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The Alewife Mystery LbNA #3090

Owner:Mary Manatee
Plant date:Mar 9, 2003
Location:
City:???
County:Mystery
State:Massachusetts
Boxes:1
Found by: ???
Last found:Jul 12, 2017
Status:FFFFFFFFFaFFFFFFFF
Last edited:Mar 9, 2003


The Alewife Mystery Letterbox

(Somewhere in Massachusetts)

Placed by The Yachtsman and Mary Manatee
March 9, 2003
Difficulty: easy, after a little research

Somewhere in Massachusetts the Alewife Mystery Letterbox rests close
to one of the many "herring runs" in the state.

Clues: There are multiple ways to figure out the name of the town in
which this herring run can be found ---- after that, it's up to you to
find the run's exact location.

1. What does a witch do when she leans over her brimming caldron?
_________ ________ Reverse the two words and join them.
Although the spelling is a little off, you'll get the idea.

2. Another name for a person who makes beer is a ________________

3. The town was actually name to honor one of the Pilgrims who
came over on the Mayflower. He was William _____________.

4. Local legend says that the "Lost Dauphin of France" (the son
of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI)was brought to this town as
a baby by a sea captain from the town who was in Paris during
the French Revolution. The baby was named "Rene Rousseau";
later, Rene Rousseau also served as sea captain. Both the
famous local sea captain (who has a park in town named after
him) and Rene Rousseau were later lost at sea, and according
to local custom, Rene Rousseau's name is engraved on his
"father's" headstone. If you look in the cemetery behind the
Unitarian Church in the center of town, you can explore the
truth of this legend!


5. Across from the herring run is an active waterwheel-driven
gristmill. The area around the Grist Mill used to be an
industrial center known as "Factory Village", which included a
tannery and a fulling mill where wool cloth was thickened and
stretched. Today the mill makes cornmeal.


Directions: Go to the herring run. If it is spring, take a walk down
to the brook and you'll be amazed by the number of herring making
their way upstream from the brook to the millpond and beyond. After
enjoying the sights, return to the parking area in front of the run
and look up towards a grassy lawn with a picnic table and a stone wall
behind. Go to the left end of the stone wall, and look behind the
wall about 7' from its end. There, above a part of the wall with an
orangey, trapezoidal rock, find the Alewife Mystery Letterbox under a
large stone with a grayish cap. Note: you do not have to take the
wall apart to find this box! Please be very discrete, especially in
the spring when the herring run is thronged with locals and visitors.
Better to return on another day than to risk the safety of the
letterbox when the area is too crowded!


First posted Thursday, March 13, 2003