Enjoy!

The Curioustorian

Here’s your Sunday jigsaw: https://jigex.com/dE7GX

The 1922 Dartmouth Winter Carnival saw the first competition on the newly constructed jump overlooking the 13th green of the Hanover Country Club golf course.

The tradition continued until 1985, when the NCAA dropped ski jumping. It was torn down in 1993.

The competition attracted thousands of spectators, as evidenced by this photo from 1934.

Note the crowd at the top of the hillside, as well as the stylish skiing garb.

Photos courtesy of Dartmouth College

Cameron Cross

for the

Norwich Historical Society

Jigsaw for March 29, 2026: https://jigex.com/DKE1L

In the original photo below, you can see the 1906 team on Memorial Field, before the current football stadium and Red Rolfe Field were built.

Crosby Street runs behind the grandstand, and the street beyond the flagpole is East Wheelock. See if you can spot some buildings that are still standing.

See more early uniforms here:
Dartmouth Baseball's early "Sartorial Splendor"

See a timeline and history of Dartmouth baseball
in the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine archive

Thanks for reading. I welcome your questions and comments.
Please pass this along to any baseball fans you know

Thanks for reading,

Cameron Cross

The White Owl Diner in Lebanon, NH in the 1960s.

A vintage 1932 Worcester Lunch Car, it was purchased that year and re-christened The White Owl Diner in the early 1930s. It survived the 1964 Lebanon fire, before being demolished for the new bridge on Route 120 as part of the make-over of Hough Square in 1970.

A 1964 Lebanon Fire: 60th Anniversary film from the Lebanon Historical Society’s director Nicole Ford Burley is worth your while.

Here's that now-changed intersection on Google Street View:

Other photos of interest:

Cameron Cross

Other Sources:

https://dinerhotline.wordpress.com/tag/white-owl-diner/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/lebhistoricalsociety/posts/1993017307860297/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/lebhistoricalsociety/posts/1148611112300925/

Try this week’s jigsaw puzzle: https://jigex.com/B6n2v

Dirt roads are everywhere hereabouts. We had a preview this week of the big mud to come.

Imagine how it was in the 1920s, when fewer than 10% of Vermont roads were paved.

Many farmers simply stayed home and worked making maple sugar, mostly, not syrup.

Even today in Vermont, most towns have many more miles of dirt roads than paved roads.

A few nearby towns illustrate the point:

Norwich — Total mileage: 113 | Dirt mileage: 63
Strafford — Total mileage: 80 | Dirt mileage: 66
Thetford — Total mileage: 99 | Dirt mileage: 52

But then there are exceptions:

Hartford — Total mileage: 159 | Dirt mileage: 43 (it’s practically “urban”)

Look up other Vermont towns:
https://vtransmaps.vermont.gov/Maps/Publications/Surface_byCountyTown.pdf

If you think your road is bad, consider:

Happy traveling,

Cameron Cross
The Curioustorian

Jigsaw for March 8, 2026: 1907 Postcard of Fairlee

Too many pieces? Too few? How to customize your puzzle

A kind soul loaned her postcard collection to the Norwich Historical Society for use in our weekly jigsaw puzzles.

It was a beautiful set of cards, but this one of Fairlee from 1907 grabbed my attention. I had never seen it before, but had climbed those same cliffs.

As I looked more closely, something didn’t look quite real.

As I learned more, I discovered that postcard companies often started with a photograph, then redrew and enhanced it so the fields, river, and buildings looked idealized, almost like a miniature landscape painting.

Many were actually lithographs, made in Germany, using as many as 20 separate color plates.

I now look at local landscapes through the lens of mile-high glaciers and Lake Hitchcock. Can you imagine a glacial lake bottom forming those beautiful flat fields?

How close was the artist’s rendition?
Here are two photographs taken more than a century apart.

1910:

2025:

More about postcards: Linen Postcards

More than you probably want to know about the Golden Age of Postcards

Other photos of interest:

More photos of Fairlee from the Internet Archive

Thanks for reading,

Cameron Cross

Support your town’s historical society!

Jigsaw for March 1, 2026: Central Vermont Railroads, 1877

On July 17, 1854 Hartford’s Joseph and Forrest Savage and their two Hazen cousins stood at the Boston depot with instruments in hand.

As the train pulled away from Boston, the crowd sang a poem composed by John Greenleaf Whittier. It was set to the familiar tune of “Auld Lang Syne.” It became the theme song of the movement, and the brothers played it at train stations and on steamships during their journey west.

