Our scouting trip with Tom Hoffman and Terri Thorne was to find the Bowe Quarry in Otis, armed with several types of GPS and maps, we followed the old rail and found some metal and quarry stone, however at Bonny Rigg Road the route continued onto private property and that is where we believe the Bowe to be. We continued instead on the old stone walled road to North Blandford to where the Otis/Becket boundary stone is, a nice cellar hole and the Turnpike was cut thru. The old road to the lower quarry was found here too.
Near the present day large lower quarry which was named the Hudson and Chester granite Company. Another couple of miles farther over the rough upland plateau, and just beyond the Otis town line, lay another quarry, smaller, called by old timers the “Bowe Quarry.” This Bowe Quarry had opened in 1890’s and was much smaller than its lower neighbor. To reach this second operation, more railroad was constructed in 1902 or 1903. This line
branched off just below the Hudson & Chester’s lower quarry yard to form a second switchback. Then it curled around the hilltop and then headed south, for the upper quarry. It was actually just a long siding, for it had no sidetracks at the end.
The construction of the Chester & Becket Branch Railroad was done with oxen and two-wheeled dump-carts hauled by mules. Excerpts from “The Chester – Becket Railroad” by Leonard Holmes Spencer; A
Bicentennial History of Becket Berkshire County, Massachusetts 1765-1965
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