1 00:00:15,396 --> 00:00:23,276 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Imagine there's a place in our world where the 2 00:00:23,356 --> 00:00:30,556 Speaker 1: known things go. A corridor of the mind. Along the walls, 3 00:00:30,916 --> 00:00:36,396 Speaker 1: shelves stocked with proof, and all around the clutter of clues, 4 00:00:38,156 --> 00:00:43,916 Speaker 1: wooden card catalogs, metal file drawers, walls covered with old maps, 5 00:00:44,596 --> 00:00:49,516 Speaker 1: and over here my mother's sketch books, my father's notebooks. 6 00:00:51,476 --> 00:00:55,316 Speaker 1: This place stores the facts that matter and matters of fact. 7 00:00:56,116 --> 00:01:00,436 Speaker 1: It's all that stands between reasonable doubt and the chaos 8 00:01:00,436 --> 00:01:05,956 Speaker 1: of uncertainty. Welcome to the Last Archive, a place I've 9 00:01:05,996 --> 00:01:08,516 Speaker 1: been coming to for a while now to think about 10 00:01:08,596 --> 00:01:14,996 Speaker 1: knowledge and the history of evidence. I'm Jill Lapoor. I'm 11 00:01:15,036 --> 00:01:20,196 Speaker 1: fascinated by origins, When did something start and why? So 12 00:01:20,316 --> 00:01:22,996 Speaker 1: for this final episode, I wanted to go on a 13 00:01:23,076 --> 00:01:27,236 Speaker 1: quest for my own origins, a trip to the place 14 00:01:27,236 --> 00:01:30,756 Speaker 1: where I first started asking questions about how we know 15 00:01:30,796 --> 00:01:33,316 Speaker 1: what we know. I wanted to try to understand why, 16 00:01:33,836 --> 00:01:37,476 Speaker 1: why exactly. I've gotten so worried about losing those things, 17 00:01:37,556 --> 00:01:41,796 Speaker 1: losing the ability even to know anything at all. Step 18 00:01:41,796 --> 00:01:46,396 Speaker 1: over the threshold to the town where I grew up. 19 00:01:53,756 --> 00:01:56,116 Speaker 1: Long before I was born. The town where I grew 20 00:01:56,156 --> 00:01:59,516 Speaker 1: up was taken apart brick by brick, stone by stone, 21 00:02:00,316 --> 00:02:06,636 Speaker 1: plank by plank, tree by tree. How long does it 22 00:02:06,676 --> 00:02:10,636 Speaker 1: take to build a town? I don't know. Decades, generations, 23 00:02:11,276 --> 00:02:15,876 Speaker 1: clearing fields, cutting roads, building houses, planting crops, setting up 24 00:02:15,876 --> 00:02:19,516 Speaker 1: a grist mill for grinding flower, a butchers, a bakers, 25 00:02:19,556 --> 00:02:24,476 Speaker 1: a candlestick makers, establishing a church, a town hall, town 26 00:02:24,516 --> 00:02:27,516 Speaker 1: common How long does it take for all that to 27 00:02:27,556 --> 00:02:34,516 Speaker 1: be dismantled? I know that answer precisely nine years. In 28 00:02:34,556 --> 00:02:37,116 Speaker 1: the eighteen nineties, the city of Boston was running out 29 00:02:37,116 --> 00:02:40,076 Speaker 1: of drinking water. The Board of Health studied the problem, 30 00:02:40,196 --> 00:02:43,436 Speaker 1: looked all over the state of Massachusetts for solutions. Where 31 00:02:43,476 --> 00:02:47,156 Speaker 1: could they get water? They decided the best solution was 32 00:02:47,196 --> 00:02:50,876 Speaker 1: to dam a river, the Nashua River. They'd create a 33 00:02:50,916 --> 00:02:53,676 Speaker 1: reservoir with the water from the dammed river and build 34 00:02:53,716 --> 00:02:56,436 Speaker 1: aqueducts to bring that water from the reservoir to the city. 35 00:02:57,236 --> 00:03:00,036 Speaker 1: Problem was the place where they wanted to build this reservoir, 36 00:03:00,436 --> 00:03:03,996 Speaker 1: A beautiful valley, a bound to full four thousand acre floodplain. 37 00:03:04,916 --> 00:03:08,476 Speaker 1: It was a town, the town of West Boylston, population 38 00:03:08,756 --> 00:03:12,196 Speaker 1: three thousand. Still, it was the best option, and the 39 00:03:12,276 --> 00:03:14,636 Speaker 1: state decided to go ahead. In the name of progress. 40 00:03:15,356 --> 00:03:19,076 Speaker 1: The state brought in the best engineers, drep plans detailed 41 00:03:19,116 --> 00:03:21,596 Speaker 1: every inch of it, the dam, the reservoir, the pipes. 42 00:03:23,156 --> 00:03:26,956 Speaker 1: The dismantling began in the year eighteen ninety five. Half 43 00:03:26,996 --> 00:03:29,836 Speaker 1: the population of the town was displaced. The state brought 44 00:03:29,876 --> 00:03:34,436 Speaker 1: in immigrant laborers battalions like my grandfather Giovanni Lapoor, to 45 00:03:34,476 --> 00:03:37,876 Speaker 1: do the work. At night, they slept in shanties made 46 00:03:37,916 --> 00:03:41,716 Speaker 1: of old boards and rusty nails. By day, every day 47 00:03:42,076 --> 00:03:46,756 Speaker 1: they took things apart three hundred and sixty houses, eight schools, 48 00:03:46,876 --> 00:03:51,516 Speaker 1: six mills, four churches, nineteen miles of roads, and six 49 00:03:51,556 --> 00:03:55,316 Speaker 1: miles of train tracks. The dam was finished in nineteen 50 00:03:55,316 --> 00:03:59,356 Speaker 1: oh five, and then the valley was very slowly flooded 51 00:03:59,356 --> 00:04:03,356 Speaker 1: with water, its vast expanse swirling round the stone foundations 52 00:04:03,356 --> 00:04:08,476 Speaker 1: of dismantled houses rising higher higher, higher, like filling a 53 00:04:08,516 --> 00:04:12,236 Speaker 1: bowl with sue to the very rim. It was as 54 00:04:12,276 --> 00:04:21,436 Speaker 1: if the town underneath had never been there. When we 55 00:04:21,476 --> 00:04:24,796 Speaker 1: started this podcast three years ago, people kept getting the 56 00:04:24,836 --> 00:04:29,636 Speaker 1: title wrong, the Lost Archive. It sounded so Indiana Jones. 57 00:04:30,236 --> 00:04:33,156 Speaker 1: I had to keep correcting people. No, No, not the 58 00:04:33,276 --> 00:04:37,196 Speaker 1: lost Archive, the last Archive. But I've come to see 59 00:04:37,276 --> 00:04:40,036 Speaker 1: over these three seasons that a lot of the show 60 00:04:40,076 --> 00:04:43,676 Speaker 1: really has been about loss. So instead of trying to 61 00:04:43,716 --> 00:04:46,676 Speaker 1: avoid that title, I decided to jump right into it 62 00:04:46,836 --> 00:04:49,076 Speaker 1: by going back to whist Boilston, the part of that 63 00:04:49,156 --> 00:04:52,476 Speaker 1: town that survived the building of the reservoir. By nineteen 64 00:04:52,476 --> 00:04:55,236 Speaker 1: o eight, half the town had been flooded. The valley, 65 00:04:55,316 --> 00:04:56,996 Speaker 1: or what had once been the main part of town 66 00:04:57,396 --> 00:05:00,316 Speaker 1: that was long gone. But after the reservoir was filled 67 00:05:00,556 --> 00:05:04,556 Speaker 1: the hills that part of town survived. What had once 68 00:05:04,596 --> 00:05:08,036 Speaker 1: been the outskirts became the center. I grew up there 69 00:05:08,156 --> 00:05:13,876 Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixty in nineteen seventies, I can't even tree. 70 00:05:14,076 --> 00:05:17,076 Speaker 1: This giant spruce tree was here when I was a kid. 71 00:05:18,116 --> 00:05:20,356 Speaker 1: Was the weeping so far the only thing the willow 72 00:05:20,396 --> 00:05:24,796 Speaker 1: tree in our backyard. I felt right bringing my producer 73 00:05:24,836 --> 00:05:28,156 Speaker 1: Ben here. We first met, oh more than a decade ago, 74 00:05:28,596 --> 00:05:30,996 Speaker 1: when he was a student of mine. He was one 75 00:05:31,036 --> 00:05:33,796 Speaker 1: of those college students where you say, plainly, I'm the 76 00:05:33,836 --> 00:05:36,676 Speaker 1: one learning here. We'd really gotten to know one another 77 00:05:36,716 --> 00:05:39,316 Speaker 1: when he was working on his senior thesis about orson Welles. 