The Norton Cemetery. Norton Road, the oldest road in Otis is the Knox Trail route, here Norton’s tavern served and rested many men along the journey. Also the Norton Cemetery is tucked away on a hill, the A frame house you see today was once the Louden School 1794, a turtle (native american cairn) is by the road, going to the end of the road it is now Norton Road Extention, we entered the Otis Tolland State Forest where the Knox Trail continued.

Thank you, Mr. Tom Ragusa for all the Hilltown History work you do! We all traveled the “ye trodden path” Knox Trail, Otis section today, to learn, hike and enjoy the history. We started at the Blandford/Otis line at Station #1 the Black Oak Staddle ( a dead tree trunk), cellar hole #1 according to Edward Knurrow, cellar hole #2 believed to be a tavern, the “65 miles to Albany” milestone carved in a rock, station #5 where General Amherst and 200 hatchet men in 1758 widened the path for cart travel, the Latimer House (1934) just past the Big Pond boat ramp, the 1927 Knox Trail Monument, Norton Road and Cemetery, a native American “turtle”, the Norton Tavern and Farm, station #20 two large rocks and stones, onto DCR property in the Otis Tolland State Forest, Webster saw mill, Station #28 Great Rock, the burial spot of General Burgoyne’s soldier in 1777, the massive walls on the downhill created by General Amherst’s men to repair the road and finally to Station #33 encampment site of Benjamin Wadsworth in 1694, oldest site on record on the banks of the Farmington River where a group of 50 or so men camped overnight on August 9th and 10th on their way to Albany to sign a treaty with the five Native American Nations.

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