Originally posted by ramseybuckeye That is fascinating, why was it "abandoned"?
I'm not a long-time resident of this town, having moved here in 1973, and I think the road was by then de-accessioned or whatever is officially and legally done when a town no longer takes any responsibility for a road. As best I have been able to gather from dribs & drabs of comments, and walking what is left of it, it went up over hill at the top of which was a single farm with an orchard and fields for livestock. I met at least one person who remembered going to Halloween parties there in the barn. In any case, the farm for some reason shut down. My suspicion is that there was no one to take up the farm when the last person working it became too old, so it was sold to (given to? claimed or seized by?) the Commonwealth, and it became a wildlife management area = they mow to maintain some open fields and stock it with game birds in the Fall so hunters will have something to shoot. There is other wildlife, deer racoon, fox, that may be hunted, the deer certainly. The road was probably closed as a right-of-way when the wildlife area was established, with bar gates at the ends that link with surrounding roads. It's possible to walk along it from either end, but not along a stretch near the highest point close to where the farm once stood as many large trees have fallen across it so there is a long stretch that is effectively impassible. I don't think our little Sheltie could get through that tangle of giant pick-up sticks