78 00:05:39,796 --> 00:05:42,196 Speaker 1: Ben and I share, among other things, a love of 79 00:05:42,196 --> 00:05:46,996 Speaker 1: old radio and dogs and eb White essays for the 80 00:05:47,076 --> 00:05:49,476 Speaker 1: Last Dart I've We've taken a lot of road trips, 81 00:05:49,996 --> 00:05:53,716 Speaker 1: but for me, the weirdest quest we'd ever undertaken was 82 00:05:53,756 --> 00:05:56,396 Speaker 1: that trip to the house where I grew up, a 83 00:05:56,516 --> 00:05:59,876 Speaker 1: tiny white brick fronted colonial across the street from a 84 00:05:59,956 --> 00:06:03,876 Speaker 1: restaurant called The Manor. Ben got there before I did. 85 00:06:04,356 --> 00:06:06,596 Speaker 1: I was standing out front of the house, and then 86 00:06:06,636 --> 00:06:08,676 Speaker 1: I was like, you know, maybe I shouldn't just be 87 00:06:09,156 --> 00:06:13,596 Speaker 1: can here with those strange Yeah. I hadn't been back, 88 00:06:13,836 --> 00:06:17,196 Speaker 1: probably since the nineteen eighties. You might think a historian 89 00:06:17,236 --> 00:06:20,316 Speaker 1: would like to look back, to go back, but I 90 00:06:20,436 --> 00:06:23,356 Speaker 1: don't like looking back at my own life. I'm also 91 00:06:23,636 --> 00:06:28,556 Speaker 1: the opposite of a hoarder. I threw everything away, photographs, diaries, letters, 92 00:06:29,076 --> 00:06:31,876 Speaker 1: pretty much junked all of it. I love reading other 93 00:06:31,916 --> 00:06:35,676 Speaker 1: people's old male pawing through their archives, but not my own. 94 00:06:36,436 --> 00:06:39,636 Speaker 1: I also never go back. Everything's different in my old 95 00:06:39,636 --> 00:06:42,556 Speaker 1: neighborhood now. The street used to be a sleepy little 96 00:06:42,596 --> 00:06:46,196 Speaker 1: road and something closer to a raceway. Now. Our house 97 00:06:46,236 --> 00:06:48,796 Speaker 1: was kind of raggedy, a little shabby, a vacant lot 98 00:06:48,836 --> 00:06:52,516 Speaker 1: next door for kickball, wild BlackBerry patch in the back. 99 00:06:53,396 --> 00:06:56,196 Speaker 1: None of that's there anymore. What hasn't been mowed down 100 00:06:56,396 --> 00:06:59,916 Speaker 1: has been tarted up. When I was twelve, the night 101 00:06:59,916 --> 00:07:02,196 Speaker 1: before we moved out of that little brick fronted colonial, 102 00:07:02,716 --> 00:07:04,756 Speaker 1: I walked through every room in the house in my 103 00:07:04,796 --> 00:07:08,516 Speaker 1: pajamas in the dark, carrying a flashlight, casting its glow 104 00:07:08,556 --> 00:07:12,036 Speaker 1: from corner at a corner, from floor to ceiling, trying 105 00:07:12,076 --> 00:07:15,316 Speaker 1: to frame within the light and then commit to memory 106 00:07:16,036 --> 00:07:21,036 Speaker 1: every single object within my sight. The yellow laundry shoot, 107 00:07:21,156 --> 00:07:25,756 Speaker 1: the cream and leather world book encyclopedias, the pink flowered wallpaper, 108 00:07:26,316 --> 00:07:30,116 Speaker 1: the shelf of canned soups, the ashtrays in every room 109 00:07:30,276 --> 00:07:33,436 Speaker 1: for my father's wooden pipes, the smell of his brigs 110 00:07:33,476 --> 00:07:37,676 Speaker 1: tobacco everywhere. I wanted to memorize the contents of the 111 00:07:37,836 --> 00:07:41,036 Speaker 1: entire house as if I were shooting a film, to 112 00:07:41,196 --> 00:07:43,716 Speaker 1: keep and etch and preserve it in my mind, an 113 00:07:43,836 --> 00:07:47,556 Speaker 1: archive of my childhood. Nights afterward, I would close my 114 00:07:47,596 --> 00:07:49,716 Speaker 1: eyes in bed and run the film again to watch it, 115 00:07:49,956 --> 00:07:53,156 Speaker 1: so I wouldn't forget it visiting there looking at old 116 00:07:53,156 --> 00:07:58,436 Speaker 1: photographs that would have been crazy to me. Instead, I 117 00:07:58,556 --> 00:08:04,236 Speaker 1: kept it in my head. I can still unspool that 118 00:08:04,276 --> 00:08:06,956 Speaker 1: film and watch it when I shut my eyes. I 119 00:08:07,076 --> 00:08:10,076 Speaker 1: know where the soup should be shelved, the spot on 120 00:08:10,076 --> 00:08:12,556 Speaker 1: the bumpy froumpy couch and the basement where my cat 121 00:08:12,596 --> 00:08:15,676 Speaker 1: had kittens. The proper shade of pink for the bedroom 122 00:08:15,756 --> 00:08:19,636 Speaker 1: above the garage. I didn't like to store things, but 123 00:08:19,716 --> 00:08:23,796 Speaker 1: I like to keep memories. I was always worried about forgetting, mainly, 124 00:08:23,796 --> 00:08:26,196 Speaker 1: I think because I was so distressed by what distresses 125 00:08:26,236 --> 00:08:29,436 Speaker 1: every kid. Grown ups seem to have forgotten what it's 126 00:08:29,436 --> 00:08:34,316 Speaker 1: like to be small and powerless and scared. How could 127 00:08:34,356 --> 00:08:37,676 Speaker 1: they for me. The place to go for answers to 128 00:08:37,756 --> 00:08:42,796 Speaker 1: that question, for answers to every question was the library 129 00:08:43,756 --> 00:08:48,036 Speaker 1: in West Boylston. That place was the Beaman Memorial Public Library. 130 00:08:48,236 --> 00:08:50,316 Speaker 1: He could walk there from our house, and I walked 131 00:08:50,356 --> 00:08:51,996 Speaker 1: there all the time because it was one of my 132 00:08:52,076 --> 00:08:54,836 Speaker 1: chores to bring all the library books back. How did 133 00:08:54,836 --> 00:08:57,636 Speaker 1: you return all these books? I had this little red 134 00:08:57,676 --> 00:09:02,676 Speaker 1: canvas rucksack that with these canvas straps that I really loved, 135 00:09:02,716 --> 00:09:04,676 Speaker 1: and I don't know where I got it or if 136 00:09:04,676 --> 00:09:06,796 Speaker 1: I picked it out, but like I remember thinking, this 137 00:09:06,836 --> 00:09:09,516 Speaker 1: is exactly what a little girls should carry your books 138 00:09:09,516 --> 00:09:11,276 Speaker 1: to the library. And I don't know why I like it. 139 00:09:12,316 --> 00:09:17,316 Speaker 1: I think I God, look at the library. I walked 140 00:09:17,316 --> 00:09:19,476 Speaker 1: from my house to the library went partly through the woods, 141 00:09:19,476 --> 00:09:21,716 Speaker 1: at least the way I took it. You walked across 142 00:09:21,756 --> 00:09:25,116 Speaker 1: our backyard, leapt over a little brook, and traveled along 143 00:09:25,116 --> 00:09:28,716 Speaker 1: a path through a shadowy pine forest. You got through 144 00:09:28,716 --> 00:09:33,236 Speaker 1: the sort of BlackBerry field through you merged out of 145 00:09:33,236 --> 00:09:35,156 Speaker 1: the BlackBerry patch, and all of a sudden you were 146 00:09:35,156 --> 00:09:38,516 Speaker 1: at the town common. There was the Catholic church, our church, 147 00:09:38,636 --> 00:09:42,316 Speaker 1: the cemetery, a skating rink in the winter, a