They traveled first by rail to Buffalo, then across Lake Erie aboard the steamer Plymouth Rock.

From Detroit, the men rode west by rail again before boarding a similar river steamer, the Polar Star, in St. Louis.

A contemporary account notes:

“We had four Potawatomies going to the Kickapoo Indians, from Milwaukee. We have six slaves with their masters going to work hemp in Lexington, Missouri. Some of them appear happy in their midnight ignorance. The master of one said he paid $1,400 for him. One poor fellow has left a wife and five children in Kentucky, but his master was compelled to sell him to save himself from ruin. We had many slave-owners on board, some of whom talked loud about tar and feathers on our arrival.”

The paddlewheels churned down the Mississippi and up the Missouri rivers toward Kansas City. They arrived July 28, 1854.

From there, the musicians loaded their horns, supplies, and gear for a 40-mile, overland trek to the Wakarusa River. At the Kansas border, they paused again for a rendition of Whittier’s poem. When the made camp in Lawrence, those same instruments joined with other musicians as part of the first band in Kansas

Twenty-five years later, at an Old Settlers’ reunion, Forrest Savage was in the band to play the song again.

Cameron Cross

For a detailed accounts of the Emigrant Society and the First Kansas band, see:

https://www.kancoll.org/khq/1943/43_2_barry.htm
https://www.kancoll.org/khq/1936/36_3_bumgardner.htm

Open to offers, for any or all.

🟧 Orange Crush 20RT

Years: ~2015–present

Original New: $199

Reverb Range: $110–$160

A 20-watt solid-state practice amp with built-in reverb and tuner — still in production and holding value steadily.

Fun fact: The Crush series helped bring Orange’s iconic British look into affordable, modern solid-state form.

🎤 Behringer Ultracoustic AT108

Years: ~2005–2015

Original New: $129

Reverb Range: $60–$100

A compact 15-watt acoustic amp with mic and instrument inputs — simple and practical for small spaces.

🎛 Fender Mustang II (V1/V2)

Years: 2010–2016

Original New: $199–$229

Reverb Range: $120–$180

A 40-watt modeling amp that introduced many players to USB connectivity and digital amp voices.

Fun fact: The Mustang series helped normalize modeling amps for beginners long before they became standard.

🔊 Behringer BX900

Years: ~2006–2015

Original New: $199

Reverb Range: $100–$175

A 90-watt 2-channel bass combo with a 7-band EQ and “Ultrabass” feature.

🇨🇦 Yorkville BassMaster XM50

Years: ~2000–2008

Original New: $299–$349

Reverb Range: $120–$200

A rugged 50-watt Canadian-built bass combo with RCA line-in and line out.

Fun fact: Yorkville gear was built in Canada under the Traynor division and earned a reputation for being working-musician tough.

Warmly,

Cam

Jigsaw for February 15, 2026: Lake Hitchcock in the Upper Valley

My previous post on Lake Hitchcock had all the goodies: a zoomable map, lots of links to further exploration, and a couple of great videos, including:

Richmond Middle School teacher Greg Stott’s documentary film, The Last Ice, shares photographs and drone footage of evidence from Norwich and the Upper Valley’s glacial past.

It’s all featured in this Thursday’s episode of Discover Norwich Zoom series.

Click here to register and receive the link.

Next week: Paul Sample’s local connections. Then we return to our regularly scheduled Curioustorian posts, taking up the story of Hartford’s Savage and Hazen brothers’ move to Kansas.

As always, thanks for reading

Cameron Cross

Jigsaw for February 1, 2026: https://jigex.com/X3ma1
Colorized puzzle: https://jigex.com/4XEsB

Of additional interest:

Read and download:
• The 1932 manuscript The Letters of Eleazar Wheelock’s Indians
• The 1905 book A History of Norwich, Vermont

Norwich Timeline

A comprehensive compilation of Norwich History links

As always, thanks for reading.

Cameron Cross
The Curioustorian

Jigsaw for January 25, 2026: The Lewis House

as it looked when you could enter the Town Offices through the entrance to the right of the porch.

We are fortunate to have a very active Historical Society in Norwich, led by director extraordinaire Sarah Rooker.

Our headquarters and museum at the corner of Main and Elm have quite a history, as Kevin Hybels lays out in his excellent piece about the Lewis House.

Cameron Cross

Jigsaw for January 18, 2026: https://jigex.com/9vbWR

I did a little more digging and found something puzzling (ha!). Joseph Savage decided to go join the Immigrant Aid Society on Sunday, August 26, 1854. He arrived in Boston two days later, on Tuesday the 28th. The train was leaving the next day, August 29.

