“Believe it or not, there's a lake off Route 55 near Pawling
in eastern Dutchess County with the rather unusual name of Nuclear Lake. How on
earth did it get that name? It's certainly
not something the local Chamber of Commerce would choose. Well, it apparently was named when a former
hunting preserve around the lake was purchased in 1955 by an outfit called
Nuclear Development Associates.
The following, from Hike the Hudson Valley, has an amusing
take on it all: ‘I know what you’re
thinking. Why would I ever want to visit
a place called Nuclear Lake? Well, let
me set your mind at ease. The only reason
it’s even called Nuclear Lake (you’re going to think this is so funny when you
hear it), is that in 1972, a chemical explosion blew out two windows in the
experimental nuclear research lab that used to sit on the shore of the lake,
blasting an unspecified amount of bomb-grade plutonium across the lake and
surrounding woods.
See? I bet you thought it was something bad.’
“Now for some more strangeness. At the north end of the lake, there are a
bunch of stone walls in the woods. Not
normal stone walls like I'm familiar with - the straight walls that once lined
farmer's fields but now lie in the woods as some hardscrabble farms were
abandoned a century ago. No, these stone
walls ran up and down hills in curved paths.
Not marking farmer's fields either since no one could farm anything on
the steep, stony hillsides around this part of the lake.”
A curvy stone wall running to the lakeshore.
Another zig-zagging wall
Who the hell builds a rock wall that zig-zags up the
hill? It's certainly not marking anyone's
property line. Another ran parallel the
shoreline. Why do that?
Is there a point to this?
Wall went around this mound
One area had a wall encircling an artificial hill of stone. It looked like a ritual space to me.
Another wall enclosed a rectangular area but was too sloppy
to be a building foundation.
Not a foundation - Again, what's the point?
Very strange. Who built all of these stone walls
(there were a lot of them!) that are running willy-nilly all over the place and
why?"
