A few more from……Thank you all for coming to our group hike event on the Becket Section of the Huckleberry Trolley line. Construction began on May 1, 1911 at the Lee end and was completed in Huntington on August 16, 1917. During the years of construction, huge amounts of men, money and equipment built the line encountering mountainous terrain and many ponds. Almost a thousand men a day, mostly Polish and Italian immigrants were employed at $1.90 per day for nine hours. Construction methods were still primitive using horses, oxen and mules. The poles were the largest ever seen, made from local chestnut. The full length tress were hand hewn by hand with broadaxes and cut to eight foot lengths. Dynamite was used to move the rock that stood in the way and steam shovels scooped the debris out to keep a three percent grade. The steam shovels weighing seventy tons were one of the modern machines used, people came from miles away to watch them operate since most had never seen one. Some of the most difficult problems encountered during construction were the bridges. Ponds had to be filled in requiring tons of dirt, as much as 75,000 yards. When ponds could not be filled, bridges were built. When the line was complete, there was not another trolley road in the state of Massachusetts like it because of the country it passed through. The trolley was built to improve economic development and for the scenery, which brought many tourists to Western Massachusetts. The round trip took three hours from Lee to Huntington and cost $1.60. There were four round trips per day. The entire project cost approximately three million dollars and ran for just over a year.

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