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The Huskyville Letterbox LbNA #8015

Owner:Bungalow Boxer
Plant date:Apr 25, 2004
Location:
City:East Hartford
County:Hartford
State:Connecticut
Boxes:1
Planted by:Wild Rover
Found by: Traveln Turtle
Last found:Jan 14, 2017
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Last edited:Apr 25, 2004
THE HUSKYVILLE LETTERBOX
Hockanum River Linear Trail -- Hillside Street Trail [easy]

**Box drowned April 2005; re-planted 05/10/05.**

***As of 02/02/2008 this box was confirmed ACTIVE*****
The contents, which are prone to flooding, were placed (don't be alarmed) in an ammo box and re-placed in a new hiding place, with new clues below. There is no ink (please bring blue)but the stamp was fine. Thank you to LISALISA for drying it out and making a temporary log book, which worked great. Thanks for looking. --WILD ROVER


The Town of East Hartford has become known as "Huskyville." As a brief history, East Hartford was slated in the late 1990's to be the new site of the Connecticut Science Center, to be built on the banks of the Connecticut River near the location of the new Three Rivers Middle Magnet School, providing a campus-like quality of scientific education and exploration. Well, when the Patriots and Mr. Kraft left Hartford sportsfans high and dry, plans for Adrian's Landing began to surface which included a Science Museum, and the Science Center decided to delay its move out of West Hartford. Some say that as a "consolation prize" the State decided to build the new UConn football stadium on land in East Hartford donated by UTC at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, around which East Hartford was basically built (in more ways than one). Political debate aside, the beautiful state-of-the-art stadium was eventually built as planned on part of Rentschler Field, a landing strip at P&WA. It opened in 2003 to UConn home football games, and is a big part of UConn's plans to become a Big East football powerhouse and bowl-eligible contender. In addition to UConn games, Rentschler Field has hosted the Special Olympics, a national Fife & Drum competition, dozens of other events and -- most notably -- two concerts by Bruce Springsteen that brought national attention to the Town. Not one to miss out on boosting the Town's image, the Town administration embarked on efforts to promote East Hartford as "HUSKYVILLE." Sponsors were attracted, banners were hung, and in all it seems to have been a great and ongoing success, and this letterbox pays tribute to Huskyville. It is the first of a series of letterboxes to be posted by Wild Rover in East Hartford (my first box, and my first self-carved stamp).

DIRECTIONS:

From 84W take Exit 58; at end of exit take a left onto Roberts Street; at the light facing the entrance to P&WA take a left onto Silver Lane and pass the Stadium on your right (take a look -- it's fantastic!!!); take your first left onto Simmons Road (it turns into Hillside Street); the Hillside Street Trail section of the Hockanum River Linear Trail is on the right side past Hillside Cemetery, across from the golf driving range, before reaching Burnside Avenue.

From 84E take Exit 58 and bear right at the end of the exit; you are now facing the entrance to P&WA; take a left onto Silver Lane and pass the Stadium on the right, then follow the directions as listed above.

THE HUSKYVILLE LETTERBOX: Park in the gravel parking lot and enter the trail on the gravel path on the North side of the parking area (it is the only entrance to the trail). Proceed down the gravel path towards the Hockanum River. Just before reaching the River there is a large wooden post marking the trail which leads to the right. Follow the trail to the right and cross a large wooden bridge. Proceed across a second large wooden bridge and then a smaller wooden bridge, and travel on the path along the bank of the Hockanum River, which is on your left. Cross a long wooden walkway, geometric in shape, which bends around to the left and ends just short of the "River Outlook" (which is reported to be .25 miles from the start) where two large benches invite relaxation by the river. At the exact end of the wooden walkway, before reaching the benches, there is a small trail that leads to the right. there is a half-fallen tree and a new (as of 02/02/08) sign pointing to the right for the trail. Follow this trail up a brief root-covered embankment and walk straight ahead until the trail turns 90 degrees to the right. Stop. The large, hollow twin-sister red maple at your 10:00 o'clock (or N/E for those with a compass) on the riverbank previously held the letterbox, but was repeatedly flooded out.

So.... now look to your right and walk along a stream that appears to be an off-shoot of the Hockanum (the stream is on your left) to the small wooden bridge that crosses the stream. Cross over it and at the far end of this brief bridge STOP. Turn and face back across the bridge, and walk 45-50 steps (the first 8 steps take you back across the bridge) straight as an arrow up the steep hill and look to the right for a large 2-or-3 sister tree with a massive hollow, in which you will find the Huskyville Letterbox!!! It is on much, much higher ground now, and should be safe from flooding. Hope you enjoy it.

Thanks to MayEve for the carving lessons, and for helping me to plant this letterbox. What a great Sister !!!!

See Also: http://www.huskyvilleeh.com/