Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Visiting Marshfield’s John Little Conservation Area



I led a walk last weekend at the John Little Conservation Area in North Marshfield. In preparation, I spent some time reviewing the history of that particular part of town. Things have changed, of course, since North Marshfield was developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, yet because certain aspects of this village remain unchanged – especially in comparison to other parts of our region – it’s easy to image what life was like when the European settlers first arrived.

The John Little Conservation Area, located at 905 Union Street, was established in 2009, thanks to Community Preservation funds to purchase an initial 25 acres. The following year, additional CPA funding permitted the acquisition of an additional 49.8 acres. In the past several years, Marshfield has created trails and boardwalks within the property, as well as a long, beautiful walkway that leads to a dock on the North River. The 75 acres include pasture, forest, and marsh, along with some gorgeous views of the river. Walking the trails, one encounters old stone walls and cart paths, which offer a glimpse of the property’s agricultural past.


The North River valley was populated well before European settlers arrived in the mid-1600s. Native American tribes considered the North River a major highway. The Wampanoag traveled regularly along a network of waterways from Narragansett Bay to Massachusetts Bay -- from the Nemasket and Taunton Rivers, to the ponds of Pembroke, to the North River and out to sea. Numerous archaeological sites along the hillsides of the river valley reveal evidence of their summer camps.

 

The first European settlers to put down roots in North Marshfield were from Scituate and South Scituate (now Norwell). According to the book Marshfield: A Town of Villages, by Cynthia Krusell and Betty Bates, families who worshipped at the Quaker meeting house across the river near Wanton Shipyard began arriving around 1649.  These included the Tildens, Rogers, and Oakmans.

Sometime before 1700, Elisha Bisbee began running a ferry at the site of today’s Union Street Bridge, followed by the Oakman and Tolman families. In 1801 the town erected a toll bridge at the site. In 1850, when sufficient tolls had been collected to pay for the construction costs, they celebrated by holding a jubilee, and making the bridge a “free” one going forward. Subsequent bridges were constructed in 1889, 1917, 1972 and 2010. From the ferry/bridge site, a cart path extended south for several miles. Portions of it still remain – particularly within the conservation lands that border the river. 


 It is said that if it weren’t for the salt hay along the rivers, the European settlers would not have survived here. There was very little unforested land, and what they managed to clear, they needed for growing crops for human consumption. Thus they fed their livestock salt marsh hay. (It was also used for roof thatch and wall insulation.) By the late1600s, land rights had been granted to all of the area’s salt marshes. Ditches were cut to serve as property boundaries. Thus, Two Mile, the village just south of North Marshfield, earned its name. From 1640 to 1788, a parcel two miles long and one mile wide (measured from midstream in the river to the upland) was deeded to South Scituate, for salt haying rights.

Driving through North Marshfield today, it’s easy to imagine the village’s agricultural past. Many open fields and stone walls remain, as well as the occasional working farm. The John Little Conservation Area was named for the family who operated a dairy farm there. Jack and Grace Little’s Little Jersey Farm offered milk and cream from the 1930s to the 1950s. Jack’s son Christopher still operates the family farm, on the parcel he retains, across the street, raising cattle for beef. Indications of the village’s other industries are harder to come by. Other than the dam that forms Rogers Pond on Cove Creek, one might never know of the grist mill, fish hatchery, or blacksmith shop, nor the tannery, rivet factory or box/shingle mill.



A more prominent industry, by far, in this area was shipbuilding. The North River was known nationwide for its ships. From 1645 to 1871 there were 24 shipyards along its banks, producing more than 1,000 vessels. There were two major shipyards in North Marshfield. From 1790 to 1819, the Rogers Shipyard operated at Gravelly Beach, at the end of present-day Cornhill Lane. And just downstream, at what is now the Union Street Bridge, was the Brooks-Tilden Shipyard (1837-1847). Because the lands along the rivers were richly forested, there was plenty of timber available. Teams of oxen dragged oak and pine to the Hatch sawmill nearby, or to saw pits at the shipyards themselves. Today all that remains of the shipyards are metal historic markers erected at some of the sites. Once the forests were stripped bare, and the greater world sought ships too large to be built on this particular river, the local industry faded out.




Last weekend’s event at Little Conservation Area was the first of what I hope will be a series of walks I’ll be leading this winter and spring for the North and South Rivers Watershed Association (NSRWA). If you’d like to be in the loop, I recommend signing up for NSRWA’s weekly e-newsletter. For details, visit: http://www.nsrwa.org/.

by Kezia Bacon
November 2017 

Kezia Bacon's articles appear courtesy of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, a local non-profit organization devoted to protecting our waters. For membership information and a copy of their latest newsletter, contact NSRWA at (781) 659-8168 or visit www.nsrwa.org. To browse 20 years of nature columns, visit http://keziabaconbernstein.blogspot.com

Thursday, November 2, 2017

Exploring Webster's Wilderness

--> I was asked recently for some suggestions for nature walks near Marshfield Center, and was somewhat taken aback at how many there are, within a small radius. There’s the Bridle Path, accessible from the CVS on Ocean Street; and just across the South River, the Pratt Preserve. A mile from there is Pudding Hill Reservation, which overlooks the town center and Chandler Pond. Two miles in the other direction is Mass Audubon’s much-loved Daniel Webster Sanctuary. Around the corner from there is the Hoyt-Hall Preserve, which links directly to conservation land along the Old Colony Railroad. And that’s not all! The Town of Marshfield also manages the little-known conservation parcel, Webster’s Wilderness.