gazebo, 148 00:09:42,836 --> 00:09:44,996 Speaker 1: and then you cut through this park like thing, which 149 00:09:45,076 --> 00:09:49,556 Speaker 1: wasn't as landscaped as now. This is the center of town. 150 00:09:50,036 --> 00:09:55,356 Speaker 1: Door to door. It took all of fifteen minutes. It's 151 00:09:55,356 --> 00:09:57,476 Speaker 1: occurred to me more than once when working on the 152 00:09:57,556 --> 00:10:01,636 Speaker 1: last archive, that this building, this little town library, lies 153 00:10:01,676 --> 00:10:03,796 Speaker 1: at its heart. When I say this thing at the 154 00:10:03,836 --> 00:10:06,356 Speaker 1: top of the show about the place where the known 155 00:10:06,436 --> 00:10:09,116 Speaker 1: Things go, I must be thinking about the Beaman Memori 156 00:10:09,196 --> 00:10:12,556 Speaker 1: Royal Public Library, because that's the place where I anyway 157 00:10:12,836 --> 00:10:15,796 Speaker 1: used to go to know things. Out front of the 158 00:10:15,796 --> 00:10:19,596 Speaker 1: library there's a little monument to the town's revolutionary era founder, 159 00:10:20,156 --> 00:10:23,276 Speaker 1: Ezra Beamon. It's like how in The Simpsons there's a 160 00:10:23,316 --> 00:10:28,036 Speaker 1: statue in Springfield to that town's revolutionary era founder, guy 161 00:10:28,076 --> 00:10:32,516 Speaker 1: who goes by the name Jebediah Obadiah Zachariah Jedediah Springfield. 162 00:10:33,556 --> 00:10:41,356 Speaker 1: So this is the famous Beeman watering trough, because I 163 00:10:41,356 --> 00:10:46,996 Speaker 1: think his name is Jedediah Zachariah Obediahs. You can't get 164 00:10:47,036 --> 00:10:50,196 Speaker 1: water for your horse here anymore, of course, the trough's empty. 165 00:10:50,436 --> 00:10:52,796 Speaker 1: It's just decorative. But back when I was a kid, 166 00:10:53,156 --> 00:10:55,996 Speaker 1: I found it magical, a portal to another world, a 167 00:10:56,076 --> 00:10:58,756 Speaker 1: kind of time machine, to a world where people had 168 00:10:58,836 --> 00:11:02,116 Speaker 1: horses who needed water. And I was always curious about 169 00:11:02,116 --> 00:11:06,596 Speaker 1: this mysterious founder, Guy are Ezra Beamon. In The Simpsons, 170 00:11:06,796 --> 00:11:11,036 Speaker 1: Lisa sets her mind on unmasking Jebba Springfield. This quest 171 00:11:11,116 --> 00:11:14,796 Speaker 1: takes her to Springfield's Historical Society, where she digs through 172 00:11:14,836 --> 00:11:22,916 Speaker 1: the archives and she finds the secret confessions of Jeopardiah Springfield. Know, 173 00:11:23,156 --> 00:11:25,556 Speaker 1: ye who read this, there is more to my life 174 00:11:25,556 --> 00:11:31,076 Speaker 1: than history record. That was exactly my girlhood fantasy. As 175 00:11:31,116 --> 00:11:34,236 Speaker 1: I trudged every day into the Beaman Memorial Library wearing 176 00:11:34,316 --> 00:11:38,596 Speaker 1: my red canvas rucksack stuffed with books, standing in front 177 00:11:38,596 --> 00:11:41,236 Speaker 1: of the historical plaque. I can still feel a little 178 00:11:41,236 --> 00:11:44,596 Speaker 1: bit of that thrill. This watering trough was erected in 179 00:11:44,716 --> 00:11:47,116 Speaker 1: eighteen o eight at the old Beamon Tavern by Major 180 00:11:47,196 --> 00:11:49,956 Speaker 1: as Rabeam, and the founder of was Bolston. This is 181 00:11:49,996 --> 00:11:52,476 Speaker 1: an ingering question. What does it mean to found a town? 182 00:11:52,756 --> 00:11:54,876 Speaker 1: Is it like he showed up here and he was like, 183 00:11:54,916 --> 00:11:57,596 Speaker 1: I like the cut of this valley and you should 184 00:11:57,636 --> 00:12:01,356 Speaker 1: come out, or as Rabamon founded was Bolston in the 185 00:12:01,396 --> 00:12:04,356 Speaker 1: way that most New England towns were founded by seceding 186 00:12:04,556 --> 00:12:07,676 Speaker 1: from another town. The Beamon's settled in New England in 187 00:12:07,756 --> 00:12:11,436 Speaker 1: sixteen thirty five. Ezra was born in seventeen thirty six. 188 00:12:11,996 --> 00:12:15,316 Speaker 1: In seventeen sixty four he built the Beeman Tavern, where 189 00:12:15,356 --> 00:12:18,636 Speaker 1: colonists would laid a rail against British tyranny. Then he 190 00:12:18,636 --> 00:12:22,076 Speaker 1: fought in the Revolutionary War. Starting in seventeen ninety three, 191 00:12:22,116 --> 00:12:24,996 Speaker 1: he lobbied the state, hoping to establish the valley where 192 00:12:25,036 --> 00:12:27,756 Speaker 1: he lived as its own town, separate from the town 193 00:12:27,796 --> 00:12:31,316 Speaker 1: of Boylston. He won that battle in eighteen o eight, 194 00:12:31,876 --> 00:12:36,196 Speaker 1: founded West Boylston and died three years later. How the 195 00:12:36,276 --> 00:12:39,996 Speaker 1: library got started, that's another story. West Boylston opened its 196 00:12:39,996 --> 00:12:43,476 Speaker 1: first library in eighteen seventy eight, mainly with a collection 197 00:12:43,476 --> 00:12:47,436 Speaker 1: of books donated by the writer, abolitionist and suffragist Lydia 198 00:12:47,476 --> 00:12:51,076 Speaker 1: Moriah Child. That library was demolished for the reservoir, and 199 00:12:51,196 --> 00:12:54,356 Speaker 1: so was Ezra Beeman's family farm, and so was the 200 00:12:54,396 --> 00:12:58,116 Speaker 1: Beeman Tavern. Anyway, in nineteen eleven, when the New Town 201 00:12:58,116 --> 00:13:00,876 Speaker 1: Center was just being built, after the reservoir was filled, 202 00:13:01,076 --> 00:13:04,436 Speaker 1: Ezra Beeman's great grandson funded the building of a new 203 00:13:04,476 --> 00:13:08,156 Speaker 1: Town library. It opened the next year as the Beaman Memorial. 204 00:13:08,676 --> 00:13:10,956 Speaker 1: It opened at the height of the progressive era, when 205 00:13:10,996 --> 00:13:16,076 Speaker 1: public libraries represented the vanguard of democracy, These free, beautiful 206 00:13:16,196 --> 00:13:22,156 Speaker 1: places open for everyone, especially for the waves of new immigrants, Hungarians, Jews, 207 00:13:22,356 --> 00:13:28,276 Speaker 1: Italians like my grandfather. You know, probably the stateliest building 208 00:13:28,276 --> 00:13:30,476 Speaker 1: in town. I mean, we're looking at it. It's a 209 00:13:31,316 --> 00:13:33,396 Speaker 1: you know, it's it's not gorgeous. It's a it's a 210 00:13:33,476 --> 00:13:38,596 Speaker 1: sort of very kind of prim brick with white trim, 211 00:13:39,236 --> 00:13:43,636 Speaker 1: two story building with the kind of pitched slate roof. 212 00:13:44,356 --> 00:13:50,316 Speaker 1: It's not imposing, it's not monumental, but it communicates its 213 00:13:50,436 --> 00:13:55,196 Speaker 1: public charter in the way it faces this little common 214 00:13:55,476 --> 00:13:59,076 Speaker 1: and in the way it occupies the tip of this 215 00:13:59,156 --> 00:14:03,076 Speaker 1: long triangle where the two main roads of the town 216 00:14:03,116 --> 00:14:07,236 Speaker 1: are coming together. It just says, welcome to our town, 217 00:14:07,476 --> 00:14:12,756 Speaker 1: and here is our world of knowledge. Ben and I 218 00:14:12,956 --> 00:14:16,756 Speaker 1: headed inside. We walked into a reading room with tall windows, 219 00:14:17,276 --> 00:14:21,676 