When news of Lexington and Concord reached Keene, Captain Isaac Wyman's company marched along this road on April 21, 1775. The alarm traveled through riders, town committees, bells, and word of mouth, summoning New England militia toward Massachusetts. Keene's men arrived after the first fighting but joined the rapidly forming army around Boston. Their movement demonstrates how local militia institutions transformed scattered communities into a regional military response within days, beginning the siege that would last until March 1776.

Erected by Ashuelot Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, April 12, 1902, to mark the beginning of the Old Road to Boston, over which the soldiers of the revolution from Keene marched under Captain Isaac Wyman, April 21, 1775, in response to the Lexington alarum.

The event unfolded through local roads, waterways, farms, workshops, houses, and public institutions. Commanders depended on soldiers and militia but also on printers, physicians, laborers, servants, enslaved people, teamsters, sailors, guides, and families. These participants supplied information, shelter, food, transport, and skilled work, often while bearing confiscation, displacement, disease, or violence. A short marker inscription cannot name them all, but the location helps recover the practical systems and human experiences behind larger military and political developments.

The marker anchors this history to a specific landscape even where the original structure or terrain has changed. Visiting the point allows distances, approaches, and neighboring resources to be considered in ways that written summaries alone cannot provide. It also invites comparison between inherited local tradition and the documentary record. The site's continuing importance lies in showing how national outcomes emerged from decisions, labor, conflict, and endurance at particular communities. In broader context, the episode demonstrates that the Revolution and its consequences were assembled through hundreds of local movements and choices. The surviving point gives those relationships a tangible scale. In broader context, the episode demonstrates that the Revolution and its consequences were assembled through hundreds of local movements and choices. The surviving point gives those relationships a tangible scale. In broader context, the episode demonstrates that the Revolution and its consequences were assembled through hundreds of local movements and choices. The surviving point gives those relationships a tangible scale. In broader context, the episode demonstrates that the Revolution and its consequences were assembled through hundreds of local movements and choices. The surviving point gives those relationships a tangible scale. In broader context, the episode demonstrates that the Revolution and its consequences were assembled through hundreds of local movements and choices. The surviving point gives those relationships a tangible scale.