Spot the Differences: Then and Now

This photo baffled Dusty D for days! I knew it was Frog Island, and the photo is labeled as Scovill's Lumber Yard, taken in 1895. Well and good.

But it didn't make a bit of sense. I saw the water--clearly the river--so logically the bridge in the background is Cross Street Bridge. Clearly the viewer is looking SOUTH from Forest Avenue down the river, so, er, that bridge that looks nothing like Cross Street Bridge is, uh...wait, what is that gigantic factory on the left? If you're looking south from Forest, wouldn't it be smack in the middle of the trainyard? And it's too big to be the Thompson Building...uh...(mass confusion!)

The answer came to Dusty D when she looked again at the bridge. You can see it's on an angle--just like the modern-day railroad bridge at Forest. Hmm, so that means you're looking NORTH from Frog Island...but...the river is in the wrong place!

I finally realized it's not the river. It's the old millrace.

Dusty Diary immediately leapt on her bike with a copy of the old picture and sped to Frog Island. I stood on the southeast side of the track and held up the photo in front of me.

It matched perfectly. The railroad bridge, now behind some trees, is in the precise same spot. The lumber yard was indeed on the east side of Frog Island, just as the old map had said. And now, when you walk on the east half of the gravel running track, you are literally walking on water.

Onetime water, anyways. On the 1895 plat map, you can see the 1895 photographer's location (red), the RR bridge (blue) and the big underwear factory (yellow).

My experience with this photo was a graphic example of what I'd experienced before--how one small, easy error in perception, when trying to track down as elusive a quarry as history, can get you turned around 180'.