Last week we talked about Joseph being surprised (astonished?) because his brother Forrest and two Hazen cousins were already in Boston and they had gotten there before him, despite leaving after him.

I’m guessing they took different routes. I looked into it and found Lloyd’s American Railroad map. The Northeast portion of that is this week’s puzzle. But that map got me even more confused. Does anyone know the routes available between White River Junction and Boston in 1854?

For a more challenging map puzzle: 1861 Boston to Kansas railroad map

Hi-res zoomable image that rewards close scrutiny.

As always, thanks for reading

Cameron Cross

Jigsaw for January 11, 2026: The Savage Brothers from Hartford, VT

Phew….this week I didn’t go down a rabbit hole. Rather, I followed a thread and started weaving a tapestry. Last week’s puzzle was a photo of a early settlers’ reunion in Lawrence, Kansas. I thought it would be a great puzzle, and I made the connection to Vermont by learning about the New England Emigrant Aid Society.

By most measures, it was a tenuous connection. I knew there was more to it, so I kept following various threads and found these brothers and learned of their amazing move to Lawrence, Kansas.

Joseph and Forrest Savage and their cousins, the Hazen brothers, had been accomplished musicians in high school and in the Hartford Town Band. Abolitionists were very active in Vermont, and on Sunday, August 26, 1854, Joseph suddenly decided to emigrate to Kansas with a party organized by the New England Emigrant Aid Society.

Joseph made his way by rail to Boston in time for the departure on August 29.

When he went to the station the next day to join the party bound for Kansas, he was surprised to find his brother, Forrest Savage, and two cousins named Hazen, who were also members of the Hartford band. At the last moment, they too had decided to go to Kansas, all bringing their instruments:

“one E‑flat copper‑key bugle,
one brass post horn in B‑flat,
one B‑flat cornet,
and one B‑flat baritone.”

It was then that their real adventure began.

Pass this along to those who might be descendants.

There is so much more of this story, I will continue ‘in future posts.

Thanks for reading,

Cameron Cross

Puzzle for January 3, 2026 Early Settlers of Kansas

As I learn more of Vermont’s Abolitionists, I found a connection between the founding of Lawrence, Kansas and Vermont in the New England Emigrant Aid Society They directly funded ardent abolitionists to move to Kansas, in order that its citizens vote to make it a Free State. This issue led to “bleeding Kansas” and many consider those battles to be the indicator that the slavery issue was not to be settled peacefully, some even deeming it the “first battle of the Civil War.” You may care to dig deeper in some of the articles below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleeding_Kansas

https://www.explorelawrence.com/blog/post/the-founding-of-lawrence-the-arms-race/

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/bleeding-kansas

Explore the Full Archive

Many of the earlier puzzles from this year have only been seen by a few people. You can find the complete collection of every historical deep-dive and jigsaw puzzle right here:

👉 View the Full Curioustorian Archive

Thanks to all for your support.

Best,

Cameron Cross

Jigsaw for December 28, 2025: https://jigex.com/7pzJP

Hello all,

I’m taking a week off to recharge and enjoy the holidays. So I’ve handed off duties to my able co-curioustorian.

2025 has been an incredible year for The Curioustorian. We’ve explored everything from the celestial beauty of Orion to the intricate local history of West Lebanon and White River Junction. It’s been a joy watching this community grow to 251 subscribers.

If you’re a newer subscriber or just haven’t had a chance to dig through the back catalog, this is the perfect time to explore the hidden gems in the collection.

Explore the Full Archive

Many of the earlier puzzles from this year have only been seen by a few people. You can find the complete collection of every historical deep-dive and jigsaw puzzle right here:

👉 View the Full Curioustorian Archive

Thanks to all for your support.

Wishing you all a wonderful week!

Best,

Cameron Cross

P.S. This puzzle is a prelude to more on the Curioustorian’s inspiration next year.

Apologies if you’ve already received this.

Puzzle for December 21, 2025: The Orion Nebula
From: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30959/

We are lucky to live in an area of dark skies as the winter sky is awe-inspiring.

I’m stretching our concept of “history” a bit to show something born much earlier than the subjects of previous puzzles.

This nebula is roughly 3 million years old.

So every human who has ever looked at the northern winter sky has seen what we can view every clear night

Bonus Puzzle for December 21, 2025: Orion in the Winter Sky
From: https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/orion/

To learning more, start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(constellation)

Glad tidings to all. Thank you for your support.