Speaker 1: long wooden tables equilt on the wall, each square stitched 220 00:14:21,716 --> 00:14:25,676 Speaker 1: to depict an episode in the town's history. And it 221 00:14:25,836 --> 00:14:30,916 Speaker 1: was very very quiet. You know how, It's like every 222 00:14:30,956 --> 00:14:33,476 Speaker 1: library has the sign that says, like, maintain a library 223 00:14:33,556 --> 00:14:36,116 Speaker 1: like atmosphere. Yeah, which is this kind of like very 224 00:14:36,156 --> 00:14:38,796 Speaker 1: circular reasoning. I feel that this is a really clear 225 00:14:38,836 --> 00:14:42,596 Speaker 1: illustration of a library type atmosphere. Upon coming in, you 226 00:14:42,676 --> 00:14:47,356 Speaker 1: feel it. The library was a lot smaller than I remembered. Also, 227 00:14:47,396 --> 00:14:49,876 Speaker 1: it was a lot nicer. I could still close my 228 00:14:49,916 --> 00:14:52,596 Speaker 1: eyes and picture where my favorite books used to be shelved, 229 00:14:52,996 --> 00:14:56,116 Speaker 1: the corner where I liked best to read. Now when 230 00:14:56,156 --> 00:14:58,796 Speaker 1: I go to a library reading room, it's a big library, 231 00:14:58,836 --> 00:15:01,916 Speaker 1: Harvard's widen Air Library or the New York Public Library 232 00:15:02,036 --> 00:15:05,356 Speaker 1: or the Library of Congress. The beam in reading room 233 00:15:05,876 --> 00:15:08,236 Speaker 1: is the size of a living room, and all the 234 00:15:08,276 --> 00:15:13,436 Speaker 1: more magical for at a tiny mystical palace. You see 235 00:15:13,436 --> 00:15:15,716 Speaker 1: all these quotes about libraries. They're penned up on the 236 00:15:15,716 --> 00:15:20,476 Speaker 1: glass the very existence of libraries affords the best evidence 237 00:15:20,516 --> 00:15:22,636 Speaker 1: that we may yet have hope for the future of 238 00:15:22,716 --> 00:15:27,796 Speaker 1: man ts Eliott with u Isabella end a quote that's 239 00:15:27,876 --> 00:15:30,836 Speaker 1: very last archivey. The library is inhabited by spirits that 240 00:15:30,916 --> 00:15:33,636 Speaker 1: come out of the pages at night. We're at the 241 00:15:33,636 --> 00:15:36,476 Speaker 1: beginning of the episode. When I was a little kid, 242 00:15:36,676 --> 00:15:38,596 Speaker 1: I spent most of my time in the children's room 243 00:15:38,676 --> 00:15:41,836 Speaker 1: in the basement, where the librarian was named Missus Noise, 244 00:15:42,516 --> 00:15:46,036 Speaker 1: Missus Noise, who told everyone to be quiet. The children's 245 00:15:46,116 --> 00:15:48,556 Speaker 1: room has since then moved up to the second floor. 246 00:15:48,876 --> 00:15:52,836 Speaker 1: Ben and I headed upstairs. Rugged carpet, hip high shelves, 247 00:15:53,036 --> 00:15:59,156 Speaker 1: pint sized chairs, stuffed animals. This is so cute. I 248 00:15:59,276 --> 00:16:04,156 Speaker 1: love a children's every puppet theater start. Yeah, they have 249 00:16:04,156 --> 00:16:08,196 Speaker 1: a painted puppet theater like a Jella. You graduate from 250 00:16:08,196 --> 00:16:10,876 Speaker 1: the children's room and get set loose in the nonfiction 251 00:16:10,916 --> 00:16:14,556 Speaker 1: and fiction stacks, the reference room, the card catalog, the 252 00:16:14,636 --> 00:16:17,756 Speaker 1: computer terminal. Everything in a library is there just for 253 00:16:17,876 --> 00:16:21,596 Speaker 1: you and also just for everyone else. It's a public 254 00:16:21,636 --> 00:16:25,036 Speaker 1: space for common knowledge and for community. But you could 255 00:16:25,076 --> 00:16:27,756 Speaker 1: also take a piece of it back home in your backpack. 256 00:16:28,516 --> 00:16:30,836 Speaker 1: Every step of the walk home passed the town Common, 257 00:16:30,876 --> 00:16:33,516 Speaker 1: through the BlackBerry patch, winding a path through the pine woods, 258 00:16:33,596 --> 00:16:36,356 Speaker 1: leaping over the brook sneaker squelching in the mud, rucksack 259 00:16:36,396 --> 00:16:40,036 Speaker 1: on my back, walking through the beam in public library. 260 00:16:40,316 --> 00:16:43,316 Speaker 1: I began to think it had been just this all along, 261 00:16:43,756 --> 00:16:47,516 Speaker 1: that I felt I'd lost the giddiness of carrying that weight, 262 00:16:47,916 --> 00:16:50,836 Speaker 1: bringing home a stack full of books, believing they held 263 00:16:50,836 --> 00:17:10,236 Speaker 1: all the answers, spirits seeping out of their pages. Every 264 00:17:10,276 --> 00:17:13,036 Speaker 1: little town library that I've ever been to has its 265 00:17:13,036 --> 00:17:17,436 Speaker 1: own version of a last archive, some tiny locked room. 266 00:17:17,636 --> 00:17:20,516 Speaker 1: Sometimes it's in an attic, more often it's down in 267 00:17:20,556 --> 00:17:24,476 Speaker 1: the basement where they keep old stuff, antiques, a lot 268 00:17:24,476 --> 00:17:27,156 Speaker 1: of it. It's junk stuff people donate to the library 269 00:17:27,156 --> 00:17:31,116 Speaker 1: thinking it's amazing and collectible, but really it's pretty much trash, 270 00:17:31,156 --> 00:17:32,996 Speaker 1: and then the library and has got to keep it, 271 00:17:33,076 --> 00:17:36,636 Speaker 1: or feels obligated to keep it. I've seen very old 272 00:17:36,676 --> 00:17:41,716 Speaker 1: and obscure books in these places, paintings, prints, unwanted bronze plaques, 273 00:17:42,196 --> 00:17:47,876 Speaker 1: chipped marble statues, jewelry, boxes of beads, campaign buttons, moth 274 00:17:47,956 --> 00:17:54,276 Speaker 1: eaten poncho's, ivory, chess pieces, stamp collections, faded photo albums. 275 00:17:54,316 --> 00:17:58,236 Speaker 1: Sometimes it's a treasure, though I found uncataloged invaluable portraits 276 00:17:58,276 --> 00:18:00,596 Speaker 1: in these rooms. I once went to a town library 277 00:18:00,596 --> 00:18:03,716 Speaker 1: where they had a mammoth tusk and preserved in plaster 278 00:18:04,236 --> 00:18:07,276 Speaker 1: dinosaur footprints. I wouldn't be surprised to find a dead 279 00:18:07,316 --> 00:18:10,436 Speaker 1: body in one of these places. Honestly, they're strapped, padlocked 280 00:18:10,436 --> 00:18:17,196 Speaker 1: trunk full of bones. The last archive at the Beamon 281 00:18:17,276 --> 00:18:20,516 Speaker 1: Memorial Library in West Boylstone is a windowless room in 282 00:18:20,556 --> 00:18:25,436 Speaker 1: the basement with metal shelves and a dehumidifier humming. Anna, 283 00:18:25,516 --> 00:18:28,916 Speaker 1: the library director, let us in. There was a wooden 284 00:18:28,916 --> 00:18:32,116 Speaker 1: reading table and a cardboard box filled with tiny white 285 00:18:32,116 --> 00:18:35,596 Speaker 1: cotton gloves. Ben and I stretched them on and began 286 00:18:35,676 --> 00:18:39,716 Speaker 1: pawing our way across the shelves. I always want somehow 287 00:18:39,716 --> 00:18:42,396 Speaker 1: to touch everything, lay a finger across the spine of 288 00:18:42,516 --> 00:18:45,876 Speaker 1: every book. Ben's got the same bug, I thought, watching 289 00:18:45,916 --> 00:18:48,916 Speaker 1: his white gloved fingers tracing in boss titles as he 290 00:18:48,916 --> 00:18:52,236 Speaker 1: read them out loud to himself, whispering, neither of us 291 00:18:52,236 --> 00:18:54,276 Speaker 