedrock. Nearby, a totem pole made by Brodie Quinn, Beau DeBlois, and Ron Schruefer, all from the Class of 2010, during their senior year was recently removed from its original location behind the Mars Athletic Center and installed on the banks of the brook.
Above the falls, and somewhat difficult to identify, are the remains of the School’s quasi-professional ski jump. Hotchkiss at one time had its own ski jumping team, whose members hauled their equipment out to the Beeslick Woods, where the School had built a wooden set of stairs leading up a steep hillside that formed the jump’s outrun.
The sport seems to have taken off at Hotchkiss sometime after ski jumping was introduced to Salisbury in the mid-1920’s by the Norwegian ski jumper John Satre. In 1926, Satre selected a site, just outside the Salisbury village center, where a more professional jump could be constructed. The jump was improved over the years, and the town became an Eastern ski jumping center, holding regional and national competitions and Olympic team tryouts.
Jerry Green ’46 recalls that even when he was a student, the structure looked like a rickety wooden skeleton. The only remnants now are four concrete blocks that once anchored the jump tower’s four steel supports.
Hotchkiss also had a cross-country ski team that held races through Beeslick Woods on the trail starting at Little Baker Field, below the football field. Skiers would race through the woods and then come out on the ninth hole of the golf course and back to Little Baker. The coach would go out on a snowmobile to set the course. That sport slowly died away as the snow became less reliable, and the skiers spent
more time playing soccer and conditioning than they did skiing, according to former math instructor David Bolmer ’73, who, as a faculty child, grew up on campus.
As the Larsen Trail winds its way through the woods, it is possible to learn something about the history of the forest. If you look carefully, you will be able to spot remnants of stone walls, skeletal red cedars, embedded rusty barbed wire, old railroad ties, and a few large, old trees, whose form betrays that they were once growing in an open field. The current canopy is almost entirely sugar maple — trees whose seedlings sprouted in the cool shade of the white pines, which
recolonized this site when the pasture was abandoned 80 to 90 years ago.
The trail eventually crosses at Route 41 and leads hikers up over a fence via a wooden stile, built by students in 2017, and picks up again in the far northwestern pasture that leads up to Fairfield Farm.
Located a mile from campus, the 280- acre Fairfield Farm property has been a resource for students and teachers alike, who come to the Farm to get hands-on experience in sustainable agriculture. The School acquired the former Black Angus cattle farm in 2004 through a gift from former trustee Jack Blum ’47 and his wife, Jeanne; six years later, the School purchased an additional 20 acres and four buildings on the Blum property, increasing the School’s property to 827 acres.
Today, the Farm supplies more than 30 percent of the produce and meat used in the Dining Hall during the fall semester, and roughly seven percent of the food procured for the entire academic year.
From Fairfield Farm, the trail loops back to the campus and cuts through the North Woods — an area of mixed hardwood and softwood trees and boggy drainage that borders the northern and northwestern property line of the farm. The Fairfield Farm Ecosystems and Adventure Team (FFEAT) and former art instructor Charlie Noyes ’78, P’03,’07, who founded and directed the FFEAT program for 11 years, established that section of trail in 2010, well before it was incorporated into the Larsen Trail system.
“We wanted a beautiful pedestrian route to the Farm that did not involve walking along Route 41,” explained Noyes.
At one point on the trail, his group cleared some hemlocks and dead trees from an area ringed by eight or nine huge, mature sugar maples.
“We built some rustic benches out of logs and named the site the Circle of Maples,” said Noyes. “In early summer, once the new foliage has fully leafed out, go to this site at noon when the sun is directly overhead. It casts down into the circle a lovely warm green light as it shines through the roof of young yellow-green leaves.”
On this portion of the trail stands a magnificent white oak well over 200 years old, and a cattle shed (now known as the Beeslick Bungalow) that was originally built on timber skids, allowing it to be dragged by tractor to fields where the herds were grazing. FFEAT students have since added scavenged windows, a floor, and sliding doors, making the structure perfect for overnight camping — or, like the older shelters in Beeslick Brook Woods, simply a serene place to find some peace and solitude.
Download a PDF of the new trail map from the Visit page on the Hotchkiss website.
