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They Asked Eisenhower to Run on This Ridge. The Tower Is Still There. · The Red Solo Traveler Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: So what do a six-story Bavarian fortress, a bottle of 8.1
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: steak sauce, and the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower all
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: have in common?
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, on the surface, absolutely nothing. Right.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: But if you actually lace up your hiking boots and
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: climb this very specific, very stubborn ridge in Connecticut, you'll
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: find they all share the exact same foundation.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's just the perfect way to frame it. Because,
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: you know, when you pick up a tourism brochure for
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: a state park.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Everything looks so neat and packaged.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: You get this glossy, friction-free version of history. A picture
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: of a nice trail, a beautiful overlook, maybe a historic building.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: And the narrative just sort of implies it was dropped
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: there from the sky strictly for your weekend recreation. Right.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: It basically invites you to look at the view and
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: ask absolutely no questions about the actual ground beneath your feet.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Which is exactly why we're here. Welcome to the Red
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Solo Traveler podcast. Today we are taking a deep dive
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: into the sources, specifically a really phenomenal travel article from
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: June 2026.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Written by Louie over at Red Solo Traveler, right?
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. And our topic today is a 557-acre patch
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: of land on the Metacomet Ridge in Connecticut, officially known
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: as Talcott Mountain State Park.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: It's a gorgeous area.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: It really is. And our mission today is to essentially
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: walk you, the listener... Up this steep, mile-and-a-quarter, yellow blaze trail,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: we want to uncover the surprisingly concrete history of a
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: tower that survived like four wooden predecessors.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Secured a legendary liquor family's legacy.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Yes, hosted a pivotal presidential ask and narrowly escaped becoming
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: a condominium complex.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Which is just crazy to think about.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: But to get to the top of Talcott Mountain, you
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: have to survive what the author actually calls the steep
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: first pitch of the hike.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: It's this aggressive uphill scramble of trap rock and roots.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: It really demands your full attention.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this because that physical climb is, I mean,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: it's the perfect metaphor for the history of this estate, right?
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: To get to the real story, we have to climb
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: right past the romantic myths that always seem to obscure it. Because,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: you know, the fairy tale version is always the easiest
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: thing to sell to tourists.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Oh, for sure.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: And the persistent myth here is this grand romantic origin story.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: As the popular narrative goes, in 1875, a man named
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Gilbert Toblin was standing on this very ridge with his fiancée,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Louise Gunlock.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: He allegedly looks out over the valley and tells her
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: the quiet part out loud. He says, someday I'm going
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: to build you a castle on this mountain.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Which, I mean, is an incredibly sweeping cinematic gesture. And
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: they did get married the very next year in 1876.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: So logically you'd think the shovels hit the dirt in 1877, right?
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Like the ultimate wedding gift.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: You would think so, yeah.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: But the reality is that the tower wasn't actually built
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: until 1914. Wow.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. But I had to push back hard on
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: this whole fairytale romance narrative.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: A 39-year delay is just absurd.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: That is the 19th century equivalent of telling your partner
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: you're going to build a deck in the backyard and
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: then taking four decades to actually drive to the hardware store.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that completely shatters the wedding gift myth. And it's
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: actually a very similar historical beat to the myths surrounding
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: Gillette Castle.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, right. Another famous Connecticut landmark.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: We always try to map grand romantic gestures onto these
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: massive pieces of real estate. But the timeline simply doesn't
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: support it. I mean, consider the math on their lives.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: Louise passed away in 1935 and Gilbert died in 1937.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: So that means out of remarkably long marriage, their time
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: actually spent living in this completed castle was just a
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: tiny fraction of their lives together.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just a blip, really.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: So the romance angle is a great brochure pitch, but
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: it's just not the catalyst that puts steel in the ground.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: Right. So if romance wasn't the driving force behind the
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: 1914 construction, we have to look at what actually was.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: And the answer, found right in the bedrock of our
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: source material, is basically sheer stubbornness and serious engineering.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: Because Gilbert Hublin wasn't the first person to try conquering
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: this ridge. He was actually looking at a literal graveyard
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: of architectural ambition.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: The mountain is just totally unforgiving. Before Hublin's tower went up,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: four earlier wooden towers had completely failed up there. Four
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: of them?
