I was drawn to these woods through the Concord Art Ramble, a collaboration between the Umbrella Community Arts Center and the Concord Natural Resources Division that produces an outdoor public art installation in the Hapgood Wright Town Forest.
Spending time in the forest opened my eyes both to local environmental efforts that originated in Concord and also to the history buried under the leaves in the forest where formerly enslaved people from Concord lived. Visiting the Hapgood Wright Town Forest inspired me to learn more about the history of slavery in New England. Checked out very helpful book from the library, “Black Walden: Slavery and Its Aftermath in Concord, Massachusetts” by Elise Lemire to get a historical perspective on this area and also visited the Robbins House in Concord.
Along the Red Dot Trail you will find a stone marker that honors Brister Freeman (d. 1822), a formerly enslaved person in Concord, MA and the second formerly enslaved person to own land there.
“Brister Freeman’s burial site is neither marked nor known. In commemoration of his life, The Robbins House placed a boulder marking the Freeman Family home site in 2011.”
--From the Robbin’s House website, https://robbinshouse.org/
There are often printed trail guides available for you at the parking lot entrance but just in case, you can download one from the Concord Division of Natural Resources which also has some great 360 degree photos to preview the area.
The cache contains some small photos I took in the forest and laminated so should be waterproof & portable.
Parking is free but follow posted signs for resident and non-resident spaces.
"Photo of a friend," taken at Fairyland Pond, one of the points of interest in this forest.
