Visiting the Site of the Great Train Wreck, Crossing Three States and Standing on a Path from the Mountains to the Sea

Thomas McLaughin is writing a series of articles on hiking in the region.

Finding the Midstate Trail isn’t difficult. You could say it finds you. Maybe you’ve seen the signs for it driving over it on Route 20, or under it on the Mass. Pike, or along it on several roads throughout the region. But arriving at the starting point takes a little planning since it begins and ends in the middle of the woods. 

The 92-mile Midstate Trail passes through fourteen Central Massachusetts towns. The blaze of yellow triangles marking the Midstate runs through Douglas, Sutton, Oxford, Charlton, Spencer, Leicester, Oakham, Rutland, Barre, Hubbardston, Princeton, Westminster, Ashburnham, and Ashby. All the towns are in Worcester County, except for Ashby, which is in Middlesex County. Ashby is also the only town among them that borders three different counties—Worcester, Middlesex, and Hillsborough (New Hampshire). 

If you want to hike the Midstate or just learn more about it, a great starting point is midstatetrail.org, the official website of the Midstate Trail, where you can view maps and get information on the trail. 

For fifteen bucks you can buy their Midstate Trail Guide Book, which provides topographical maps with northbound and southbound distances, access points, elevations, and trail descriptions. 

In hiking articles, terminus is a word that’s commonly used to describe the two ends of a trail. It’s a centuries-old Latin word that’s become part of the long-distance hiking jargon since one hiker’s starting line is another’s finish line. Merriam Webster defines it as, “either end of a transportation line or travel route,” and as, “an extreme point.” So, depending on the direction you’re going it can be the end or the beginning of your journey.

I decided to start at the southern terminus of the Midstate and head north since these towns were closer to my home. Before I began, I studied the map, estimated the miles, and researched all the connecting trails leading to the Midstate. 

I could come at it from any direction. From Massachusetts, I could connect to it in the Douglas State Forest at Wallum Lake. In Rhode Island, I could reach it from Pascoag. From Connecticut, I could arrive via the Tri-State Trail. 

I saw online pictures that hikers posted of the Tri-State Marker where you can stand in three states at once. Located high atop a hill in the middle of the forest since 1883, is a small granite obelisk marking the spot where Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island meet.

I liked the idea of hiking in three states and eventually four (it sounds impressive), and I wanted to see the Tri-State Marker and stand in three states at once so I headed to East Thompson, Connecticut.  

Connecticut’s Air Line Trail extends 50-miles from the ‘quiet corner’ of northeastern Connecticut to the Connecticut River. You can walk this trail from East Thompson to Portland. This was where the legendary “ghost train,” the New England Limited, the Boston & New York Air Line Railroad, formerly known as the New Haven, Middletown and Willimantic Railroad once roared across the rails during the Gilded Age of the 1890s. According to the Pomfret Historical Society, it was known as the “ghost train” because of its “creamy white color with gold trim. Even the black coal used for fuel was whitewashed. The crew wore white uniforms and much of the interior was adorned with white and gold trim.” It was a luxury line that traveled the shortest distance between New York City and Boston with limited stops, making record time.

Today, on the Air Line Trail in East Thompson you can visit the site of the Great East Thompson Train Wreck, a massive collision involving four rail lines that occurred on the morning of December 4, 1891. 

The local Southbridge Freight, Boston Freight, Long Island and Eastern States Express, and the Norwich Steamboat Express crashed into each other on this spot. Connecticuthistory.org describes it as, “the site of one of the most horrific railway accidents in American history,” and “one of the only accidents in US history to involve four trains.” 

There are signs at the site describing the catastrophic events of that morning, along with the foundations and remains of the engine house, depot station, and engine turn table. Transparent historical pictures allow viewers to catch a glimpse of what the station and the surrounding area looked like in 1891. 

After visiting this site, I headed northeast for a half mile on the Air Line Trail, which is a flat and straight-line trail as it would have been when it was a railway. I proceeded to the Connecticut and Massachusetts border marker, hiked uphill along the rocky Tri-State Marker Trail, and arrived at a clearing at the top of the hill where the Tri-State Marker sits where the three states meet. I stood in three states, and continued along the Tri-State Trail with Massachusetts to my left and Rhode Island to my right.

I could sense there was someone behind me some distance on my way up the hill to the Tri-State Marker. He maintained the same pace and distance the whole time until I stopped to take some pictures of a scenic turn in the path and he caught up to me. 

He was a physically fit, retiree from East Thompson, Connecticut, who in his earlier years hiked over a hundred miles of the Appalachian Trail from Massachusetts through Vermont into New Hampshire. He hikes a circuitous route of a few miles, three times a week from the site of the Great Train Wreck to and from the southern terminus of the Midstate and the northern terminus of Rhode Island’s North/South Trail. It’s great exercise with its varying terrain. 

We walked to the southern terminus of the Midstate Trail between Pascoag, RI and Douglas where wooden signs point in one direction for the Midstate in Massachusetts and in another direction for the North-South Trail in Rhode Island. We talked for a little while and I told him of my plan to hike the Midstate. He said, “Enjoy your hiking,” and he continued back to East Thompson.  

If you’re up for a long walk to the beach, 78-miles, the North/South trail leads to the Atlantic Ocean (Ninigret Beach), or you can walk 92-miles north on the Midstate to Mt. Watatic. Beyond that is the Wapack Trail, extending another 21-miles to North Pack Monadnock, where you can see the White Mountains off in the distance. It’s something to appreciate when you’re standing there in the middle of the forest. This narrow footpath leads from the mountains to the sea. I enjoyed the moment, but the North/South Trail would have to wait another day. Today I was hiking the Midstate.