1: are hardly happier than when in a room like this. 292 00:18:54,756 --> 00:18:57,916 Speaker 1: Dust boars dancing in the light so much in so 293 00:18:57,996 --> 00:19:02,996 Speaker 1: small a space musty. It smells like knowledge. And none 294 00:19:02,996 --> 00:19:07,876 Speaker 1: of it exists online anywhere. Ezra Beamon's family Bible is here. 295 00:19:08,116 --> 00:19:11,676 Speaker 1: Heaviest Stone, the guy who started the Farmer's Almanacs from 296 00:19:11,716 --> 00:19:14,516 Speaker 1: West Boylston. So they've got a complete set of old 297 00:19:14,556 --> 00:19:17,556 Speaker 1: Farmer's Almanacs down here. They've got the whole of Lydia 298 00:19:17,636 --> 00:19:21,476 Speaker 1: Maria Child's Library, the hundred and seventy volumes that started 299 00:19:21,516 --> 00:19:24,356 Speaker 1: off this collection. There are also plenty of records of 300 00:19:24,356 --> 00:19:27,236 Speaker 1: my own family, Photographs of my father, who was a 301 00:19:27,276 --> 00:19:31,116 Speaker 1: public school teacher, in the town's high school yearbooks, smiling 302 00:19:31,196 --> 00:19:34,396 Speaker 1: surrounded by the men's basketball team, or sitting behind a 303 00:19:34,476 --> 00:19:38,596 Speaker 1: desk wearing a bow tie, smoking his pipe and looking shy. 304 00:19:39,476 --> 00:19:41,356 Speaker 1: Then there were also lots and lots of old maps 305 00:19:41,356 --> 00:19:44,236 Speaker 1: and blueprints of the town, the two thousand acres of 306 00:19:44,236 --> 00:19:47,396 Speaker 1: farms and houses and churches and mills that in the 307 00:19:47,396 --> 00:19:50,876 Speaker 1: early eighteen nineties the water board was planning to flood. 308 00:19:52,436 --> 00:19:55,476 Speaker 1: Plan of West Boylston after the survey of the Metropolitan 309 00:19:55,516 --> 00:20:01,036 Speaker 1: water Board eighteen ninety eight, the state had to inventory 310 00:20:01,076 --> 00:20:03,956 Speaker 1: every square inch of land and everything on it to 311 00:20:04,036 --> 00:20:07,636 Speaker 1: pay property owners and to plan the engineering marble that 312 00:20:07,796 --> 00:20:11,436 Speaker 1: was the reservoir in the dam. Each slope and incline, 313 00:20:11,756 --> 00:20:14,756 Speaker 1: the pitch and size of it all. Looking at the 314 00:20:14,796 --> 00:20:19,116 Speaker 1: engineering plans blue with white lines like water and fishing line, 315 00:20:19,476 --> 00:20:22,556 Speaker 1: I pictured what they hid. The farm or somesow once 316 00:20:22,596 --> 00:20:25,436 Speaker 1: had a record number of piglets. Could almost hear them 317 00:20:25,436 --> 00:20:29,556 Speaker 1: squealing the hayloft where lovers met on autumn evenings, whispering 318 00:20:29,596 --> 00:20:33,036 Speaker 1: over the thrumb of crickets. Their whole world had been 319 00:20:33,076 --> 00:20:36,756 Speaker 1: reduced to these blue sheets of paper. And then, after 320 00:20:36,796 --> 00:20:39,676 Speaker 1: the project had been completed, what did the State Waterboard 321 00:20:39,676 --> 00:20:42,796 Speaker 1: do with all those plans? They gave them to the 322 00:20:42,836 --> 00:20:46,636 Speaker 1: town library. On the wall above the bank of drawers 323 00:20:46,636 --> 00:20:50,436 Speaker 1: that held the blueprints, they hung a manuscript, framed and 324 00:20:50,596 --> 00:20:55,076 Speaker 1: under glass, a letter dated nineteen twelve from the town 325 00:20:55,116 --> 00:21:00,316 Speaker 1: Clerk's office, in much faded handwriting. We are deeply gratified 326 00:21:00,436 --> 00:21:03,316 Speaker 1: that we are the recipients of a kindness, the final 327 00:21:03,356 --> 00:21:08,036 Speaker 1: expression of a long cherished purpose, so appropriate and so timely. 328 00:21:10,356 --> 00:21:13,556 Speaker 1: It was a resolution of thanks to Ezra Beemon's great grandson, 329 00:21:14,036 --> 00:21:18,036 Speaker 1: thanking him for the gift of the library. This gift 330 00:21:18,276 --> 00:21:22,236 Speaker 1: will enable us, our children, and our children's children down 331 00:21:22,316 --> 00:21:33,676 Speaker 1: through the generations to reap the rich footage of recorded 332 00:21:33,756 --> 00:21:42,356 Speaker 1: human thought rich? Where is it? It's got to be footage. No, 333 00:21:42,476 --> 00:21:48,476 Speaker 1: it's not footage vintage. I just could not figure out 334 00:21:48,516 --> 00:21:51,596 Speaker 1: this weird old word. Could not see the letters tell 335 00:21:51,636 --> 00:21:54,716 Speaker 1: one from another, could not sound it out. I found 336 00:21:54,756 --> 00:21:59,916 Speaker 1: myself in a library unable to read the word. Is footage? 337 00:22:02,636 --> 00:22:08,556 Speaker 1: Is not the rich footage of recorded human thought? Okay, 338 00:22:08,556 --> 00:22:10,716 Speaker 1: so we had not. I found the equivalent of Jebediah 339 00:22:10,756 --> 00:22:16,396 Speaker 1: Obadiah Zachariah Jedediah Springfield Secret Diary. But honestly it was 340 00:22:16,476 --> 00:22:21,396 Speaker 1: better this tribute to Ezra Beemon's great grandson. This gift 341 00:22:21,836 --> 00:22:25,276 Speaker 1: will enable us, our children and our children's children down 342 00:22:25,436 --> 00:22:32,636 Speaker 1: through the generations to reap the rich. It's a good thing. 343 00:22:32,716 --> 00:22:34,716 Speaker 1: Ben was with me. He's much better at keeping his 344 00:22:34,796 --> 00:22:37,796 Speaker 1: head at a word like footage. I mean, you can 345 00:22:37,876 --> 00:22:47,196 Speaker 1: read fruit, to read the rich fruited. It comes to this, 346 00:22:48,516 --> 00:22:52,796 Speaker 1: the end. This is like, this is the original, This 347 00:22:52,876 --> 00:22:56,436 Speaker 1: is the Incanla, the last dur Guy. We have found 348 00:22:56,436 --> 00:23:01,756 Speaker 1: it here, and yet we cannot have it to read 349 00:23:01,316 --> 00:23:06,356 Speaker 1: the footage of recorded human thought. This is where the 350 00:23:06,476 --> 00:23:13,956 Speaker 1: known things go. This letter, pressed under glass, framed in wood, 351 00:23:14,756 --> 00:23:18,316 Speaker 1: hanging on a wall, fading had been in this little 352 00:23:18,356 --> 00:23:22,516 Speaker 1: basement room my whole life, a fifteen minute walk from 353 00:23:22,516 --> 00:23:25,956 Speaker 1: my house, and I'd never seen it before. It would 354 00:23:25,956 --> 00:23:27,516 Speaker 1: have meant nothing to me when I was ten years 355 00:23:27,556 --> 00:23:31,236 Speaker 1: old anyway, but it's been waiting here for the moment 356 00:23:31,716 --> 00:23:35,796 Speaker 1: I needed it. Reading it, trying to read it gave 357 00:23:35,836 --> 00:23:38,396 Speaker 1: me that same magical feeling I always get when reading 358 00:23:38,436 --> 00:23:41,436 Speaker 1: something written long ago that says something to me, as 359 00:23:41,476 --> 00:23:43,716 Speaker 1: if it had been written and sealed in an envelope 360 00:23:43,716 --> 00:23:47,556 Speaker 1: and mailed to me, mailed to everyone, but we each 361 00:23:47,596 --> 00:23:49,676 Speaker 1: get to open it up when the time is right. 