Things you see on a bike ride.

[ski diva]

Ever stop and read the historical markers you pass when you're riding a bike?

This morning I passed a pretty fancy one in Cavendish, VT, so we had to stop and take a look. I'm glad I did, because it commemorated something kind of unusual that happened there.

Here's the marker:

The marker is for Phineas Gage, a railroad worker who suffered a traumatic brain injury when an iron spike accidentally passed through his skull with such force that it landed almost 30 yards behind him! Remarkably, Gage regained consciousness within a few minutes, was able to speak, and survived a 45-minute ride back to his boarding house while sitting in a cart. Although Gage managed to recover from the accident, his personality was radically altered.

Gage's case is cited as among the first evidence suggesting that damage to the frontal lobes could alter aspects of personality and affect socially appropriate interaction. Before this time the frontal lobes were largely thought to have little role in behavior.

BTW, learned on the internet: Gage's skull, as well as the rod that pierced it, is currently part of the permanent exhibition at Harvard Medical School's Warren Anatomical Museum in Boston.

See what I would've missed if I hadn't stopped :D ?

 

[Pequenita]

Holy cow. How and/or why was the iron spike flying through the air in the first place?

 

[ski diva]

They were doing blasting for railroad work.

Here's what Wikipedia says:

One of his duties involved filling the hole with gunpowder, adding a fuse, and then packing in sand with the aid of a large tamping iron. Gage was momentarily distracted and forgot to pour the sand into one hole. Thus, when he went to tamp the sand down, the tamping iron sparked against the rock and ignited the gunpowder, causing the iron to be blown through Gage's head with such force that it landed almost thirty yards (27 meters) behind him.

 

[SnowHot]

Wow, and I thought the planets and plaques along the Tart Trail were interesting.
This is amazing!

 

[tcarey]

Hey Wendy!
That marker is right around the corner from my house.Very interesting story!
T

 

[ski diva]

Hey Wendy!
That marker is right around the corner from my house.
T

Didn't I mention the other marker I saw? :D

 

[abc]

Personality... Oh my God!

SOMETHING must had hit my head REAL hard at some point of my life!;)

I was passive and anti-social as a kid. But as an adult, I'm out-going, comfortable amoung strangers and plenty aggressive!!!

Must be one of those trees branches I hit while mountain biking!... Did someone see my helmet somewhere?;)

(ducking...)

 

[Greeley]

That is more interesting than riding our bikes out to the memorial that marks the Buddy Holly crash site. The bad part of this one is the bushwaking throught a corn field to reach it.

 

[ski diva]

Wow! That's a good one!

 

[volklgirl]

I gotta start riding with you guys.

When I ride, I usually end up seeing dirt, blood, bruises, and ocasionally, my bike falling out of the sky as it landa on top of me. :o

 

[liquidfeet]

I have a story of stopping to read a road marker.

Near my house along a bike ride I sometimes take out in the country there's an iron gate that says "closed at sunset" beside the road. On both sides of the gate are dense woods. Behind this gate is a monumental hill---it would be a double-black diamond if it were covered in snow, but it's covered with asphalt.

Being curious, up the hill I go, huffing and puffing, zig-zagging to get up it. At the top of this really steep and long hill is something odd ... several big radar-like detectors pointed at the sky, an Air Force sign that makes no sense, and lots of chain link fences with "keep out" signs. Also where the ground is cleared across from the fenced-in area, there are cairns in a field that someone has set up for no discernable reason. Very odd. And creepy.

The road I went up dead ends beyond the Air Force encampment. The whole area is surrounded by dense woods. There's another Keep-Out fence at the end of the asphalt road I just biked up. But there's a little parking area there at the end, and I see a pickup parked in it.

In front of the pickup is a road-side marker, and an opening in the trees leading into the woods.

The marker indicates this is an Indian burial gravesite. Masconomo, Sagamore of the Agawams, is buried here, and there's a long story about how he came to be buried here. Through the opening into the woods is a massive stone grave marker in a small clearing, and the remains of Masconomo, such as they are, are buried beneath that marker. But Masconomo's remains are mostly lost, so the presence of this marker is motivated by the guilt of the white folks whose teenage kids in the 1950s scattered the real remains. The white folks have reinterred what they could find after the vandalization, and told the story of the event and the reburial on the roadside marker. Good for them, but a bit too late.

This whole thing is in the woods up here on a high hill next to an Air Force solar observatory (I checked the internet, and got the story), and there is a big gravestone with lots of words on it about Masconomo under an enormous tree in the woods beyond the roadside marker, and there are bizaar cairns in a field next to it. Very odd, on the whole.

Indians from around here have evidently visited this site and done stuff to it. Hung on the big tree and placed on the ground all around this gravestone are lots of "spirit catchers" and other odd things. I found it to be a very alien and spiritual place. Bones, laminated photos, animal skins, toys, sea shells, and all sorts of odd things are hanging on the tree and placed on the ground next to this grave in this clearing in the woods. If I hadn't read the road-side marker, I'd never have found this site.

And get this...beyond the grave in the woods are lots of trails. I've ridden some of them, but need more time to explore them all.

You never know what awaits you on Air Force property.

 

[abc]

I gotta start riding with you guys.

When I ride, I usually end up seeing dirt, blood, bruises, and ocasionally, my bike falling out of the sky as it landa on top of me. :o

You need to slow down to see anything! ;)

 

[Happy Feet]

Amazing!

That is too cool. Where is the plaque in case I am in the neighborhood?

 

[ski diva]

The plaque is on a big hunk of granite on the village green in Cavendish, VT. If you're heading east from 103 on 131, it's on the left side.