IT PASSED; It's protected!!

20080408 - Sudbury votes to join, SVT and Boy Scouts to preserve Nobscot!

At the left is a very cool map that is linked to from the Town announcement - at the bottom of the page. It is PDF, so, you can zoom way in. Tippling Rock is in Phase 1. I have cached this as SVTNobscotPhase1_2.pdf.

Tippling Rock Hiking Page and Map

Tippling Rock sticks out above the trees in Sudbury, Massachusetts. It affords a great view of the western suburbs as well as a view of Boston. Actually, all you can see of Boston is the tops of the Hancock and Pru. In addition, the First Parish of Sudbury, Unitarian Universalist, FP Concord on horizon, Our Lady of Fatima, Goodmans's Hill, Prospect Hill, the Radio Towers and Great Blue Hill. Most of the green foreground (pine trees) is on the Weisblatt land that was purchased by Sudbury as conservation land - otherwise, you'd see houses. To the west stands Mt. Wachussett, through the trees in the summer and clear as a bell in the winter.

The map to the left is a tiny version of a map I'd like make for real. Consider this a prototype. The town of Sudbury was wise enough to buy the land just below Tippling Rock and thus preserve the view. I believe that people should experience that view and appreciate the value of preserving the remaining open land. Click on small image to get larger image.

The prototype is pasted together from an NEOC map, a USGS map, with information taken from the Sudbury Conservation Commission maps and last but not least, a reasonably thorough exploration.

To see the larger version (604KB) you can also click on the small map. For a few more bytes (1.6MB) here is TipplingRock.pdf.

Tippling Rock is in the Boy Scouts Nobscot Reservation. If you are on Tippling Rock or on the paths between the two Sudbury conservation parcels, you are their guest. For more information contact the Knox Trail Council of the Boy Scouts of America. http://www.ktc-bsa.org/
 

Trail Heads

Related links:

Bay Circuit Trail - http://www.serve.com/baycircuit/ This is a trail that circles Boston. Check it out! They have a nice page on Tippling Rock and Nobscot as one of the "jewels" along the trail. I can attest to there claim that in the late summer, people are occasionally allowed up in the fire tower on Nobscot, although, it was quite a few years ago when I did it.

The town of Sudbury Conservation Lands includes two parcels near Tippling Rock that provide parking and lots of land to get started. These are the Nobscot and Weisblatt conservation parcels. The town website has maps that you can download.

The New England Orienteering Club (NEOC) http://www.newenglandorienteering.org/ has events in the Nobscot reservation a couple of times each year. They have great maps.

Sudbury Valley Trustees - http://www.sudburyvalleytrustees.org/ - Preserving habitats in the Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord river valleys.

There are two geocache spots on Nobscot. Tippling Rock is in the USGS Geographic Names Information System as a summit.

Nobscot Reservation - Tippling Rock & Fords Folly from www.localhikes.com.

The Nobscot panorama: Also, this work in progress panorama.

 

Why is it called Tippling Rock?

A Bartlett heard a blast on July 4th, 1942(?) and after that the stone was split. The farmer leasing the field is the likely blaster. Something about cows scratching and leaning into it. It was attempted to be destroyed in the 30's. The rock was clearly split apart. According to local legend, it was blasted in the 1920's out of concern that the young and strong might start it rolling down the hill. Since it is about 5 feet high and used to be perhaps 8 feet wide and sort of circular, this theory seems quite plausible. Another theory is that the rock was split to take a mill stone out of it. Here is the rock:

On Oct 17, 2006, Brian Ogilvie writes to correct my dynamite holes caption:
These hole are clearly for "feathers and wedges" which is a rock splitting technique still used today. Holes such as these are drilled in the rock and then three components, two feathers and one wedge are inserted into each hole. The wedges are tapped down in sequence from one end of the rock to the other and back and will eventually split a granite rock such as this. When a big rock splits, it makes loud "thunk" but not a bang like dynamite would make. Holes for dynamite or various powdered explosives would be larger in diameter and much deeper. Dynamite would also leave a more fractured surface without the clean split that you see.

So, was it blasted or split with feathers and wedges?

Our Dog Max stands close to 3 feet tall.	Click on the lower two images for larger images.

The rocky outcropping is most likely a gray limestone, but the boulder is granite. How did it get plopped on top?

I'm looking for early accounts of Tippling Rock. The reference folks at Goodnow library helped me out by tracking down this reference from A Brief History of the Towne of Sudbury written by the Federal Writers Project of the WPA. Written in 1939:

    Eastward in the open meadow land lies the great rock called
  the "Indian Washbowl," whose center is hollowed out to suggest
  a big basin(*). Tradition ascribes some special though undetermined
  Indian significance to this particular stone. Another odd boulder 
  in this region is known as Tippling Rock.

Lee Swanson of the Sudbury Historical Society said George Barton knew he was dying in 1891 and sat down and typed out his story. He mentions Tippling Rock.

A Bartlett heard a blast and after that the stone was split. The farmer leasing the field is the likely blaster. Something about cows scratching and leaning into it.

TODO: Check this out!!! The Tippling Rocks were used for communication - long distance. Curtis Hoffman.

Misspelled as Tipling Rock in this Sudbury Town Crier article A Roam with a View from 30-JUN-2005. (no longer online)

I believe this is talking about the area around Tippling Rock. It is Henry David Thoreau in Natural History of Massachusetts. In the spring there is a little waterfall beneath Tippliing Rock, almost due East.

A stir is on the Wooster hills,
And Nobscot too the valley fills,
Where scarce you'd dip an acorn cup
In summer when the sun is up,
No more you'll find a cup at all,
But in its place a waterfall.