Monday, July 11, 2016

Hopping Brook - development starts at a massive Indian Burial Ground

Just thought you should know. I heard from Mathew Howes that they are bulldozing around and over the mounds at Hopping Brook. Now these are burial mounds and this should be a serious NAGPRA violation.
Anyone living there who can become active in fighting this development, should contact Joanne Hulbert of the Holliston Historical Society.

6 comments :

Bruce said...

Have you contacted Doug Harris or Cheryl Andrews-Maltais? Is this the same place in the industrial park I showed you years ago? I tried many times contacting the developer and he kept ignoring me.

pwax said...

Yes this is the place that someone (you or JimP) showed me years ago. I contacted Doug and will see if he engages. I'll try Cheryl later.

Frankly it is astonishing that I have to to drum up interest when this site has been flagged for development for several years. Why aren't groups responsible for protecting ancient sites all over this?

Bruce said...

It was me who showed you this place and I also took James Gage there. I went to the Holliston planning department and got the developers plans for the site which showed the roads that were going to run right through one of the major mounds, as well as others. I believe I also notified Joanne Hulbert at the time. I tried many times over a period of weeks to speak with the developer and he kept blowing me off, no surprise there. Due to the poor economy at the time development was put on hold but obviously things have picked up again. Before I left for France I gave James Gage a bunch of my files, including the development plans for the site. I believe James made up a plan showing the location of the rock piles in relation to the developers plan. Try contacting James Gage. Obviously there is no archaeological proof, because with rock pile sites there never is due to the lack of recognition among academia and authorities, but if ever there was a rock pile site that could be considered a burial site this place is worthy of consideration. If you have any email or phone number contacts for Doug or Cheryl pass them along to me. I always had pretty quick access to them when others didn't so I'll try to reach out to them. Curtis Hoffman might have their contact info if you want to reach out to him. I think you should anyway because this is right in his back yard. You can email me at brucemclr@gmail.com.

Curtiss Hoffman said...

Matt Howes brought a reporter and photographer from the MetroWest News (our local paper) out there today. I talked with the reporter this evening and explained the situation with MHC and all. A story will appear in tomorrow's paper - most likely available on-line as well. You certainly should get in contact with Doug Harris at dh@nithpo.org.

Curt

Bruce said...

Thanks Curtiss. I'll send Doug an email and see if there is anything that he might be able to help with. It looks like it's probably too late but at least James Gage does have a map documenting the location of rock piles prior to development. I'll do a google search and see if I can get an email address for James and send him a message.

Bruce said...

Curtiss. I tried sending Doug an email at the email address you gave me and got a failed message. Are you sure that email address is still valid? Do you happen to have a phone number to contact Doug? If you want to keep Doug's info confidential you can email me personally at brucemclr@gmail.com. I'll do what I can.