West Roxbury Quarry

[urbpan]

We went hiking in the woods near West Roxbury Quarry yesterday. We found some interesting things.



This is dame's rocket, one of our prettier invasive plants.


The area surrounding the quarry doesn't appear to be public land, but it doesn't appear to be maintained, either. The neighboring streets are all dead ends that have informal paths into the woods nearby. There's no explanation for the ruins in the first picture, or the many cars and other man-made objects we found.




This utility shed seems to be related to the quarry operation. The pipe leads to the other side of a chain link fence. The quarry is fenced off.




Moss has claimed this car.


Alexis found this cell phone in the ashes of a campfire.


Up on high ground, we found a place where the fence had been knocked down.




Don't follow these instructions.


Nice view from up there, despite the mist. We found out about the place because someone on the Boston Birds list said there were ravens there.








this is the view straight down.

We heard and eventually saw the ravens. Not very exciting for most people, but ravens are rare in Massachusetts and this was the first time I'd ever heard of them appearing in Boston. Very cool.

Comments

[morgi.livejournal.com]

We used to hear ravens once in a while on Southport Island in Maine. I don't remember ever seeing one well enough to distinguish it from a crow, though.

[dosboof.livejournal.com]

We saw ravens while out at the Grand Canyon, eyeing the toy dogs tourists would bring by, waiting for them to turn their attention away for long enough for them to get a decent meal.

Those rusted-out cars are fantastic.

Quarry

[(Anonymous)]

I live near the quarry but haven't been in there in a long time - what a mess - would you mind if I shared these pictures on my web site? (www.parkwayclick.com)

We do see the ravens & a family of hawks pretty often.

Re: Quarry

[(Anonymous)]

(I mean, share a link to your blog on my site.)

Re: Quarry

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Please do! That would be great.

[deathling.livejournal.com]

Abandoned cars, burnt cell phone? Pretty shady stuff if you ask me ;p

[(Anonymous)]

Sad Car has siblings!
http://flickr.com/photos/lyss99/2278773718/

[(Anonymous)]

Looks cool. How do I get there?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Well, we googlemapped 'west roxbury quarry' and then drove around the place looking for a good entrypoint. We settled on highview or some such, but any of the many dead ends would work. We tried going through the park on the opposite side, but it was clearly marked NO DOGS.

[elainetyger.livejournal.com]

I suspect the junk is because it can cost money to properly dispose of such things in a city. I remember once giving away a car with over 150,000 miles on it because it would have cost me money to junk it and there was no way it was going to pass the state emissions test that was coming up. The coworker I gave it to spent 2 weekends on it with his son and sold it for $300.

I like the "keep walking" sign. A different coworker in the same office had made a cheap little sign with a paper hand, thumb sticking out, glued to an unwound paper clip stuck into a coffee scoop. It said "help is out the window."

[(Anonymous)]

To be quit frank, all the trash and abandoned cars are from people who grew up drinking or plain just causing mistiff in the wood. the cars are mainly from the 70' & 80' as you can tell, the crome on the cars were part of the era. my mother told me that people who steel car for fun and dump them up there.

The burt cars

[(Anonymous)]

I live near these woods in Wrox and I take walks in there every once in a while, the cars are burt in there because back in the old days teens would steal them and go drive them into the woods and burn them just for kicks ang giggles, I wonder what thet concrete building is in there for? A

HEY!!

[(Anonymous)]

how do you get to the building in the 1st picture,what street is it near?

Re: HEY!!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I'm not positive, but I think we got there by going down Willet st.

"The Quarries"

[(Anonymous)]

I spent a lot of my youth back in the late fifties up at "The Quarries". The area between the quarry and the residential area was called "The Swamp", home to "Seven Caves". It was a rite of passage for a West Roxbury youth to try and discover all seven caves. To us, it was a big and mysterious as The Everglades. And way more fun. I remember some friends dragging up an old heating oil tank that someone's father cut in half. We used that as our exploration boat meandering through the swamps. And the burned out cars. Had those back then too. Only they were more likely to be pre-WW II specimens. No burnt cell phones though.

Thanks for a trip down memory lane!

[(Anonymous)]

I grew up playing in these woods in the late 70's. The burned-out cars were fascinating to us kids. The seven caves are very small, but were a lot of fun for kids our age. There is a small pond full of junk that kids would play hockey on in the winter. Thanks again.

Seven caves

[(Anonymous)]

I too hung around in those woods in the 1970's. I used to enter at Plover St and skated many winters at the end of Plover St. When there was enough water in the swamp by the seven caves we skated there too.
We had many bonfires at the seven caves and drank many cases of Miller (no 30 packs then). We would wander out to the highest point on the Quarry called Mt. Moses. Never knew why it was called that. We would throw anything we could off that cliff.
Before Eagle st was there we had a tree fort about where the end of Eagle St is now. Years later me and my buddies would ride our dirt bikes and atc (no atv's yet).
Thanks for the pictures. Brings up some fun memories.