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The Secrets of Cellar Holes

With: Adair Mulligan

Event Fee: by donation

Event Size: 50 / family friendly (all ages)

Northern New England is full of reminders of past lives: stone walls, old foundations, a century-old lilac struggling to survive as the forest reclaims a once-sunny dooryard. What forces shaped settlement, and later abandonment, of these places? Adair Mulligan explores the rich story to be discovered in what remains behind. See how one town has set out to create an inventory of its cellar holes, piecing together the clues in the landscape. Such a project can help landowners know what to do if they have archaeological sites on their land and help stimulate interest in a town's future through its past. This talk is sponsored by New Hampshire Humanities.

Adair Mulligan has a runaway curiosity about the natural and cultural history of northern New England. Author of The Gunstock Parish: A History of Gilford, New Hampshire, she has also contributed to Proud to Live Here in the Connecticut River Valley; Where the Great River Rises: An Atlas of the Upper Connecticut River; and Beyond the Notches: Stories of Place in New Hampshire's North Country. Executive director of the Hanover Conservancy, she served for 20 years as conservation director of the Connecticut River Joint Commissions.