Community Corner
Stories of the Year: Tracking the Bears
Join us as we count down some of the most read stories in Merrimack in 2013.
It's the end of the year and that means it's time to count down some of the top stories to hit Merrimack Patch this year (local stories of the year below).
It's been a newsy year around the country as Sandy Hook students returned to school in a new location following the tragic shooting at the end of 2012. In April, two bomb blast created chaos and terror at the finish line of the Boston Marathon killing three and injuring hundreds who lost limbs, suffered serious burns and shrapnel wounds and a plethora of other injuries. Days later, an MIT police officer was killed and his friend was critically injured late that night in a shootout with the bombing suspects.
We saw a country unite behind the city whose baseball team, months later earned its third World Series win in nine years.
Outside of New England, we saw George Zimmerman acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin, and Jodi Arias was found guilty of murdering boyfriend Travis Alexander. A royal baby was born in July and the President Obama-led Affordable Care Act went into effect.
Over the days leading up to the end of the year, we'll choose a story or topic a day that has generated the most buzz in town this year. Check back each morning as we bring you back through 2013.
Merrimack Residents Follow the Bears
After our first summer in town in 2011, we noticed a lot of bear sightings in the cop logs and decided it would be fun in 2012 to start at the beginning of bear season mapping the bear sightings and asking people to share their photos when they snapped pics of the bears roaming through their back yards.Having been very well received, we started the map again in 2013 and readers were already looking forward to it. In addition to plotting more than 130 bears sightings this year, gleaned from readers sending their sightings to Patch and through the sightings reported in police logs, we received at least 27 photos of the bears this year, and one very cute video of a couple of cubs playing in a yard on Castleton Court.
Thank you to our photo contributors whose pictures can be seen above. (*Apologies if we missed any, some photos and cutlines were lost when we transitioned to our new Patch sites in June.) Contributors included: Maureen Mooney, Margaret Roy, William Dod, Patricia Harty, Carol DiPirro, Melody Currier, Karen and Lawrence Fletcher, Robert Muckenthaler, Diane Burton, AnneMarie Blades, Michael Martin, Gretchen Ricks, and Colyn Falkowski Forbes.
Check through our bear map from this year and all our updates along the way.
Previous:
- Stories of the Year: Merrimack Named Among Top Towns in America
- Stories of the Year: What's Up at the Old Zyla's?
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