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: They were located a few hundred yards south of the
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: current tower, right around where the park pavilion sits today.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Daniel Wadsworth put up a 55-foot wooden lookout back around 1810. Right.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: But when you build a tall wooden sail on a
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: ridge that catches brutal crosswinds, physics basically takes over. A
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: windstorm simply blew it to pieces in 1840.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: But Wadsworth didn't give up immediately. He tried again.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: He built a taller one, but this time he actually
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: cabled it directly to the rock to fight the wind shear.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Smart.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that solved the wind problem. but then it burned
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: to the ground in 1864.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, brutal.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: And then a man named.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: Matthew Burtlett tried to build a tavern.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Tower up there.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Let me guess, that failed too.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: That also failed.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: And then another shaft went up in 1889, which incredibly
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: managed to survive until it eventually burned down in 1936.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: So when Gilbert Hoobland finally decides to build his tower
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: in 1914, he is making the fifth attempt. He is
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: deeply aware of this history of wind and fire. So
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: he goes to his architects, Smith and Bessette. And he
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: gives them a very specific mandate. He doesn't just ask
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: for a pretty summer home. He tells them he wants
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: a house that would not blow over.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: And what's fascinating here is that that mandate turns a
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: residential build into a massive civil engineering challenge.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, I bet.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: The builders, T.R.
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: Fox and Son, had to figure out how to anchor
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: a structure to a sheer trap rock cliff in 1914.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, they didn't have heavy lift helicopters.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Right, no modern tech.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: They had to haul steel up a mountain using rudimentary roads, mules,
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: and just sheer human grit. To ensure it wouldn't blow over,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: they drove 12-inch steel girders straight down into the mountain's
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: solid bedrock.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: I really want to pause on that because driving 12-inch
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: girders into trap rock before modern pneumatic rigs is agonizing labor.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: They were using steam-powered star drills and manual labor to
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: carve anchor points into one of the hardest rocks in
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: New England. And on top of that foundation, they poured
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: a 165-foot, six-story Bavarian-style tower purposefully designed to withstand 100-mile-an-hour winds.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: It's incredible.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: And they packed the interior with modern marvels for the era, too.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: It featured a bedroom or a sitting room on each
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: floor of the shaft, a ballroom at the top.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Which serves as the observation deck today, right?
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And notably, it had Connecticut's first residential elevator.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Though it's probably worth pointing out for anyone planning a
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: visit that Historic elevator is long gone.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, unfortunately.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: The stairs are the actual visit today. You really have
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: to earn those views. But, you know, looking at the
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: mechanics of this build brings up a massive question. Sinking
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: steel girders into bedrock, pouring a six-story concrete and stucco fortress.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: I mean. This requires a staggering amount of capital.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it does.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: How does a family even afford this?
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: Well, the answer lies in a massive hospitality and bottling
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: empire down in the valley. But just like the romantic
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: myth of the tower's construction, the public timeline of the
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: Hublin family business gets heavily distorted over time. Right. We
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: really have to separate the man who built the tower
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: from the modern corporate behemoth that currently bears his name.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's correct that corporate timeline. Because the mechanics of
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: how they maintain their wealth honestly blew my mind.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: It's a great story.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: The real Heblain money started when the family arrived in
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Hartford in 1856. The sons took a local hotel and
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: restaurant and basically turned it into club cocktails.
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: Right. Essentially creating a national pre-mixed liquor house.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Exactly. They had the bottling lines, the glass suppliers, the
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: distribution networks all figured out. But the real unsung hero
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: of their wealth, like the thing that actually paid for
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: the upkeep of that tower, A1 sauce.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: Yes. That is the crucial pivot in their business history.
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: A1 was an English import that Hebelin started distributing in
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: the United States around 1906. And when the Volstead Act
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: passed and Prohibition hit in 1920, it wiped out legal
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: liquor sales overnight.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Right. Mostly everyone folded.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: Most distilleries and distributors did, yeah. But the Hebelins had
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: a bottling infrastructure that could handle viscous liquids just as
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: easily as spirits. So it was literally 8.1 steak sauce
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: that actually kept the firm afloat and legal for over
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: a decade.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: It's brilliant. They just swapped the product in the vats
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: and kept the supply chains running. But, you know, if
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: you mention the name Hoobland to someone today, they immediately
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: think of two massive global brands, Smirnoff Vodka and Kentucky
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Fried Chicken.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: And here is a strict directive based on the source text.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: We have to be absolutely clear that Gilbert Hoobland never
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: owned Smirnoff and he never owned Kentucky Fried Chicken.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Not a single drop.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Not a single drop of vodka, not a single bucket
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: of chicken.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: It's so easy to conflate the eras because the name
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: is the same. But Gilbert built the fortress with cocktail
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: and steak sauce money.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: The global conglomerate was built by his grandson, John G. Martin.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: And when you tour the tower today, there's a specific
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: corporate room. That room represents the company's afterlife long after
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: Gilbert was gone.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: That makes sense.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: John G. Martin is the one who buys the American
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: Smirnoff rights in, I believe, 1938 or 1939 for roughly $ 14, 000.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Which at the time was a massive gamble. America was
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: a whiskey-drinking country. Vodka was seen as this tasteless, odorless oddity.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Nobody wanted it. So Martin realizes he has a product
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: that won't move. He teams up with a friend named
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Jack Morgan, who had a surplus of Cock and Bull
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: ginger beer, and a bartender named Wes Price. They sit
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: down and Which is just a crazy piece of trivia.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I know. The copper mug wasn't even a Russian tradition.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: It was a visual marketing gimmick they created specifically to
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: teach Americans how to consume vodka.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: It was a master class in consumer psychology. They created
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: a highly visible, sweet, and approachable vehicle for a foreign spirit.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: And as for the KFC acquisition, that didn't happen until 1971.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: So it is incredibly important that we don't hang this
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: modern corporate identity on the man who originally built the tower.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. But eventually, the hoiblinere on the mountain
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: comes to an end entirely. By 1943, the property shifts
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: from a private family fortress to something completely different. It
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: gets sold for back taxes to the Hartford Times newspaper.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: Right. And the Times originally bought it because they wanted
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: to use it as a radio transmitter for their station, WTHT.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: But they immediately run into the physics of the structure.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Wait, I was wondering about this. It is 165 foot
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: tall structure on the highest ridge in the area. Why
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: couldn't they just, you know, bolt an antenna to the top?
