The Environment and History of Pegan Hill and Rocky Narrows Premiere Conservation Lands

Around 1930, George Saltonstall Mumford IV's grandparents purchased approximately seventy-five acres on Pegan Hill, bordering The Trustees of Reservations' (TTORs') original thirty-six acres on top of Pegan Hill. With the goal of utilizing the land for a gentleman's farm, his grandparents' property included about thirty-five acres of woodlands and wetlands, a farmhouse, a smaller residential house (said to once have been an old cider mill), a barn with a silo (which came down in the Hurricane of 1938), a woodshed, and several chicken, turkey, and other bird coops. Through original photographs and vivid descriptions, Mumford concisely details the history and environmental ecology of two properties in Massachusetts under the care of TTOR. Within his narrative, he describes his wildlife encounters as a boy growing up on the farm and surrounding areas, his insightful hikes in Rocky Narrows that included a wetlands research site and sightings of an alpha male coyote, details of Dover Demon, a local legend that allegedly lurked around the wetlands and farms, and much more. In this interesting narrative, an environmental attorney shares photographs and historical details that vividly describe the environmental ecology of two properties in Massachusetts under the care of TTOR.