Hinesburg Ancient Roads Committee

1
Hinesburg Ancient Roads Committee

• Final Report

2
What is an Ancient Road ?

• Ancient road is the common name for any of a
  set of legally established town highways
  (predominantly Class 4 highways) that, due to
  numerous factors and the passage of time, have
  become largely impassable and, in many cases,
  unobservable. These ancient roads do not show up
  on town highway maps, but have not been formally
  discontinued by a municipality either.
• Link to useful stuff on the web about the ancient
  roads

3
Job Scope

• Review and plot all road surveys and
  discontinuances.
• Analyzed 225 surveys and discontinuances from
  1787 to present.
• Looked at 241 people mentioned and their
  associated lots.
• Placed (GIS) and plotted all surveys with ROW
  width.
• Created Web interfaced DB and plotting / sorting
  function.
• Interpretation in early surveys..
• Words / Locations Birch stasil , David Bartos
  Hog Sty.
• Omissions.. EgN23 16 Rods , reversal of main
  and sub bearing
• Legibility, Transcription errors
• Multiple copies in some cases ( souce documents
  )
• Hired outside consultant to affirm conclusions. (
  from Grant )
• Look for Ancient Roads that are not
  discontinued.
• Found 6 roads that fit in this category and are
  reasonably well defined.

4
Selectboard Responsibility

• Decide if these roads should be placed on the
  town road maps.
• Value to town
• Trails
• Access
• Future Roads
• Historical Value Town Historical Society
• Time development of roads Mill access ,
  neighboring town access , farm access.
• Locations of Homes of people of historical
  interest.

5
Ancient Roads

• 27 Road surveys not presently in use
• All but 6 are discontinued or are parts of
  present day roads.
• One ( Lost Richmond Road ) is vague and has
  discontinuances that may refer to it.
• Errors in survey ?
• Poor assumptions on location
• Rubber band in the middle

6
The 6 Roads

• Governors Lot Road
• Hull Road
• Palmer Bostwick spur
• Lost Wood Lot Road
• Bennett Wells Road
• Meach Road