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: Well, it comes down to structural resonance and wind load.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: The shaft of the tower was designed to deflect wind
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: as a masonry object.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: When you bolt a massive steel broadcast antenna to the
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: top of a stone structure, the wind shear creates vibrations
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: that travel down the mast, and that can literally shake
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: the masonry apart. Wow.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah. The tower simply wouldn't take the antenna without risking
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: catastrophic structural failure.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: So confronted with that engineering reality, the times pivots. If
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: they can't use it to broadcast radio, they'll just use
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: it to broadcast influence.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Basically, yeah.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: It becomes known as Times Tower, a lavish hospitality and
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: entertainment venue for the newspaper's elite guests.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: Which brings us to May 1950. This specific month is
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: the door through which mid-century geopolitical history enters this local
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: state park.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Here's where it gets really interesting, folks.
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: The Hartford Times is hosting a massive picnic on the
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: lawn of the tower. They've got a sheep roast going,
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: and they actually built a special masonry barbecue pit Just
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: for the occasion.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: A barbecue pit, which, by the way, is still sitting
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: right there on the lawn today. It looks like a
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: simple park grill, but it is the anchor point for
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: a massive moment. The guest of honor at this sheep
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: roast is General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: At the time, Eisenhower was serving as the president of
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: Columbia University. He was up in Connecticut because Bradley Field,
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: the local airport down in the valley, was was dedicating
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: a new terminal and naming it for Francis S. Murphy,
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: who just happened to be the publisher running the Hartford Times.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: So the general is brought up to the mountain. He
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: is sitting on the lawn, specifically in a blue leather
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: and wood chair that you can actually still see sitting
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: in the living room if you take the tour today.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's still there.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: And he is approached by a group of highly influential men.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Among them is Prescott Bush from Greenwich, who would go
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: on to the U.S. Senate in 1952, and of course
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: become the patriarch of two future U.S. presidents.
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: Right there, on that lawn overlooking the state, this group
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: formally asks Eisenhower to consider running for the presidency in 1952.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: Now, to maintain absolute historical precision, and our source is
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: very clear on this fact check, Eisenhower did not announce
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: his candidacy that afternoon.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Right, that formal announcement came later in 1952.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: Yes. But the moment the political establishment really started turning
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: the gears to recruit him happened right there on that ridge.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: It's just a perfect intersection of geography and power. I mean,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: the ridge is physically high enough that a legendary general
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: could be flattered while still literally looking down at the
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: state he was being asked to help lead.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: That's very symbolic.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: You have a casual outdoor barbecue pit and a blue
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: leather chair serving as the physical anchors for an event
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: that reshaped the entire trajectory of the Cold War era.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: And it wasn't just Eisenhower. The Times guest book during
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: this era was astonishingly eclectic. You had visionary architects like
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: Frank Lloyd Wright, military leaders like Omar Bradley and even
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: Ronald Reagan.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Although, just to keep our timeline straight, when Reagan visited
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: the tower in the 1950s, he was there strictly in
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: his capacity as the president of the Screen Actors Guild,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: not as the president of the United States.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: Right, right. It was just a fascinating parade of mid-century
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: icons passing through a Bavarian tower in Connecticut. But, you know,
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: this incredible vantage point almost vanished from public access entirely.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: In 1962, the Hartford Times decided to sell the property
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: to private developers.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: And the developers' plan was basically the ultimate privatization of
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the view. They wanted to put a commercial restaurant inside
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: the historic tower and build sprawling apartment complexes everywhere. All
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: along the Metacomet Ridge.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: Condominiums on the mountain.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: It would have fundamentally changed the geography and accessibility of
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: the region. But the local neighbors pushed back. They realized
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: what was at stake and formed an organization called Save
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Talcott Mountain.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Good for them.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: They lobbied, they organized, and they were ultimately successful. On
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: August 16, 1966, the state of Connecticut stepped in and
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: purchased the entire 557-acre parcel, including the tower, for $ 500, 000.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: It wasn't an instant fix, though, was it?
