We recently traveled to New England by air for a family visit, and to attend antiques shows held during the “New Hampshire Antiques Week.” Because of the terrorist threat in London, we decided to drive back to Georgia traveling from Concord, New Hampshire, through Brattleboro, Vermont into Connecticut, then into New York and Pennsylvania down to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Interstate 81 (all 600 miles of it) took us into Tennesee through Knoxville and Chattanooga, and then into the North West Mountians of Georgia and then South along I-75. Over the next few posts, I’ll share a little geology and culture that anyone can experience that makes this greater than 1,000 mile trip.

Image: Map of New England

As you look at the map above, on Day 1 we started in Concord, NH and traveled west to Brattleboro, VT (southern VT), and then traveled south through Massachusetts into Connecticut to Hartford. From there we traveled west into New York (past West Point Academy), and then into Pennsylania. Mind you, we had already been in New England for two weeks, spending our time in Brattleboro (family), and Concord (antiques). Having grown up in Natick, MA, which is just west of Boston, and the many years of travel that my wife and I did going to New England for twenty years from Georgia, I was quite familiar with the geological and cultural environment of the region.

New Hamphire (The Granite State), and Vermont (The Green Mountain State) are beautiful. Although adjacent to each other, and relatively small compared to the state that I now live in (Georgia), NH and VT are incredibly different. To me VT is extremely green, and NH is very grey, almost granite looking. By the way, NH is home to the White Mountians, and VT is home to the Green Mountains.

Image: Mount Washington, NH

Image: Vermont Mountain and river

The route from New Hampshire to Georgia takes you through the Appalachian Mountains. Millions of years ago, these mountains rivaled the Rockies in the elevation of its peaks. Today, after eons of erosion, the Appalachians have been worn down to their present elevations. In New Hampshire, the Appalachians are known as the White Mountains, in Vermont as the Green Mountains, and in Massachusetts, the Berkshires. As we continue south into Virginia, Tennesee and Georgia, we are the midst of these mountians along our route.

Image: Edge of a glacier
The other noteworthy comment about the geology in New England is the effect of the recent Glacial Age on the topography of the region. As early as 20,000 years ago, NE was covered by a mile of ice, and was very much like the arctic regions of world today. The bulldozing action of the glacier resulted in many lakes and ponds in the New England states, as well as other features including erratics (huge rocks that we carried piggy-back style by the ice and dumped further away from their source.

Image: Glacial lake
Another interesting feature produced by the bulldozing ice was the formation of long mounds of dirt and rock which we call drumlins. If you have ever been to Bunker Hill, you are standing on a drumlin. The ice retreated from New England and points further west about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago leaving tons of glacial soil called till full of sand and rocks.