Standing 80 feet in the air, the concrete stack at the Franklin Jr. No.1 surface plant has become a Boston landmark, along with its brother across the street at the No.2. The two stacks stand tall over the swamplands surrounding Boston Pond and are the only reminders to the general public of the mines that once called this place home. It was always my goal to one day find them both on the ground and stand at their feet. Today I finally accomplished that goal as I looked up at the towering concrete monolith rising above my head.

Metaphoric hyperbole aside, the No.1 stack was rather diminutive in size when compared to the great soaring stacks at Gay and Freda. In fact, after all that anticipation standing at its base was rather anti-climactic.

Gaping wide in front of me was the stack’s flue opening, chock full of a pile of ash and debris. I doubt the ash is original, most likely some enterprising local had used to stack to burn their refuse. The remains of the flue’s concrete shell laid sprawled out on the ground with the building it was once attached to no longer standing. And even through we hadn’t noticed any before, we could at least make out the beginnings of one making its way out of the flue and running under our feet.

Further up the stack tapers down, reducing its diameter by a good couple of feet in the process. Not sure of the purpose of such an architectural flourish, but most likely its got a functional reasoning.

And finally I peered up at its top rising high above the tree tops. High above my head the stack’s crown was marked with what looked like a decorative cornice – a series of notches set in a band just under the stack’s top.

With the sun now almost gone and our original purpose fulfilled we turned to leave the Franklin Jr behind until something rather interesting caught our eyes in the trees – a towering free-standing poor rock wall. This was too good to pass up….