Corey Ford's "The Road to Tinkhamtown"

[Bill Murphy]

My favorite Corey Ford story is "Seat of Justice" because it includes a Parker .410 in skeet configuration, field chokes, boats, bad wives, marksmanship, and "law and order". Would anyone be willing to particiapate in a U Tube video reenacting "Seat of Justice"?

[Dean Romig]

Chris, I think that was back before I was able to convince Kathy that a true bird dog was absolutely necessary to my continued sanity or at least would bring me closer to such a state. It took some tactical persuasion by not only myself but a few well-meaning hunting friends.

[OH Osthaus]

Wondered about that myself

Looking forward to seeing this pup (and her litter mate another friend is getting) grow up. My wife loves the dogs but adding a third might get a bit crowded in the house.

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Rick Losey

A third might get a bit crowded in the house.

Legh and Jenn have six adults and nine pups in the house and I don't hear any complaints from them. Their vacuum cleaner sure gets a workout though.

[Dean Romig]

Rick, I have seen and held John's pup. She is a wonderfully active and competitive girl and may just turn out to be the best hunter of them all. She is eager and is "The Boss" of the litter. She's the one they call "Bandit" because of her black face mask with the white stripe up from her freckled snout to behind her ears where everything else is mostly white. She's a very striking looking pup. I'm certain John will be very happy with her.

[Tony Ambrose]

This has always been one of my favorite Ford pieces.

Over the years I have always envisioned that Corey's "Tinkhamtown" came from the Tinkhamtown Brook area which is Southeast of the Dartmouth Skiway, the Dartmouth-owned ski resort just outside of Lyme. In this day and age, using tools like Google Earth, it's fun to zoom in on that area and think about what it would show if we had good aerial photos from "back in the day". It always made sense to me that Ford would have picked either an area close to Freedom or an area near Darmouth as the basis for this piece. Tinkhamtown Brook is less than 2.5 miles southeast of the small mountain that is Dartmouth Skiway.

[Dean Romig]

That theory makes perfect sense to me Tony. I know he hunted and fished those areas with his friends whom he based his "Lower Forty" characters on - Jim Hall, Perk Perkins, Judge Parker, Cousin Sid and the rest... they all had real names and were Corey's real friends and some were favorite students at Dartmouth.

[Steve Hodges]

I find your theory on the location of Tinkhamtown very fascinating and probably correct. But in listening to the video he mentions, while looking at the old map that he had drawn years earlier, that he is between
Kearsarge and Cardigan Mountain. He must have been referring to Mt. Kearsarge and not the unincorporated town near Conway, NH, as that is a great distance away. Mt. Kearsarge and Cardigan Mountain are about 25 miles apart as the crow flies, and about halfway in between lies the rural town of Danbury. Intererestingly enough, along Route 4 and the Smith River in Danbury you can find an area on the old topographical maps that is labeled “Fords Crossing”. I wonder if there might be a connection?

[Tony Ambrose]

Stephen - that's an interesting theory as well that I've heard mentioned before. Southeast of Mt. Cardigan, a bit less than 5 miles as the crow flies, is a small mountain called Tinkham Hill. It certainly could be the place!

[Dean Romig]

This is getting better and better.