What do crafts, sewing, sports, hiking, tenting out, telling stories, and swimming all have in common?  They are all activities of your typical New England summer camp.  Summer camps for children got there beginnings back in the late 1800’s.  Up until the mid 1800’s, rural children typically went to school in both the Winter and Summer and had time off during the spring and fall to help the family with the spring planting and the fall harvest.  Children living in the larger cities schooled for the majority of the year with only small breaks.  As times changed, the Summer months took hold as a good time of year to give students and educators a hiatus from their classrooms.  Many of the early Summer camps offered children from urban environments such as Boston and it’s suburbs the ability to ‘get back to nature’ for a week or two at a time during the Summer months.

Devin from Nashua is the happy winner of a National Geographic metal detector donated by Dr. Sreemali Vasantha of Souhegan Valley Dental.  Everyone that finished the Eye-Spy scavenger hunt had their name entered into the drawing and Dr. Vasantha drew Devin's winning ticket at the close of the game.  The best part of the day was seeing Devin actually jump for joy as he collected his prize.  He gives a great high five, too!

Thanks to all of our visitors for making the day so much fun!

Thanks to our sponsor for this years Eye Spy Scavenger Hunt, Souhegan Valley Dental:

Milford and the Souhegan Valley are chuck full of antique and consignment shops with people trying to sell their second-hand wares.  For about 26 years in the mid 20th century, Milford had a world-famous second-hand shop called the White Elephant Shop.  The business was started in 1939 by Harold Reed, who came from Newport, NH.  He purchased the old McLane Manufacturing buildings on Nashua street and began by hosting community auctions.  The business became so well known, Life magazine came to Milford in 1943 and did a story on the business.  It can be seen in the March 22, 1943 edition and has several pictures including a great shot of a 2nd floor room where Reed claims to have some 4,000 chairs for sale ranging from $.50 cents to $2 each.  At the bottom of this article there is a link to the Life magazine on Google.  In addition to the White Elephant shop, Reed also owned property on Middle Street.  He sold both of these properties in 1947. 

Milford has been called “The granite town of the granite state” for more than 100 years.  Milford’s granite industry was the catalyst to substantial growth in Milford, particularly on the East side of town. Though the first granite taken from the ground in Milford was as far back as 1850, the industry itself boomed between 1900 and 1930.  Joseph Tonella brought his family to Milford in 1898.  Prior to living in Milford, the family resided in Concord, NH and they came to America from Italy in the early 1880’s.  His business was called Tonella & Sons as he involved his sons, Charles and Julian.  In 1901 and 1902, Tonella purchased land on what was then the road to Brookline (today it is Old Brookline road off of Armory road) and started the “Tonella Queen Quarry”.  Driving past this location today, you would hardly know a quarry even exists.