Tippling Rock Panorama (October 2008). Also larger, much larger,
and view on GigaPan site. Also, 2008 Nobscot Panorama <>
Updated 1928 Panorama Page
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svtweb.org/trail-maps |
Related links:Tippling Rock is in the USGS Geographic Names Information System as a summit. Nobscot, too.Sudbury Valley Trustees - http://www.sudburyvalleytrustees.org/ - Preserving habitats in the Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord river valleys. SVT is now the steward for Tippling Rock. 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. The reservation was formerly part of the Knox Trail Council. Nobscot Scout Reservation Hi-Res Map Bay Circuit Trail - baycircuit.org 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. See: 1930 Bay Circuit Map 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 (aka Tippling Rock Trail head) 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. |  New Tippling Rock Conservation Land Map! Sudbury Conservation Lands |
Allan Jung's November 2008 article in the Daily News Trubune. Wide ranging article includes Ford's Folly, Nupsee Pond and Nobscot summit.
It has Great Pictures by Allan Jung!!! To the right is First Parish from Tippling Rock.
Scouting around MetroWest's Nobscot Reservation and Preserving Nobscot's history from the Town Crier.
There are two geocache spots on Nobscot.
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:
The 2008 Nobscot Panorama
Why is it called Tippling Rock?
Tipple has two meanings: one is a device for unloading freight cars by
tipping them and the other is to consume liquor. The favorite theory is
that the boulder on top of the outcropping used to tipple, as in rock back
and forth. One theory is that the native Americans would tipple it to send
sound thru the rock for communication.
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.
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So, was it blasted or split with feathers and wedges?
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.
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. Waterfall Video
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.
TipplingRockAndFordsFolly.kmz, TipplingRockAndFordsFolly.gpx, (Google Earth Image)
Nobscot Hiking, View from Nobscot GPX files. They all include "Tantamount Lookout". This is a ledge that juts out near the summit of Nobscot. This is the best view, barring trespass to the fire tower. Tantamount Lookout is essentially on top of Tantamous's cave, which collapsed in the 1755 Earthquake. This is also known as Jethro's Table, but Tantamount Lookup is tantamount to the summit, and it has a great view of Boston.
Dave Perry's GPS/KMZ maps
featuring the SVT Nobscot Map
as a KMZ overlay. They can be found on gpsfiledepot.com (Nobscot). Scroll down to the Download label. OpenStreetMap also has the trails.
You can also see the solar array on the hill next to the transfer station. Hmm... time to update the hand drawn panorama. Also, close inspection show they flattened the top of Bear Hill in Waltham to build a gated community.
TipplingRockHiking20090627.kmz, TipplingRockHiking20090627.GPX original smaller
Tippling Rock, Sudbury, MA.US: Single GPS coordinate with a Viewpoint.
Tantamount Lookout
TantamountLookout.kmz, TantamountLookout.gpx,
NobscotWestLoop.kmz, NobscotWestLoop.gpx, AroundAndOverNobscot.kmz, AroundAndOverNobscot.gpx
View from Tantmount Lookout on 2022-04-20
New On the Horizon From the Rock
You can now see One Dalton, the 2nd new buillding in 2 years!! One Dalton is another new skyscraper in Boston! In this image from 2018-10-16, you can make out the crane that is still on top! In 2016, the Millenium Tower was built. It has a sloped roof. It is a ways off to the left of the Hancock & Pru. (full image 2017-11-15)
and (Skyline 2018-10-12)
Skyline as of 2018-10-12
Boston is fairly sharp, but the solar array is blurry. Sights, from left to right, solar panels, Great Meadows, Boston, Reeves hill, Great Blue Hills.
Snow Covered Rock!!!
In the winter of 2014-2015 Boston had Record Breaking Snow Storms. Tippling Rock was totally covered in snow. It is a huge with steep sides, but, it was all filled in. One the way up the snow was uniformly 4 feet of thick packed snow. The snowshoe track was packed down to be two feet think. A M A G I N G ! ! ! - More Snow covered Tippling Rock Pictures
The map to the right is a Tippling Rock Inner Loop. Wider Rough map20090919.jpg
The map to the left is a tiny version of my 2001 map. 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. I was laid off after 9/11 for a couple of months.
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.
Town of Sudbury, Nobscot Conservation Land |
 Revised 2021 Nobscot Alumni - Boy Scouts  Weisblatt Conservation Land Map |
 Bay Circuit Trail |
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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.
https://www.jch.com/tipplingrock/ <> YON - Jan C. Hardenbergh 2024-01-01 Add Nobscot hi-res jch@jch.com
