The McQueen Millpond--If you travel to the end of Ridge Rd. in Bridlewood you reach a cul-de-sac with an "overgrown" pond to your left--you know, the best kind of pond with lots of snakes, birds, etc.  Ann Baker, former owner of the house in the woods to your right, passed the following plat to me before she moved.  It shows the McQueen Mill Pond on Cabin Branch which eventually runs to Thompson Creek. 

For several years I enjoyed crossing the dam on the lower lake and making my way down the ridge to the old earthworks that existed across from the cul-de-sac.  The plat shows the creek running out the "Bridlewood side" of the old dam--that's why I had to cross the pond to get to the earthworks.  It was a narrow dam--I would guess made by hand since it is probably so old and was not wide enough for machinery.

The problem--Some potential developers pushed soil over the dam last year with the hope of making a road that connected to the end of Ridge Rd.  Thank goodness this did not happen since it would produce a dramatic increase in traffic through Bridlewood..   The property owners at the end of Ridge Rd. own a narrow strip of the land on the Bridlewood end of the dam and stopped the process.  Unfortunately, the original dam is lost--covered by the bulldozer.

This is a musing because it gives the name of the old pond (McQueen Mill Pond) ,the name of the creek that feeds the Bridlewood lakes (Cabin Branch), and the name of an original owner of Bridlewood (Turner Waddill).  Does anyone know anything about the old McQueen estate, Cabin Branch, or Turner Waddill? 

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Click on the image to the left to see the copy of the original plat given me by Ann Baker.