When one mentions Newington NH, one thinks of shopping malls and commercial land of restaurants and businesses. When one explores the town, you find an incredible wealth of conservation land. I visited the historic area. There was a few buildings that were built in the early 1800’s and late 1700’s. None was open because of the pandemic. The road to get there is Nimble Hill road.
I did find a nice surprise. There was a trail that takes you through the United States oldest woods. To be an afficial woods, it has to be over a certain acreage. When it was registered in the early 1800’s, the size met the requirement. For a while during the cold war, the United states annex some of the woods to be part of Pease Air Force Base. When Pease closed, the land was given back to Newington.
I parked my car close to the start of the trail. The trail was wide and well taken care of. To the left of me was private property. To the right was woods where there was periodic offshoot trails. Continue on and you reach Arboritom Road which takes you to another trail upkeeped by the Fedderal Park system. I will talk about that in another entry.
I went back to the car after having a good walk. A good web site to read prior to walking this trail is Newington Center Historic District, Newington Town, Rockingham County, Newington, NH, 03801 (livingplaces.com) This also descibes the other boildings of the historic district.
Adventures in Hampton NH 