We’re sorry that we were “off the air” the past few years due to a variety of factors, but we’re giving it another try and we have some help lined up too.   Look for more updates in the near future.

We started 2016 with the 500 town milestone on the horizon.  With a spike of new town reports in the past couple of weeks we are happy to note that we’ve reached the 500 town mark:

• Maine:  211
• Massachusetts: 155
• New Hampshire: 116
• Rhode Island: 18

My thanks to everyone who have helped us (and continue to help us) document this curious tradition.  A special shout out to Stephen Hoffman who has been scouring news reports for mentions of the canes and forwarding them to me for several years now.

Only 200 more canes to go!

Thanks everyone!

Last seen by the town 75 years ago or so, Dracut’s Boston Post Cane is on its way back to its Town Hall.   Read Todd Feather’s article in the Lowell Sun on the interesting journey this cane has taken to where it is now back with its rightful owners.

We look forward to hearing who receives Dracut’s cane next.

Happy New Year to everyone.   Here’s a quick update on the Boston Post Cane information clearinghouse: I changed the update policy in 2015 so that we get them posted within a day or so of them arriving and this seems to have worked out well and we’ll continue that practice in 2016.  Thank you to everyone who has sent contributions/updates/inquiries about the canes to us.  We endeavor to keep all of the information we have on the canes current and available.

We ended 2014 with some status from 458 towns and we added another 26 towns in 2015. Here’s how we’re doing as of the end of 2015:

• Maine: we have updates from 207 towns.
• Massachusetts: we have updates from 150 towns.
• New Hampshire: we have updates from 109 towns.
• Rhode Island: we have updates from 18 towns.

With checkins from 484 towns we are now past the 2/3rds mark (69%) to finding what’s happening with all 700 of the canes, and we appreciate everyone’s contributions.  (Just 16 more towns and we’ll hit 500!)

In a (relatively) new online magazine appropriately titled “The New Boston Post”, they wrote an article about the Boston Post Canes.  Click here to read the article.

NPR recently aired a short story about the Boston Post Cane and its, sometimes, reluctant recipients.

Click here to listen to/read the story by Daniel Rosinsky-Larsson

With a new (to us) update from Cumberland, Rhode Island, our catalog of Boston Post Canes just tipped to 469 towns.  Now that might seem to be a odd number to get excited about, but it represents our having the status of over 2/3rds of the 700 canes!

This is a great community effort and we appreciate the help of everyone who sends in those news clippings and sightings which keep the tradition alive.  Thank you!

While we always welcome news of towns that have been continuing the tradition of the cane, it is especially heartening to hear about towns that restart the tradition after a cane has “gone missing” and then recovered.  The latest town to have this happen is Burlington, Massachusetts where their original cane is once again in the hands of the town (and will be put on display from now on).

We don’t know how long the article will be available, but you can read about their cane in this Daily Times Chronicle article by Mark Biagotti.

We also recently received an update from Hinsdale, Massachusetts which kindly included a full list of that town’s recipients!  Many thanks to James D. Manning for all of the information.

We’ve inched our way to the 465 mark of known cane reports.  Thanks to everyone who contributes updates!

I just completed the end-of-the-year edit of the site, updating dozens of towns and adding a bunch since the last major update in April.   I continue to hope that I will be able to provide more frequent updates in the future, but regardless of my tardiness the history of the canes continues to be written and expanded with the help of so many of you who have written in (both this past year and for so many years before).

Here’s how we’re doing as of December 2014:

• Maine: we have updates on 196 of them.
• Massachusetts: we have updates on 137 of them.
• New Hampshire: we have updates on 109 of them.
• Rhode Island: we have updates on 16 of them.

With checkins from 458 towns we are now past the 65% mark to finding what’s happening with all 700 canes.  (And that doesn’t include 1 update from Florida, Massachusetts – which we don’t believe received a cane – but started the tradition 100 years later anyways!)

With the help of many contributors we hit updates from 444 towns in April 2014.   Thank you to all who continue to find articles and keep watch around their area.