The 130-acre Webster’s Wilderness Conservation Area is part of the 1200 acres that US Senator and two-time Secretary of State Daniel Webster owned in the 1800s. It is not the easiest place to find. If you drive down the access road to the Marshfield Senior Center (230 Webster Street), all the way to the rear-most parking lot, you’ll find yourself on a rise overlooking the Wheeler Baseball Complex. The ballfields are encircled by a paved 1/3-mile walking trail. Looking across, to approximately 10 o’clock, is where you’ll find the unmarked trailhead for Webster’s Wilderness.

The trailhead is in the foreground, to the left.

From the trailhead, it’s just a short walk to a somewhat wider path. This is the Old Pilgrim Trail, a historic road that originally extended from Plymouth to Scituate. But only a small section of the Pilgrim Trail passes through Webster’s Wilderness. Turning left at this intersection, you will soon arrive at Cherry Hill, and continuing a bit farther, you’ll come out to Arborway and the Daniel Webster Estate. 

The Daniel Webster Estate.
 I headed first to Cherry Hill, a spot I’d heard about, but had never seen.  According to Marshfield: A Town of Villages 1640-1990, by Cynthia Krusell and Betty Bates, Cherry Hill is the spot where Daniel Webster gave his last public speech. He had returned from Washington to his home in Marshfield in the summer of 1852. 

A granite bench at the top of Cherry Hill.

His health failed shortly thereafter, and he passed away on October 24th. It’s a proud piece of local lore that Webster requested to be interred at the nearby Winslow Burying Ground, and therefore declined a state funeral and burial in the National Cemetery. Mourners traveled along the Old Pilgrim Trail (also known as Green Harbor Path) to attend the funeral service at his estate, or sailed upstream from the Atlantic to his wharf on the Green Harbor River. It’s fascinating to imagine how these old roads and waterways were the highways of yesteryear.

Daniel Webster’s home was inhabited by his extended family until it burned down in 1878. It was rebuilt on its original foundation, and in 1884, a man named Walton Hall purchased the property. Hall developed much of the surrounding land as cranberry bogs. Those bogs are long gone now, but you can find vestiges of them as you explore the trails of Webster’s Wilderness. Especially on the Cherry Hill side of the property, there are small ponds and a number of narrow streams, once part of the farm’s irrigation system. There are also culverts and dams, and occasional rusted remains of pipes and pumps. 


Vestiges of the cranberry farm?
 The property’s more recent history is evident as well. 1950 marked the founding of Camp Daniel Webster, a summer day camp for children, first operated by Vincent Cohee, and later (1966-86) by James and Phyllis Anderson. I attended Camp Daniel Webster briefly in the 1980s, but most of my memories of it had faded. However after climbing Cherry Hill, I came upon the pond on which we developed our rowboating skills, and soon after, the spot where we practiced our riflery. Oh, the nostalgia! Probably the most memorable landmark was the tree on which decades of young teens had carved their initials. 

Not the best photo, but the tree with all the initials carved into it is in the foreground.

The rowboating pond, with the dock to the left. That appears to be a hockey net half-submerged in the middle.
 
After exploring a few trails that led to dead ends or private property, I backtracked to the place where the entrance path intersects with the Old Pilgrim Trail. Heading in the other direction this time led me into the heart of Webster’s Wilderness. I had my map, but I wasn’t always sure which trails I was on . . . Basically there are two intersecting figure-8s, some more developed than others, plus the occasional spur trail. There are streams and small ponds too, as well as a vernal pool. Some of the trails are overgrown in places with briers, but – especially with the map you can download from the town website – it’s easy enough to find your way around.

The Old Pilgrim Trail, as it passes through Webster's Wilderness.
 
If you’d like to take a walk in the woods, and are in the mood for some adventure, Webster’s Wilderness might be worth your time. It’s a little gloomy in places, and feels more remote than many of our other, more trafficked conservation lands. But that’s part of the appeal. 


One of the narrower trails.
Plus if you’re interested in local history, you’d probably enjoy the rusty old farm equipment that can be seen now and then along the trails.


by Kezia Bacon, October 2017

Kezia Bacon's articles appear courtesy of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, a local non-profit organization devoted to protecting our waters. For membership information and a copy of their latest newsletter, contact NSRWA at (781) 659-8168 or visit www.nsrwa.org. To browse 20 years of nature columns, visit http://keziabaconbernstein.blogspot.com