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: No, not at all.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: The source notes that the tower sat largely empty and
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: unprotected for four years, suffering terribly at the hands of vandals,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: before full restoration finally began. It officially opened to the
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: public in 1974.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: And if we connect this to the bigger picture, this
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: is where the author's ultimate thesis comes into focus. When
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: you visit today, that steep, grueling hike up the first
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: pitch is your price of admission. But the true reward
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: at the top isn't just the spectacular panoramic view of
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: the Farmington Valley. The real reward is the concrete historical
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: decision that this ridge would remain a public park. The
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: argument of the mountain is that the view belongs to
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: everyone willing to.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Make the climb.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I love that framing. Now, if you are listening to
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: this and thinking, I need to go stand next to
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: that 1950 barbecue pit and climb those stairs, you need
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: to know exactly where this fits into your travel plans.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Geography is important here.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: Very important.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: First, let's get the pronunciation right so you sound like
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: you know what you're talking about. It is pronounced Hi-Huey H-Blind,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: not Huey-Blin, not Who-Blin, Hi-G-H-Blind.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: And the author is adamant that this is strictly an
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: inland Connecticut destination. You do not try to group this
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: hike with a trip to shoreline spots like Mystic Seaport
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: or the Long Island Sound.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Right, totally different vibe.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: This is the Trap Rock Spine west of Hartford. If
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: you are looking to build a full itinerary around it,
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: the perfect pairings are strictly inland.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: You could easily hit the New England Air Museum up
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: at Bradley Field, which ties perfectly back to that Francis S. Murphy...
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: terminal naming that brought Eisenhower to the state in the
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: first place.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: That's a great connection.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Or you could take a quick run up Interstate 91
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: to the Springfield Museums.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: It's also vital to understand the access constraints before you
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: pack your bag. We'll leave the exhaustive trail guides to
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: the source article, but broadly, the state park grounds and
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: the trails are open daily.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: However, access to the inside of the tower is highly
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: restricted by the calendar. The interior, including the museum, the
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: corporate room, and that observation deck, is generally only open
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: Friday through Monday, from Memorial Day weekend through October 31st.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: So if you show up on a Tuesday in July...
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: you are going to be staring at a locked, heavy,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: wooden door.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: It becomes a landmark you walk to and look at
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: from the outside rather than a museum you can explore.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: And from November through the spring, the interior is shut
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: down entirely. You really have to time your inland map correctly.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: And when you do go, respect the terrain. The source
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: explicitly advises bringing real hiking shoes and plenty of water.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Yes, please.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: That steep first pitch of trap rock and roots is
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: a genuine physical workout.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean? We started this exploration
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: by talking about how easy it is to look at
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: a pretty state park brochure and take the landscape for granted.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: But when you unpack the history of Talcott Mountain, you
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: see the friction in every layer. You see Gilbert Hobleyn
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: making an 1875 promise, but waiting 39 years to drill
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: 12-inch steel girders into the bedrock to build an unblowdown,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: augeable fortress. Yeah. You see a family surviving the collapse
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: of the liquor industry on steak saws. and a grandson
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: teaching America to drink vodka with a copper mug. It's wild.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: You see a newspaper throwing a sheep roast to court
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: a future president. And finally, you see a 1966 rescue
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: mission by citizens who simply refuse to let developers pave
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: over the view.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: It fundamentally changes how you experience the physical space, and
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: it raises an important question for you, the listener, to
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: take with you.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: The next time you stand at a scenic overlook or
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: walk through a public park, I want you to look
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: at the ground beneath your feet and ask yourself, What
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: alternate history of private condominiums or exclusive estates was narrowly
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: avoided here, simply because a group of ordinary citizens decided
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: that a view this good should belong to everyone?
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: It makes you appreciate every single step of the climb.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on this Red Solo Traveler
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: podcast exploration. Pack some real shoes, bring plenty of water,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: and go take that hike for yourself. See you next time.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Music Thank you.