362 00:23:50,796 --> 00:23:56,636 Speaker 1: It's very beautiful. The archives of old podcasts don't have stacks, 363 00:23:56,756 --> 00:24:00,676 Speaker 1: no spines of books, not even any file drawers. Just 364 00:24:00,876 --> 00:24:04,396 Speaker 1: MP three's floating in the ether, episodes about Rachel Carson 365 00:24:04,396 --> 00:24:07,916 Speaker 1: and bird Song, about Pedro Gonzalez and Spanish language radio, 366 00:24:08,316 --> 00:24:12,396 Speaker 1: about the polio vaccine and access Sally, and Soviet propaganda, 367 00:24:12,596 --> 00:24:17,356 Speaker 1: everything from the Scopes trial to January sixth. The idea 368 00:24:17,396 --> 00:24:20,756 Speaker 1: of a fictional archive had been Ben's, but the fictional 369 00:24:20,796 --> 00:24:24,756 Speaker 1: conceit always intersects with something real. That's what we found anyway. 370 00:24:25,356 --> 00:24:28,196 Speaker 1: This love letter to Ezra Beemon's great grandson from the 371 00:24:28,236 --> 00:24:31,636 Speaker 1: town clerk it was like that. I wanted to nab it, 372 00:24:32,236 --> 00:24:35,476 Speaker 1: stick it in my rucksack, head off through the BlackBerry brambles, 373 00:24:35,756 --> 00:24:39,396 Speaker 1: and carry it back into the last archive. But not 374 00:24:39,436 --> 00:24:43,196 Speaker 1: everything lost finds its way to an archive. Not most things. 375 00:24:43,236 --> 00:24:48,276 Speaker 1: Actually most things they just vanish. Ben and I had 376 00:24:48,276 --> 00:24:52,716 Speaker 1: one more stop to the place where the lost things go. 377 00:24:57,396 --> 00:25:00,516 Speaker 1: So see how we're just driving down into You could 378 00:25:00,516 --> 00:25:03,796 Speaker 1: imagine this just as a valley. It we're just really 379 00:25:03,836 --> 00:25:07,476 Speaker 1: gone lower, much lower than we were. But this is 380 00:25:07,516 --> 00:25:11,996 Speaker 1: the Wachuset Reservoir, and it's really very beautiful. When I 381 00:25:12,036 --> 00:25:14,196 Speaker 1: grew up in West Wellston, the same as if everything 382 00:25:14,316 --> 00:25:18,236 Speaker 1: involved around the reservoir, it was just so big. It's fast, really, 383 00:25:18,596 --> 00:25:21,956 Speaker 1: which means that you're forever driving across it or around it. 384 00:25:21,956 --> 00:25:23,836 Speaker 1: It's just a reservoir. Though you take it for granted. 385 00:25:23,876 --> 00:25:26,916 Speaker 1: You don't really think about it, except that I did. 386 00:25:28,756 --> 00:25:30,836 Speaker 1: Maybe when I was six years old, my mother told 387 00:25:30,836 --> 00:25:33,076 Speaker 1: me that under the reservoir used to be the town. 388 00:25:33,796 --> 00:25:36,676 Speaker 1: I remember we were driving over this same causeway, and 389 00:25:36,716 --> 00:25:39,956 Speaker 1: then I got obsessed with it, the drowned town under 390 00:25:39,996 --> 00:25:45,156 Speaker 1: the water, the town haunted, flooded, vanished. I biked across 391 00:25:45,196 --> 00:25:47,596 Speaker 1: here all the time, as a kid, this causeway, and 392 00:25:48,276 --> 00:25:49,876 Speaker 1: I'm going to take a left here and go buy 393 00:25:49,876 --> 00:25:55,876 Speaker 1: this hotdog stand, which is a famous landmark. Well used 394 00:25:55,876 --> 00:25:59,356 Speaker 1: to be Bobs, but I guess it's Roun's now. The 395 00:25:59,476 --> 00:26:02,756 Speaker 1: last stop of this last last archive road trip to 396 00:26:02,876 --> 00:26:05,796 Speaker 1: the watch Us Reservoir. Like when you're a kid, like 397 00:26:05,836 --> 00:26:07,636 Speaker 1: there's your family, and there's your house, and then there's 398 00:26:07,636 --> 00:26:09,516 Speaker 1: your street, and then there's your neighborhood, and then there's 399 00:26:09,516 --> 00:26:12,236 Speaker 1: some sense of your town. It always felt like my 400 00:26:12,316 --> 00:26:16,436 Speaker 1: town was just missing. My town had gone to its 401 00:26:16,476 --> 00:26:21,756 Speaker 1: watery grave below all this water too, where the nipmuck 402 00:26:21,836 --> 00:26:26,476 Speaker 1: dead w U sit. That's a nipmuck ward Nashua, the 403 00:26:26,596 --> 00:26:29,236 Speaker 1: river that was damned to make this reservoir. That's an 404 00:26:29,236 --> 00:26:33,476 Speaker 1: Abanaki word. Maybe there's also something I don't know if 405 00:26:33,476 --> 00:26:36,396 Speaker 1: this is like part of being a historian or I 406 00:26:36,436 --> 00:26:37,676 Speaker 1: don't know if you think this is part of being 407 00:26:37,676 --> 00:26:39,796 Speaker 1: a historian, but if you have to have some kind 408 00:26:39,796 --> 00:26:43,156 Speaker 1: of affect of love of the past, like there has 409 00:26:43,196 --> 00:26:45,836 Speaker 1: to be just an impulse there to feel the sense 410 00:26:45,836 --> 00:26:48,316 Speaker 1: of belonging with it. It was a little scary to me, 411 00:26:49,196 --> 00:26:53,076 Speaker 1: but some sense that it was some kind of purgatory 412 00:26:53,116 --> 00:26:57,836 Speaker 1: where the lost. We're trapped. And it's not as though 413 00:26:57,876 --> 00:27:00,676 Speaker 1: I wanted to go visit them, not least because I 414 00:27:00,716 --> 00:27:03,676 Speaker 1: can't swim. I have more than once come very close 415 00:27:03,756 --> 00:27:07,396 Speaker 1: to drowning. I'm terrified of water, crazy scared of it. 416 00:27:07,996 --> 00:27:10,796 Speaker 1: But I pictured it all the time. I wondered what 417 00:27:10,956 --> 00:27:13,436 Speaker 1: might be down there at the bottom of the reservoir. 418 00:27:13,956 --> 00:27:16,196 Speaker 1: The thing about the past for me is it doesn't 419 00:27:16,196 --> 00:27:21,556 Speaker 1: ever really go away, like stuff that happened generations ago is. 420 00:27:23,036 --> 00:27:25,556 Speaker 1: It's still kind of there, like you can go find it, 421 00:27:25,636 --> 00:27:28,916 Speaker 1: you can look it up, and the evidence that had 422 00:27:28,916 --> 00:27:34,276 Speaker 1: happened is very likely still there. Below this water are 423 00:27:34,316 --> 00:27:37,156 Speaker 1: the foundations of houses that haven't been there since nineteen 424 00:27:37,196 --> 00:27:40,036 Speaker 1: o two, but the foundations are still there. You could 425 00:27:40,076 --> 00:27:42,876 Speaker 1: still put on your scoopa gear and dive under this 426 00:27:42,956 --> 00:27:46,476 Speaker 1: water and you would find you would find the remains. 427 00:27:47,836 --> 00:27:49,796 Speaker 1: It was as if there had been these three places 428 00:27:49,836 --> 00:27:52,356 Speaker 1: growing up that it really mattered to me. My house 429 00:27:52,396 --> 00:27:54,716 Speaker 1: which I loved and knew we were leaving and tried 430 00:27:54,756 --> 00:27:58,916 Speaker 1: desperately to remember the library where they actually kept things, 431 00:27:59,276 --> 00:28:03,316 Speaker 1: stored knowledge so that it wouldn't vanish, and this reservoir, 432 00:28:03,676 --> 00:28:07,196 Speaker 1: which was where all knowledge was lost. Just sunk, disappeared. 433 00:28:08,076 --> 00:28:10,796 Speaker 1: How do you find your way to that stuff without drowning? 