BABSON BOULDERS
Stretching across the backbone of Cape Ann, about 40 miles north east of Boston, Massachusetts, is an area commonly known as Dogtown. How it got its name is shrouded in mystery and legend, but like the name of the town at the tip of Cape Ann, Rockport, it is an area replete with rocks. For well over a hundred years the Dogtown area of Cape Ann was the home of a vibrant stone quarrying industry, but during the depression of the 1930s, the industry pretty much died, leaving many skilled craftsmen jobless. Roger Babson, a wealthy Boston financier, hired unemployed stone workers to carve inspirational aphorisms on some of the large erratic boulders creating what is now known as the Babson Trail. Walking across Cape Ann from one side to the other along this trail, you come across these huge stones with their pithy sayings. Some of the others are "Be on time", "Courage", "Ideas", "Industry", "Integrity", "Kindness", "Loyalty", "Truth", and "Work". There are others, but you'll have to find them.
Copyright 2008 by William Tenney. All photography, artwork, images, and sound recordings on this site are the property of William Tenney.
