QUICK TRAIL FACTS
- Preserve Size: Not sure
- Trail Mileage: 0.25 miles
- Pets: yes
- Difficulty: moderate
- Sights: Interesting rocks
This site offers an interesting geological curiosity with historical lore.
There isn’t much of an established trail in the small town park— you just start wandering down from where you park on the side of the road. You’ll quickly reach a wooden staircase that will bring you to a mesmerizing rock-scape. The large mossy rock formations seem to glow when the sun hits them right.
Some of the rock walls have smoothed out hollows, and the largest, Gully Oven, resembles a pizza oven. It was carved out by “swirling glacial meltwater” that rushed past it many thousands of years ago. Today, the site has a trickle of a brook and a waterfall, but they were both dry when I visited. The Gully Oven landform is part of the Gully Oven Formation — a larger body of metamorphic rock that extends through the region. If you look up when you’re in the ravine, you’ll see some impressive cliffs on the hillside above. Visitors — possibly as far back as the Victorian era — have carved their names and initials into the stone (not a recommended practice!).
The place is also associated with several unusual but true stories. According to historical accounts, in 1746, a group of Abenaki captured 11-year-old Jonathan Dore from nearby Rochester. He reportedly spent his first night of captivity at Gully Oven before being taken to the Abenaki community of St. Francis (Odanak) in Quebec. He lived there for 13 years, learning their language and customs, becoming a skilled hunter, and eventually marrying and having two children. In 1759, he survived a British attack on the village, but his family did not. He soon returned to his childhood home and later settled in Lebanon after receiving a grant of 50 acres, becoming one of the town’s first settlers.
And a famous Norwegion violinist gave a concert here in 1871 to take advantage of its echoing acoustics! “Ole Bull was very fond of playing the violin in the strangest of places.”
Directions: On-road parking is available by Gully Oven Natural Area. Look for an engraved boulder with the park name. It’s about 0.4 miles from the intersection with Shapleigh Road, and 1.25 miles from the intersection with Wentworth Road.
