Category Archives: Columns

Published pieces I’ve written, primarily in The Recorder, Greenfield, Mass.

Mar
01
2026

Historic/Prehistoric Connecticut River Fisheries: A new Spin

by Gary Sanderson

As local trout streams eagerly await the rush and roar of spring and emit gurgling winter whispers through icy cracks and crevices, it’s time to revisit a topic I’ve addressed often over five decades of outdoor writing. Call it an evolving discussion about Connecticut Valley’s historic and prehistoric anadromous fisheries, with occasional diversions into the […]

posted in Columns, Indians, Local history, Salmon, Shad | No Comments

Feb
12
2026

Sunderland Heirloom Blanket Mystery

by Gary Sanderson

A midnight glance at February’s cold Snow Moon high in the sky unleashed thoughts of an old family treasure, held by five generations of female heirs from my Sunderland/South Deerfield ancestry before vanishing in the Wild West. Thoughts of the relic entered my consciousness due to recent email correspondence about it and related topics with […]

posted in Antiques, Columns, Genealogy, Local history, South Deerfield | No Comments

Jan
30
2026

Fall Hill’s in Gill, But Where’s Fort No. 10?

by Gary Sanderson

An email that arrived in my inbox last week pulled me back to Gill before it was so named, and nudged me into a stream-of-consciousness realm. I guess I was ripe for it, given the elusive subjects I’ve been exploring in recent weeks and months. The email query came from transplanted Vermonter Andrea Varney, who […]

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Jan
17
2026

Readin’, Writin’ and ‘Rithmetic

by Gary Sanderson

With the new year upon us, our deer can breathe a sigh of relief after surviving the hunting season, my previously bloated woodshed is rapidly hollowing out, and right here within reach of my favorite recliner stands a slim stack of three recently purchased books to read. The books represent the last of the itemized […]

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Jan
06
2026

Trophy 10-Pointer

by Gary Sanderson

Some stories just fall into your lap and write themselves – like this bowhunting tale from an old Powertown pal. The object, squeezed into a large, rectangular, coffin-like wooden box on the bed of Rick Kostanski’s pickup truck, rolled up my upper Greenfield Meadows driveway on the morning after Thanksgiving. It was a beautiful, 10-point, […]

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Nov
26
2025

Wing-Shooting Reflections

by Gary Sanderson

Sunday morning. Gray, soggy and still. A bit foggy. Somber daybreak ramble in the rearview. I’m seated in the everyday parlor. Reclining. Feet up. Laptop on my thighs. Autumnal thoughts spinning, swirling, gusting – drifting off to my old pheasant-, grouse- and woodcock-hunting coverts. What unleashed this train of thought? Probably the damp, raw, overcast […]

posted in Columns, Musings | No Comments

Nov
23
2025

Mission Accomplished: Cupola Restored

by Gary Sanderson

Hallelujah. Job complete. Finally. Just the sight of it, as I approach the driveway leading to my carriage-shed stall, has lowered my anxiety-elevated blood pressure 10 points. I’m talking about our 19th-century Old Tavern Farm cupola, long a vexing concern for me. For more than 10 years I had tried unsuccessfully to get it roofed. […]

posted in Columns, Local history, Tavern Tidbits | No Comments

Oct
31
2025

Mary Graham Arms Photo Restored for Posterity

by Gary Sanderson

I found a great spot for the restored, circa-1855 ambrotype photo of my third great-grandmother, Mary Graham Arms, who was born in Sunderland on June 28, 1794 and died in South Deerfield on Christmas Day 1887. As I sit here writing about her, her framed portrait is looking out at me from a bottom pigeonhole […]

posted in Columns, Local history, South Deerfield | No Comments

Sep
18
2025

New Lower Blue Licks Treasure

by Gary Sanderson

My archaeologist / anthropologist friend Mike Gramly placed the call a week into his latest dig at Lower Blue Licks in northeastern Kentucky – a 13,000-year-old mastodon boneyard located along an ancient saline spring bed on a Licking River floodplain. I could feel the man’s enthusiasm. It was infectious, and told him so. “I’m always […]

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Sep
02
2025

Gramly Has Intellectual Energy to Spare

by Gary Sanderson

Late July. Eight-thirty. Bright morning sun. Neighbors’ tall sycamore across the road casting a long, broad, cool, front-yard shadow. Two-mile walk a couple hours in the rearview. The phone on the table to the left of my chair rings. Caller ID reveals an unnamed “wireless caller,” with a 978 area code number I don’t immediately […]

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