The Sand Farm

It must have been very exciting to come visit here in the early 1900s when the dunes were still in the process of forming. And people did visit! Locals called it the Sand Farm and one frequent visitor, Geraldine Coffin Brown, remembers coming with her family in the 1920s for picnics during a time when they could see only the tops of the young oak trees that had grown from acorns planted by the Tuttles.

Now, a tree would die if you buried it all at once, but these trees were buried gradually as dunes formed. It’s impossible to know exactly how deep they’re buried without digging them up, but our geologist estimates it could be as much as 20 feet!

Part of the fun of visiting the “Sand Farm” back in the day, was to look for changes in the landscape. A certain apple tree would be under sand, and months later, clear again. Geraldine and her family even came one Christmas morning on a horse-pulled sleigh, wrapped in bearskin rugs to keep warm. They cooked a simple meal over a small cook stove and opened their presents on that magical, barren landscape.

As you might imagine, there were also lots of shenanigans that would happen here at night. Teenagers being teenagers, “getting into trouble” if you catch my drift. (Another sand pun! Sorry, they write themselves…) These Prohibition era hooligans were probably doing a bit of drinking and smoking and one night the Tuttles’ old houses and smaller barn caught fire and burned to the ground. It’s miraculous that the big barn is still standing!

Anyway, the sand continued to blow—all the way into the nearby farms, under the doors and around the window. Just like the Tuttle’s homestead, all those old farms are gone now.

Alright, anyone ready to see the dunes? Let’s head to the camel.