The Three Cemeteries in Pawtuckaway State Park
| Date: | 6-19-2024 |
| Location: | Deerfield/Nottingham, NH |
It was the day after Thanksgiving and it was the last somewhat nice day before some snow is supposed to arrive over the weekend. So, I decided to take a ride back to Pawtuckaway and look for the three cemeteries that are inside the State Park boundaries.
My research showed that two the cemeteries were off of the same trail and the third one was right off tower road. There is a lot of debate over how many cemeteries are actually within the park boundaries. This is partly due to the many cemeteries are just outside the boundary but are still remote.
To the best of my knowledge I found only three. If anyone knows of one I missed, please let me know in the comments.
The Goodrich Cemetery
The Goodrich Cemetery is also sometimes called the Tower Road cemetery. This may add to the confusion about how many cemeteries are in the park.
This cemetery is located between the Middle Mountain trail and the Tower Trail along Tower Road. There is a small parking lot right next to the cemetery.
Some of the stones are still in great condition and still very readable. The cemetery is boarded by a nice stone wall. There is also a foundation next to the cemetery. Likely the home of one of the Goodrich family members. Or maybe a barn of some sort. Not really sure.
Overall the cemetery is in pretty good shape and most of the stones are still up right.
Chase Cemetery
The Chase Cemetery is located on Round Pond Road along the North Mountain Bypass trail. About a quarter of a mile in there are some foundations on the left hand side and one really large foundation that might have been a barn at one point.
After checking out the foundations I traveled into the woods a bit, about 100 yards and saw the old metal gate that surrounded the small family plot.
I could see the fence was breaking down and falling over in many areas. It has seen better days.
It looked like some of the graves had been broken but someone stood them back up. There were also a few small stones that I could not make anything out on. Over all there were not many graves. After a few pictures I continued on to the next cemetery.
Bartlett Cemetery
The Bartlett Cemetery is located further up the North Mountain Bypass trail. This is located about another quarter mile up the trail.
At one point the trail takes a sharp left and there is a stone wall with a heard path next to this. This path leads to a large split rock and behind this rock is the Bartlett Cemetery.
There were a few veterans buried in this one. It was large but not all the grave markers were professional and readable. Some looked like just stones popping out of the leaves. The cemetery is boarded with a stone wall along most of its sides.
I enjoyed this one because it was kind of hidden and kind of significant as well.
