Hidden in Plain Sight

by Leff, David K.

• ISBN13: 9780819572813
• ISBN10: 0819572810
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-06-01
• Publisher: Wesleyan Univ Pr

Summary

In the course of the mundane routines of life, we encounter a variety of landscapes and objects, either ignoring them or looking without interest at what appears to be just a tree, stone, anonymous building, or dirt road. But the "deep traveler," according to Hartford Courant essayist David K. Leff, doesn't make this mistake. Instead, the commonplace elements become the most important. By learning to see the magic in the mundane, we not only enrich daily life with a sense of place, we are more likely to protect and make those places better. Over his many years working at the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and writing about the state's landscape, Leff gained unparalleled intimacy while traveling its byways and back roads. In Hidden in Plain Sight, Leff's essays and photographs take us on a point-by-point journey, revealing the rich stories behind many of Connecticut's overlooked landmarks, from the Merritt Parkway and Cornwall's Cathedral Pines to roadside rock art and centuries-old milestones.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue to Deep Travel: The Merritt Parkway

Along the Roadside

Counting Miles in Four Centuries: Old Milestones

What's in a Name?: Reading Street Signs

Seeing through Time: Roadcuts

Painted Ledges: Roadside Rock Art

Last Picture Shows: Drive-In Theaters

A Cool Drink of Water: Roadside Springs

A Great Good Place: Diners

Places we Build

A Most Enduring Harvest: Quarries

The People's Castles: Stone Lookouts

King of Homes: Yankee Castles

A Thousand Uses: Quonset Huts

The Shape of Futures Past: Octagon Houses

Practical, Adaptable, and Disappearing: Barns

The Spirit of Community: Camp Meetings

Exploring Gasoline Alley: Racetracks

Seeing Green: Trees, Culture, And Agriculture

A Place for Common Ground: Town Greens

Heart of Nowhere: Connecticut's Most Remote Place

The Measure of a State: Connecticut's Highest Point(s)

Big Trees: Old-Growth Forests

A Sacred Grove: Hope for the Chestnut Forest

The Perfect Street Tree: A Few Good Elms

Inventing New England Autumn: Leaf Peeping

A Most Useful Tree: Season of the Witch Hazel

Tasting the Landscape: Cider Mills

A Community Harvest: Agricultural Fairs

Ghost Towns and Graveyards

Forgotten but Not Gone: Ghost Towns

Ghost Streets and Routes Less Taken: Abandoned Roads

Beneath the Lakes: Lost Worlds

Watery Ghosts of Manufacturing: Mill Ponds

Steeped in Mystery: Gungywamp

Space-Age Ghosts: Nike Missile Sites

Perpetual Care Isn't Forever: Neglected Graveyards

Haunting Stones of Metal: Zinc Grave Markers

Trash Talk: Landfills and Landscape

Through Artists' Eyes

Reinventing the Colonial Landscape: Wallace Nutting

A Fresh Way of Looking: The Hudson River School

In a State of Plein Air: Artists Outdoors

Where the Landscape Is Art: Weir Farm

Poetic Space: James Merrill's Apartment

Landscape and the Written Word: Nature Writers

Buy the Book: Used Bookstores

Epilogue to Further Discovery: The New England Trail

Just the Right Place: An Explorer's Guide

Connecticut's Hidden Places: Map Key

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