The Devil's Kitchen - A Forgotten Attraction

Anyone that knows me knows that I love to search for old stuff, especially combined with photography. Back in 2015, my son and I went searching for Tipping Rock. A large erratic located somewhere in the Landmark/Boston Lot property that used to be somewhat of a tourist attraction over a hundred years ago. We finally found it with the story making the local paper. My December 2015 blog post is here which describes our journey in finding the lost rock.

Another tourist attraction back in the day was the Devil’s Kitchen. It was mentioned as early as 1792 by early historian Jeremy Belknap. He described it as: “This glacial gorge, ‘The Devil’s Kitchen,’ was an early tourist attraction, and its high waterworn wall and large potholes can still be found, high above the river”.
Unfortunately, the site is now located on private property and the landowners are not keen on having any visitors, so I am not able to get any images or see what it looks like today compared to what the early settlers saw. I am sure it is now very overgrown with vegetation.

Luckily, the Lebanon Historical Society has some older scanned images of Devil’s Kitchen, some dating back to the late 1800s.

In a report created by the Lebanon Planning Office in 2008 entitled Losing Ground-Lebanon’s Landscape, Devil’s Kitchen is mentioned. It recommends that the city should acquire easements for places like Devil’s Kitchen and Tipping Rock to protect their unique geological features. A copy of the report can be found here.

Below is a scan from a 1967 Map that the Lebanon Historical Society published showing the approximate location of Devil’s Kitchen located between the Mascoma River and Sunset Rock Road.