Gloucester, Massachusetts

Total Acres: 53

Year Conserved: 1979

Property Description

This 53-acre reservation juts out at a bend in the Little River where it joins the Annisquam, which runs into the sea from the inland side of Gloucester. Located in the historic heart of salt water farming country, the property combines a colonial history with exceptional ecology. 

Stoney Cove has been a crossroads connecting West Gloucester to Gloucester since the earliest colonial days. West Gloucester colonists had to walk across the marsh, then row across the Annisquam River, to attend compulsory church services on the Green near the site of the present day Chester Grant Circle. In 1694, an initial public route was established by means of a ferry over the river and a causeway built over the marsh to the mainland near the head of Stoney Cove. The current location of Route 128 is superimposed over the old causeway in the immediate Stoney Cove area.

Special Features:

The Stoney Cove and Susan’s Point are a great place to study successional stages of a forest. It generally takes 100 years for a field to grow to a mature forest. The stages it growth that take place evolve in orderly progression, dictated by soils, climate, fire and human activity. Pasture gives way to pioneer tree growth of poplars and junipers that eventually are shaded over by emerging hickory, oak and maple. The fresh water marsh is slowly filling and turning to upland.  This reservation has not yet reached the half-way point in its evolution into forest land.

The remaining pier sees constant use, with people fishing, bird watching, picnicking and enjoying the lovely views of salt marsh with the city of Gloucester in the distance. Clammers continue to work the tidal flats of the Little River and sailors ply her mid-channel.

Parking

Park in the pullout off Route 128 just before the stone pier 

Directions

From Route 128:

Drive north toward Gloucester. Proceed 0.3 mile beyond the Concord Street, Gloucester exit #13. Watch for the stone pier on the right, before the bridge. Pull off Route 128 into the breakdown land as soon as you see salt water on the right.