Historically yours,

Cameron Cross

Thanks for reading! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

P.S.
Does anyone remember CCPPSRBB?
Answer next week.

Puzzle for December 14, 2025: Union Station Interior

Our examination of the river confluence at White River Junction led me to dig a little deeper, and I found this wonderful photo of the interior of Union Station.

When I hear the phrase “the glory days of the railroad,” I compare this restaurant in Union Station to the current situation at the Amtrak station. This unfortunate reality has been played out many times and in many places.

Imagine how much the railroad changed Vermont, New Hampshire, and the country as a whole. Prior to June 26, 1848, when the railroad first came to White River Junction, people were much more isolated. For example, before the railroad, people from Texas to Kentucky to points north drove herds of turkeys to market, traveling roughly 10 miles a day.

But to Boston? Driving turkeys? (see related post and puzzle at Wild Turkey)

I used this as an example of the railroad replacing the drives. But turkey drives continued into the 1920s and 1930s, until trucking became an undeniable options.
Further study is needed!

The railroad station in White River Junction is now in its fourth iteration. The current building was constructed in 1937. It was built on the foundations of Union Station, which had been built in 1880 and burned in 1911.

That leaves a gap of 26 years without a proper station due to an internecine dispute between railroads. Apparently, they used a freight barn in the meantime, although I’m not sure “the meantime” is meant to cover 26 years…

At its peak, 50 passenger trains came or left from White River Junction each day, and the number of freight trains often exceeded that. One source estimated 500 passengers a day passed through the station. At the time, there was a newspaper article exploring the idea of a subway; not with train cars, but a subterranean tunnel connecting the station to downtown, much like the present one in Lebanon. With 50 trains a day, the tracks often blocked foot traffic. It is easy to imagine there were unfortunate incidents. But I now know that there was a tunnel, usable into sometime in the 1970s. Apparently it was used at one time mostly to transport the mail back and forth between the post office and station.

Thanks for reading.

Cameron Cross

Puzzle for December 7, 2025: 1909 Survey Map

When I first looked at last week’s picture, I couldn't immediately grasp which river was which and what direction you were looking at, but I finally figured it out and we've got the Connecticut River flowing north to south from left to right between West Lebanon and whatever White River Junction. And then we have the White River flowing from west to east, right to left to join the Connecticut.

Click here for hi-res version for close examination.

The two folks sitting on the rocks are overlooking a steep gully. In 2025, if the hill was cleared, and you crept forward to where you could see the bottom, you’d see cars heading north across the I91 bridge. After the bridge the road takes a big bend to the east and then back to the north, thus avoiding doing even more blasting to the left and having to relocate the Hartford Point Cemetery to the right. The highway would have been straighter there but for the cemetery.

I looked at the 1906 map and I didn't see a road or trail to the top, so I wonder how the two people and the photographer and all his equipment conquered that steep slope.

Junction House:

Looks pretty nice with a park there…

If you like these posts, consider joining the mailing list.

Thanks for reading,

Cameron Cross
The Curioustorian

Sources and links of interest, in no particular order:

.The Junction House
Union Station
In-depth look at Hartford's Historic District
Search the Rauner Library Digital Photo Archive

Your challenge: How many landmarks can you identify in this 1880s panorama?

Click here for hi-res version for close examination.

Drop your discoveries in the comments. I’m curious what jumps out at you first. We’ll revisit this view next week with a full breakdown of what we’re seeing.

Photo details: From the Dartmouth’s Rauner Library Photos collection, photographer H. H. H. Langill, negative #5842…he was prolific!

Howard Henry Harrison Langill acted as the Dartmouth College photographer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As the proprietor of the Dartmouth Photographic Studio in the Bridgeman Building on Main Street in Hanover, NH, Langill photographed students, faculty and officers of Dartmouth College, as well as local citizens and landscapes. Born in Canada, Langill was an itinerant photographer before settling in Hanover, where he resided for several years, serving also on the local school board. He is buried in the Dartmouth College Cemetery.

Thanks for reading.

Cameron Cross

Hello all,

This is a special Thanksgiving “two for one” for the Curioustorian community.
Thank you for your support and encouragement.

Cameron

Thanksgiving Jigsaw #1: Audubon Wild Turkey

from:
https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/how-the-wild-turkey-vanished-then-returned-to-new-england/

Thanksgiving Jigsaw #2: Basking Turkey

Cameron Cross
The Curioustorian