Noted farmer and author Wendell Berry states that “if you don’t know where you are, you may not know who you are.”
Larry Buell, a native of Petersham and local historian, believes strongly in this principle and has been instrumental in sharing local history and lore since moving back to his boyhood town over 50 years ago. To further this work, Buell will offer a program on the Biography of the Place: A “Sense of Place” tour in the eastern section of Petersham on Sunday, Oct. 3 from 2 to 4 p.m., meeting on the Petersham Common.
Buell has a depth of understanding of this section of land since founding the Earthlands Program Center in 1987.
The tour, which will include carpooling and moderate hiking to sites, will cover the early history of the Indigenous Nipmuc people; early homestead sites long gone; and the emergence of new landscapes for education, community and conservation.
Buell has collected historic photos, written articles, objects and stories that help convey the thriving farming community that lived along Glasheen Road starting in the mid-1700s.
He plans to have this program and the others he has offered over the years preserved as part of a new People’s History of Petersham Project that will document the last 100 years of the town’s history by local residents who still have memories and the stories passed down by their grandparents.
The program, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the University of the Wild and the Petersham Historical Society.
For information, contact Buell at larry@uofWild.org or call (978) 724-0412