434 00:28:12,076 --> 00:28:19,436 Speaker 1: After the break? Ben and I dive in. I remember 435 00:28:19,436 --> 00:28:22,196 Speaker 1: in high school reading Adrian Rich for the first time 436 00:28:23,076 --> 00:28:26,836 Speaker 1: poems she wrote in the early nineteen seventies, especially this one, 437 00:28:27,676 --> 00:28:32,476 Speaker 1: Diving into the Wreck. Here's her reading it. I came 438 00:28:32,916 --> 00:28:37,876 Speaker 1: to explore the wreck. The words of purposes, the words 439 00:28:37,996 --> 00:28:41,676 Speaker 1: are maps. I came to see the damage that was 440 00:28:41,756 --> 00:28:46,316 Speaker 1: done and the treasures that prevail. I stroked the beam 441 00:28:46,356 --> 00:28:49,796 Speaker 1: of my lamp slowly along the flank of something more 442 00:28:49,876 --> 00:28:54,796 Speaker 1: permanent than fish or weed. These lines of riches just 443 00:28:54,916 --> 00:28:58,076 Speaker 1: spoke to me, then cut into my bones. It was 444 00:28:58,116 --> 00:29:01,156 Speaker 1: exactly how I had always pictured diving into the reservoir, 445 00:29:01,716 --> 00:29:06,436 Speaker 1: just going under the thing. I came for the wreck, 446 00:29:06,596 --> 00:29:09,836 Speaker 1: and not the story of the wreck, the thing itself, 447 00:29:09,916 --> 00:29:14,036 Speaker 1: and not the myth. The drowned face, always staring towards 448 00:29:14,076 --> 00:29:18,316 Speaker 1: the sun, the evidence of damage, worn by salt and 449 00:29:18,436 --> 00:29:22,476 Speaker 1: sway into this threadbare beauty, the ribs of the disaster, 450 00:29:22,996 --> 00:29:29,556 Speaker 1: curving their assertion among the tentative horns, The evidence of damage, 451 00:29:29,636 --> 00:29:33,596 Speaker 1: the ribs of the disaster, the wreck, the ruin. Ben 452 00:29:33,636 --> 00:29:36,196 Speaker 1: and I always joke about ruins and remains. How we 453 00:29:36,396 --> 00:29:39,036 Speaker 1: both want to see those places. How that's a big 454 00:29:39,036 --> 00:29:41,916 Speaker 1: part of how we imagined most episodes of this podcast, 455 00:29:42,556 --> 00:29:45,756 Speaker 1: diving into Rex. We had all these trips and where 456 00:29:45,796 --> 00:29:47,596 Speaker 1: we would go to some place where something used to be, 457 00:29:47,836 --> 00:29:50,916 Speaker 1: Like here's where Ralph Allison's barn was. Yeah, you know, 458 00:29:51,156 --> 00:29:53,556 Speaker 1: this is where West Boylston was. This is where this 459 00:29:53,716 --> 00:29:57,156 Speaker 1: dead body was found. The parking lot where this crime 460 00:29:57,156 --> 00:30:00,436 Speaker 1: was committed. This is where doctor do a little once 461 00:30:00,516 --> 00:30:03,876 Speaker 1: loved at the reservoir. We parked the car near the 462 00:30:03,916 --> 00:30:07,716 Speaker 1: hot dog stand and near the reservoirs. One historic landmark, 463 00:30:08,036 --> 00:30:11,876 Speaker 1: another kind of wreck. Now we're walking down this kind 464 00:30:11,876 --> 00:30:15,196 Speaker 1: of gravel carriage road to the what's called an old 465 00:30:15,236 --> 00:30:18,636 Speaker 1: Stone Church, which was a Baptist church built just a 466 00:30:18,636 --> 00:30:21,676 Speaker 1: couple of years before the state decided to flood the town. 467 00:30:25,716 --> 00:30:28,756 Speaker 1: The town's Baptist church right at this spot at the 468 00:30:28,916 --> 00:30:31,236 Speaker 1: edge of the valley, had burned to the ground in 469 00:30:31,316 --> 00:30:33,876 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety so the Baptists had built a new one 470 00:30:34,156 --> 00:30:38,476 Speaker 1: out of massive stones, unburnable to last forever. It was 471 00:30:38,556 --> 00:30:41,356 Speaker 1: brand new in eighteen ninety two, and then the next 472 00:30:41,436 --> 00:30:44,396 Speaker 1: year the state water Board made its decision to flood 473 00:30:44,396 --> 00:30:48,436 Speaker 1: the valley. The Baptist congregation mostly left, fled to other 474 00:30:48,476 --> 00:30:51,916 Speaker 1: towns like everyone else, but someone decided to leave the 475 00:30:51,956 --> 00:30:54,876 Speaker 1: brand new stone church standing as a kind of monument. 476 00:30:55,556 --> 00:30:57,836 Speaker 1: I guess it was just too new, too beautiful, too 477 00:30:57,916 --> 00:31:03,516 Speaker 1: hopeful to dismantle what had just been mantled. Do you 478 00:31:03,516 --> 00:31:07,316 Speaker 1: want to go inside the church? Yeah, let's going. It's 479 00:31:07,356 --> 00:31:09,716 Speaker 1: gotten so much Nacer. They really did this incredible job 480 00:31:09,756 --> 00:31:11,836 Speaker 1: renovating it. When I was a kid, it was it 481 00:31:11,956 --> 00:31:16,876 Speaker 1: had been just left since, you know, eighteen ninety five, 482 00:31:18,196 --> 00:31:20,996 Speaker 1: and the roof had fallen in. I had been struck 483 00:31:21,036 --> 00:31:24,356 Speaker 1: by lightning a few times, and it was really dangerous, 484 00:31:24,356 --> 00:31:26,756 Speaker 1: and they had just put it like a chain link 485 00:31:26,756 --> 00:31:29,916 Speaker 1: fence around it, and it was kind of terrifying. It's 486 00:31:29,956 --> 00:31:34,556 Speaker 1: also very wholesome graffiti Eric and Tony true love stuff, 487 00:31:34,836 --> 00:31:39,316 Speaker 1: Marry Me. There's no pews in it, there's no altar, 488 00:31:39,596 --> 00:31:41,876 Speaker 1: there's no stained glass windows. There's no windows at all. 489 00:31:41,916 --> 00:31:48,036 Speaker 1: There's just holes it. It's a great looking little church, 490 00:31:48,276 --> 00:31:49,916 Speaker 1: it really is. You can see why you wouldn't want 491 00:31:49,916 --> 00:31:52,556 Speaker 1: to tear it down immediately after completing it. Yeah, it's beautiful. 492 00:31:55,316 --> 00:31:57,996 Speaker 1: Is this the thing we'd come for? In the basement 493 00:31:57,996 --> 00:32:00,636 Speaker 1: of the library. We'd found that letter on the rich 494 00:32:00,796 --> 00:32:04,796 Speaker 1: footage of recorded human thought, common knowledge. In other words, 495 00:32:05,036 --> 00:32:08,076 Speaker 1: the theme of this whole season. I'd wanted to show 496 00:32:08,116 --> 00:32:11,076 Speaker 1: Ben the reservoir because as it's beautiful, but also because 497 00:32:11,076 --> 00:32:13,996 Speaker 1: I thought it m'd hold within its depths some answers 498 00:32:13,996 --> 00:32:17,116 Speaker 1: about the theme of the whole podcast, the slipping away 499 00:32:17,116 --> 00:32:20,556 Speaker 1: of certainty, the rise of doubt. And then we'd come 500 00:32:20,596 --> 00:32:23,436 Speaker 1: to the church, a memorial to another kind of search 501 00:32:23,556 --> 00:32:29,276 Speaker 1: for truth. One thing Ben and I share. We're both Catholic, 502 00:32:29,476 --> 00:32:32,036 Speaker 1: and these holy places make us light headed with the 503 00:32:32,076 --> 00:32:35,436 Speaker 1: sense of the eternal mysteries. It's one thing we've both 504 00:32:35,476 --> 00:32:38,116 Speaker 1: been drawn to puzzle over in this podcast, how the mystery, 505 00:32:38,236 --> 00:32:41,596 Speaker 1: the unknown, what was known only to God, had been 506 00:32:41,636 --> 00:32:44,556 Speaker 1: replaced by this secular idea of the fact, and then, 507 00:32:45,076 --> 00:32:49,196 Speaker 1: more recently, the fact had been replaced by data, a 508 00:32:49,236 --> 00:32:52,076 Speaker 1: wholly new kind of mystery, with its own priesthood, but 509 00:32:52,476 --> 00:32:56,436 Speaker 1: without the love. Water flooding a valley, leaving it a ruin, 510 00:32:56,876 --> 00:33:01,476 Speaker 1: a wreck. We sat inside for a long time, watching 511 00:33:01,476 --> 00:33:05,076 Speaker 1: birds fly in and out, tending to nests in the rafters. 