The May, 1981 issue of The Hampton Gazette announced “Connecticut Audubon Society Acquires Trail Wood”, confirming the decision of Pulitzer Prize winning author and world renowned naturalist Edwin Way Teale, and his wife Nellie, to preserve in perpetuity the Hampton property they purchased in 1959.  The June edition included an article detailing the dedication of the Edwin Way Teale Sanctuary.

Ever since then Trail Wood has increased our awareness and appreciation of nature with special programs, monthly excursions, and seasonal events, such as “The Dance of Spring” and “Under the Harvest Moon”. The Gazette has noticed these, along with periodic reminders of our good fortune in articles like John Woodworth’s “On the Trails at Trail Wood”, which explored specific locations at the preserve, Donna Tommelleo’s interviews with the sanctuary’s original ‘Friends’ in “Celebrating Trail Wood – a Natural Thing to Do”, Peggy Fox’s childhood recollections of her historic homestead in “Growing up at Trail Wood”,  the Thoreau Society’s 150^th anniversary of Walden at the home of its former president in “Trail Wood to Host Celebration of Walden” , and Jean Romano’s article “Trailwood: a Walk into the Past and a Look into the Future” which described current programs and future plans.

The Gazette has also apprised readers of newsworthy items, as in Jean’s “Residents Advocate for Trail Wood at Selectmen’s Meeting”, a report on taxpayer requests for use of funds for facility improvements, Pete Vertefeuille’s “Beaver Pond Breached at Trail Wood: Construction, Road (and Beaver) Crews Work to Repair Damage”, and Sarah Heminway’s article on the recent timber cut, the result of defoliation due to drought and gypsy moths, and a $15,000 grant award for necessary repairs to the farmhouse.

Teale wrote six of his several volumes at Trail Wood, most importantly for Hampton, “A Naturalist Buys an Old Farm”, detailing the discovery of the ideal place to observe and record nature.  And though Teale only authored one article in the Gazette about honeybees, 1979’s “A Naturalist Describes the Golden Throng”, the Teales and Trail Wood inspired the writings of many, evinced in the Gazette’s publication of essays and poems penned at Trail Wood during seasonal workshops and the summer residence program.

In 2013, the Gazette collaborated with the Friends of Trail Wood, a group organized to support the property and programs, to collect “Teale Tales”, a series which ran for three years and featured people from Hampton and from afar sharing their encounters with Edwin, and Nellie, and Trail Wood.

Some contributors were introduced to the Teales through literature. Carolyn Terry wrote a letter to Nellie after reading one of Edwin’s works, and her response was an invitation which developed into annual spring and fall pilgrimages to Trail Wood for several years. Terry Lavoie discovered Teale through “A Naturalist Buys an Old Farm”, Millard Davis through an article he wrote on Teale for “Conservation Magazine”, and Pete’s relationship with Teale developed over photographs, journal entries, and a mutual love of the natural world.

Others met Nellie through their exploration of Trail Wood.  Al and Ethel Engler met Nellie while walking the trails and were instrumental in building a rickshaw for her when she could no longer navigate them on foot, and with Nellie’s permission, the Kilpatricks hiked Trail Wood prior to purchasing the property next door.

Several residents met the Teales through organizations, such as Goodwin Director Lois Kelley, Pete Matthews and the Gaines who initially met the Teales through our local Bird Club, Brian Tracy who cleared brush as part of his association with the Connecticut Chapter of the Sierra Club, a task which Nellie insisted on thanking them for with tea, and Sam Higgins, who wrote of the origin of the Trail Wood Christmas Bird Count.

The most unusual encounters were those of Charles MacArthur, who met the Teales after he extended a well-received invitation to provide an aerial view of Trail Wood in his hot air balloon, and Juan Arriola, when the specter that kept peering at him as he built a barbecue pit for the Harvest Moon event was later identified through a photograph in the museum as Nellie, an apparition that those in attendance who knew her did not doubt.

Others were more familiar with the Teales, neighbors Dorothy Peterson and Carol Kilburn, and dear friends like Virginia Welch who wrote of the intimate recollections they shared with her of their only son, David, who was killed in Germany in World War II at the age of 19. And then there were the Teale’s earliest friends, those they met when they first moved here with whom they formed long lasting relationships. Leila Ostby who met them when they were looking for a place to live, and Peggy Fox, whose mother, Margaret Marcus, sold her farm to the Teales. We started the series with Alison’s Davis’ recollections of helping the Teales find a home, and ended with her daughter, Beth Davis Powning, whose many novels enrich the shelves of Fletcher Memorial Library, and whose childhood memories included the sentiment that, “It has always been part of who I am – that Edwin Way Teale knew I wanted to be a writer, and assumed that I would be.”

Each remembrance was accompanied with one of Pete Veterfeuilles’ exquisite photographs of Trail Wood, and an equally illustrative entry from “A Walk through the Year”. If you haven’t yet familiarized yourself with this chronicle of a year at Trail Wood, you should. A varied journal, it contains scientific information of our flora and fauna, seasonal observations, descriptive passages, poetic ones, words of deep wisdom, the philosophy of Teale, Thoreau, and naturalists from around the world. But above all, “A Walk through the Year” reminds us of our blessings.