Figure 1- Abandoned World War II Ammunition Bunker, Assabet River Wildlife Refuge, Maynard, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

March 12, 2016 and I am off into the woods at the Assabet River Wildlife Refugee. This is a spectacular wetland with a very strange history. In 1942 the Federal Government seized the of land, which spans the towns of Maynard, Sudbury, Hudson and Stow, Massachusetts, by eminent domain. Residents were given about ten days to pack up and leave, and claimed that they were given only ten cents on the dollar for their homes. This explains why as you walk the paths you come upon remnants of habitat, a fire hydrant or an old gas line. The purpose of all of this was to create a military for ammunition storage that was convenient to railroad lines that enabled shipping to the Boston Navy Yard.

The ammunition was stored in bunkers called “igloos”that had inside dimensions of 81x26x12 feet with a curved roofs. The sides and roofs were mounded with dirt to provide further protection and to disquiet the igloos from aerial view. The location was chosen so as to be out of the range of bombardment by enemy battle ships in Boston harbor.

Now the forest has grown back out of these bunkers and they offer a very dark and Gothic aspect that shatters the tranquil beauty of the woods.I have captured the great iron door to one of these bunkers in Figure 1. I find the place foreboding and mysterious. You almost expect to see the words “lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate.” The words that Dante tells us adorn the gates of hell, “Abandon all hope ye that enter here.”

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 73 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE Mode 1/50th sec at f/7.6 with no exposure compensation.