512 00:33:05,596 --> 00:33:09,116 Speaker 1: We heard picnickers outside, popping the lids on soda cans. 513 00:33:09,636 --> 00:33:11,516 Speaker 1: I felt right that we'd come together, the two of 514 00:33:11,596 --> 00:33:16,716 Speaker 1: us with a microphone and a recorder. We are I am, 515 00:33:17,356 --> 00:33:22,276 Speaker 1: You are, by cowardice or courage, the one who find 516 00:33:22,356 --> 00:33:27,756 Speaker 1: our way back to the scene, carrying a knife, a camera, 517 00:33:28,436 --> 00:33:32,796 Speaker 1: a book of myths in which our names do not appear. 518 00:33:40,876 --> 00:33:42,916 Speaker 1: When we were first struggling with what to call this 519 00:33:42,956 --> 00:33:47,956 Speaker 1: podcast the Last Archive, the Lost Archive. For a long time, 520 00:33:47,956 --> 00:33:50,916 Speaker 1: we'd wanted to call it the Evidence Room. Somehow, I 521 00:33:50,916 --> 00:33:53,676 Speaker 1: think that name was already taken. There'd been some talk 522 00:33:53,676 --> 00:33:57,916 Speaker 1: of getting around that by calling the show Jillipour's Evidence Room. 523 00:33:57,996 --> 00:34:01,916 Speaker 1: But I'm glad my name never appeared. It's not my room. 524 00:34:02,076 --> 00:34:06,396 Speaker 1: It never was my room. This podcast started out as 525 00:34:06,396 --> 00:34:10,156 Speaker 1: a kind of murder mystery. Who killed Truth? There's no 526 00:34:10,236 --> 00:34:12,556 Speaker 1: royal answer, or really, if I'm being honest, there are 527 00:34:12,556 --> 00:34:16,796 Speaker 1: only two answers. First, everyone killed truth, the dead, living, 528 00:34:16,836 --> 00:34:19,556 Speaker 1: the old, the young, the left, the right. The evidence 529 00:34:19,636 --> 00:34:23,996 Speaker 1: is everywhere a collapse of trust. And Second, truth isn't dead, 530 00:34:24,076 --> 00:34:27,036 Speaker 1: even though very often it's buried. A lot of it 531 00:34:27,076 --> 00:34:29,996 Speaker 1: is floating around in archives and libraries and laboratories and 532 00:34:30,076 --> 00:34:33,476 Speaker 1: classrooms and city halls and town commons and old churches. 533 00:34:33,956 --> 00:34:37,516 Speaker 1: It's a question of finding it, saving it, deciphering it. 534 00:34:38,836 --> 00:34:41,796 Speaker 1: Who killed truth? I wish I could offer up a 535 00:34:41,796 --> 00:34:45,076 Speaker 1: tidy ending, a big reveal, gather all the suspects into 536 00:34:45,076 --> 00:34:49,356 Speaker 1: the conservatory, tell the story of my investigation, explain my methods, 537 00:34:49,716 --> 00:34:53,996 Speaker 1: list every clue, and then in a flourish unmasked the murderer. 538 00:34:54,836 --> 00:35:01,236 Speaker 1: But I can't, Ben and I left West Boylston and 539 00:35:01,236 --> 00:35:04,436 Speaker 1: the Old Stone Church and the Beaman Memorial Library and 540 00:35:04,556 --> 00:35:10,276 Speaker 1: trudged back into the Last Archive. We've met so many people, teenagers, scholars, 541 00:35:10,396 --> 00:35:16,676 Speaker 1: dog scientists, archivists, artists, farmers, hypnotists, naturalists, poets. We'd been 542 00:35:16,916 --> 00:35:21,116 Speaker 1: so many places, We dived into so many wrecks and 543 00:35:21,276 --> 00:35:26,316 Speaker 1: come up mainly only with more questions. Cleaning up the 544 00:35:26,356 --> 00:35:28,796 Speaker 1: Last Archive, we got to talking about where we'd been 545 00:35:28,836 --> 00:35:31,636 Speaker 1: and what we'd found out, trying to put the place 546 00:35:31,636 --> 00:35:39,956 Speaker 1: in some kind of order. Yeah, theater tickets. Was there 547 00:35:39,996 --> 00:35:43,996 Speaker 1: ever an organizing scheme or like, these are things that 548 00:35:44,116 --> 00:35:46,796 Speaker 1: fit in this drawer? Yeah, Well, it's an archive without 549 00:35:46,796 --> 00:35:52,916 Speaker 1: an archivist, so that's always been sort of a problem. 550 00:35:53,036 --> 00:35:57,876 Speaker 1: Oh wow, Look, it's all the episodes, every single episode 551 00:35:57,876 --> 00:36:00,636 Speaker 1: of the Last Archive. How did those get here? That's 552 00:36:00,676 --> 00:36:05,876 Speaker 1: weird for the birds? His first bird walk, I guess, 553 00:36:06,676 --> 00:36:10,716 Speaker 1: And I'd like to have had a movie. Lstran LaVita 554 00:36:10,796 --> 00:36:15,036 Speaker 1: Hobby was a lady in complete commerce. Repeat after me. 555 00:36:15,956 --> 00:36:24,316 Speaker 1: I'm going to turn back through time and space? Did 556 00:36:24,316 --> 00:36:26,996 Speaker 1: you turn the light on over there? I didn't touch it. 557 00:36:29,076 --> 00:36:32,436 Speaker 1: I don't think that doesn't even that doesn't look like 558 00:36:32,556 --> 00:36:42,716 Speaker 1: artificial light. Ben, is that glowing? What's that sound? It's 559 00:36:42,756 --> 00:36:53,796 Speaker 1: almost like did you hear that? The Last Archive is 560 00:36:53,836 --> 00:36:57,196 Speaker 1: written and hosted by me Jill Lapour. It's produced by 561 00:36:57,236 --> 00:37:01,036 Speaker 1: Sophie Crane, Ben Natt of Haffrey and Lucy Sullivan. Our 562 00:37:01,156 --> 00:37:04,236 Speaker 1: editors are Julia Barton and Sophie Crane, and our executive 563 00:37:04,236 --> 00:37:08,316 Speaker 1: producer is Mi Lobell. Jake Gorsky is our engineer. Fact 564 00:37:08,396 --> 00:37:12,676 Speaker 1: checking by me Games. Original music by Matthias Bosse and 565 00:37:12,836 --> 00:37:16,956 Speaker 1: John Evans of Stellwagen Symfinett. Our full proof player is 566 00:37:17,076 --> 00:37:20,076 Speaker 1: Robert Ricotta. Many of our sound effects are from Harry 567 00:37:20,116 --> 00:37:24,116 Speaker 1: Janette Junior and the Star Jennette Foundation. Special thanks to 568 00:37:24,156 --> 00:37:27,916 Speaker 1: Anna Shaw and Steve Carlson at the West Boylston Beamon 569 00:37:28,036 --> 00:37:32,076 Speaker 1: Memorial Library. The Last Archive is a production of Pushkin Industries. 570 00:37:32,356 --> 00:37:35,516 Speaker 1: If you love this show, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus, 571 00:37:35,556 --> 00:37:39,476 Speaker 1: offering bonus content like The Last Archivist, a limited series 572 00:37:39,556 --> 00:37:43,196 Speaker 1: just for subscribers, and add free listening across our network 573 00:37:43,436 --> 00:37:46,036 Speaker 1: for four ninety nine a month. Look for the Pushkin 574 00:37:46,076 --> 00:37:50,476 Speaker 1: Plus channel on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot Fm. 575 00:37:50,516 --> 00:37:53,036 Speaker 1: If you like the show, please remember to rate, share 576 00:37:53,076 --> 00:37:56,636 Speaker 1: and review. To find more Pushkin podcasts, Listen on the 577 00:37:56,676 --> 00:38:00,636 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 578 00:38:01,196 --> 00:38:05,036 Speaker 1: I'm Jill Lapour. I've had my share of magic Archives, 579 00:38:05,276 --> 00:38:07,676 Speaker 1: but this place isn't done with us yet. I left 580 00:38:07,716 --> 00:38:10,156 Speaker 1: my keys with Ben. He went back to check out 581 00:38:10,156 --> 00:38:14,156 Speaker 1: that freaky light. Nobody's seen him in weeks. I think 582 00:38:14,156 --> 00:38:14,996 Speaker 1: that's a good sign.