Granite marks the spot

Is the granite post, which marks a junction of the boundaries of Wilton, Lyndeborough and Milford and is now located in the new athletic fields on Carnival Hill, in the proper place?

Or was it, at some time in the past, moved and not properly replaced?

Those questions have again arisen, based in part on an old and mainly unsubstantiated story.

That widely circulated story relates that a local farmer – no one could recall a name since several people have farmed the area – used the lower part of the hill for a cornfield. The story goes that he hit the post with his plow, or was tired of plowing around it, or for some other reason removed the post and put it on a nearby stone wall.

The corner marker is a four-foot granite post which, for safety reasons, is now below ground level and covered with a plastic top. That top is cracked and needs to be replaced.

Dawn Tuomala of Monadnock Survey met with Wilton selectmen Monday armed with a collection of plans of the area.

“It’s in the same place it was in 1975 when the town purchased the original part of the hill,” she said.

The marker was removed during the construction of the baseball and soccer fields, and then returned to the spot where it had been found, she said. In 2004, the marker was placed in a hole “on the bounds where it was shown on the plans.”

Earlier in the day at another event, Police Chief Brent Hautanen commented on the town line. He has to know where the line is, he said, “because if something happens in the outfield, it could be out of my jurisdiction.”

Because it is located in the playing field, it has to be below ground level.

The board decided to look into placing a metal cover over the marker, and then adding a couple of inches of topsoil.

“You could find it easily with a metal detector,” Tuomala said.

Staff writers Karen Lovett and Hattie Bernstein and correspondent Jessie Salisbury contributed to Around the Towns.