Those who've studied Laudholm history know that the current barns were built in the first decade of the twentieth century, after a 1902 fire burned the old barns to the ground. Some may recall that the fire "was started by burning, wind-blown shingles from a fire at the Goodwin farm a quarter mile away." *

A couple of years ago, Charles Lord became curious about where the Goodwin farm stood, so he asked his father's sister what she remembered. She pointed him "just up the road."

Not long after, Charles located a likely spot, with a few stones suitable to a foundation just visible beneath a mass of thick brush near a forest edge.

Last week, Charles led an AmeriCorps team into the woods and asked them to clear the foundation and create a new trail for reaching it. That team did an incredible job — cutting small trees and invasive plants, raking out the foundation — and today Charles led a few of us to see the site.

The Goodwin homestead appears to have been built as a typical 19th-century house-ell-barn structure near the roadside, but only the foundation survives. In the coming months, we will try to piece together some details to this story. Meanwhile, to visit the site follow the Wildlife Loop of the Yankee Woodlot Trail and watch for a wide path to a rediscovered piece of Laudholm's history.

* From page 16 of Joyce Butler's Laudholm: The History of a Celebrated Maine Saltwater Farm, published by Wells Reserve & Laudholm Trust in 2005.