NATURAL FEATURES
The forest is large enough to enclose a natural drainage system all of its own -
- hills and springs as a source of water, with brooks, swamps
and lakes that act as holding basins. Just outside the forest to the south, this drainage area joins the larger system of the Merrimac watershed. Visitors will also find these natural features in the forest: Whortleberry Hill, Huckleberry (Gage) Hill, Claypit (Second) Brook, Scarlet Brook, Flagg Meadow Brook, Spruce Swamp and Lake Althea (Mud Pond). The forest is the habitat of mammal species, large and small that include coyote, fox -- silver and red -- rabbits, raccoons, squirrels and deer, and even the occasional moose. There are also several beaver lodges in this drainage system.
HISTORIC SITES
The forest is a unique place to explore the history of the area and the human interaction with the
landscape. The indigenous people in this area, the
Pawtucket and Wamesit tribes of the Pennacook Nation called this region Augumtocooke.
A recent archeological dig unearthed the remains of a native person and has verified human
occupation of the forest dating back nearly
nine thousand years, to the Early Archaic Period. In the forest you can find evidence of numerous
populations that have live in or around it, from
the earliest settletments just mentioned to more recent developments in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries.
LANDMARKS
Whortleberry/Huckleberry Hills
Though a modest 350 feet above sea level, Whortleberry Hill is the highest elevation area
in the forest. Huckleberry (Gage) Hill, next to it, is fifty feet lower. Both hills are in Dracut Township.
Technically they are called 'drumlins,' formations made-up of debris deposited and left behind when the Wisconsin Glacier withdrew from this region -- about 15,000 years ago. The hills are now covered with birch, oak, and pine which dominate this third-growth forestration. The hills offer their
loveliest view looking north, from below Spruce
Swamp, a thousand yards away.
Vernal Pools
Vernal pools are transient pools of water, or temporary ponds. They appear late in winter and
during the early spring thaw. Because they come
and go in relatively little time, lasting perhaps two or three months, the inhabitants of vernal pools
must complete their reproductive activity in quick
order. Some organisms are adapted so they live only in temporary pond conditions. Frogs and
salamanders arrive in March and April, court, mate, deposit their gelatinous eggs, and
depart. In April, the waters of these vernal pools are alive with small crustaceans. For most of the year, however, these pools are
nearly dry. Eggs of shrimp, cysts of flatworms, and dormant mollusks lie buried in the
bottom mud. The diversity of organisms alone
make these ephemeral pools worth further study and protection.
Beaver Lodge
Nearly hunted to extinction, the beaver has made a remarkable comeback in recent decades.
One reason for this return is the secure shelter it makes for itself, the beaver lodge. The
lodge is built in flowing water from trees and
branches felled by the beaver, creating a dam that makes its own pond where the beaver can find
a reliable food supply. A beaver lodge is made of one room but it is expanded as needed to
accommodate larger communities. The lodge
is accessible only underwater, making it secure from possible predators.
Spruce Swamp
Spruce Swamp used to be Indian Head Lake before the construction of Carney Road interrupted
the natural flow. Like all wetlands, swamps abound
in a variety of lifeforms. Fish, amphibians, insects, birds, and several varieties of plants thrive in this
environment. The ecology of the swamp begins
with the abundant nutrients that are found in areas of aquatic vegetation. Among the plants at
Spruce Swamp are white water lilly, yellow
dock, and pickerel weed. One plant in the Forest is the purple iris, known locally as flagg.
The name has been applied to Flagg Meadow Brook which rises in the Forest and flows into
the Merrimack. Among the reptile population of
Spruce Swamp are varieties of turtle (Painted, Box, Snapping) and snakes (Decay, Black Race).
Bird species include ducks, osprey, eagles, geese and owls. Great Blue Heron have been sighted here, as well as White Egret on occasion. Recently, a bird-watching party reported sighting 'only' 32 varieties on a single morning's outing.
Carney Road/Pine Stand
Carney Road connects Totman Road with Trotting Park Road. The road was built in 1936 for fire
protection service. Two years later, a hurricane caused severe damage in the forest.
Consequently, this part of the forest was logged
and reforested with the stands of pine that you see from Carney Road. Reforestration continued into
the 1950s. Many of these trees are Pennsylvania
red pine which is not native to this area. They were planted as a cash crop, to be harvested for
use as telephone poles. That plan never reached
fruition. Laid out at a time when the effect of roads on ecology was not understood, Carney Road
was constructed bisecting Indian Head Lake
which turned into a marsh-like area now known as Spruce Swamp.
Sites of the Greater Lowell Indian Cultural Association
Two sites, comprising about 250 acres, have particular meaning for members
of Greater Lowell Indian Cultural Association (GLICA). The Association uses these locations for events that celebrate and commemorate the
local Native American community. Some of these
events mark the stages in the earth's yearly cycle
of production and rest. There is a New Moon Festival every twenty-eight days, making
for a thirteen month calendar. There are also
Maple, Strawberry, Planting, and Harvest Festivals. Every year GLICA holds a Men's Weekend and a Women's Weekend. There is
a Children's Day as well, for persons of either
gender, twelve years of age and under. Most of
these celebrations are open to the general public.
Quarries
In the area where glacial boulders were deposited, residents of the area quarried granite and
gneiss originally for farm use and later, in the 1820s, as building material for Lowell's canal
system and as foundation stone for the
city's textile mills. There are over 70 quarry sites in the Forest including an existing ledge quarry where tourists may find tools for cutting the
stone still embedded in the rock wall. In
excavation quarries, the ledge had first to be
exposed by digging before stone could be cut up and carted away. There were, then, three different
sorts of quarry enterprise in the Forest: boulder,
ledge, and excavation.
Sheep Rock
One of the large glacial boulders located in the Forest is called Sheep Rock, once belonging to
George Carney whose land made up much of this part of the Forest. Legend has it that during
a severe blizzard, the sheep belonging to farmer
William Parham, found refuge in the overhang of the Rock, on its southern side. Because the sheep
knew enough to get out of the wind, the shape of the rock and the direction of the wind worked
together to make a snow drift that sheltered the
animals in its hollow. The sheep survived several days without food, until rescued by local residents. The rock bears the inscription,
Sheep Rock
George Carney
Born June 13, 1835 Died April 24, 1906
Indian Head Rock
Another of the glacial boulders has been named "Indian Head Rock." This stone shows its distinctive profile facing North to visitors
standing on the trail. A natural spring nearby was
the source used by The Indian Head Water Company.
This company and others in the Forest did a thriving business in Lowell because the City's
water was contaminated by the operations of the textile mills.
Saw Mill Dams
Along Claypit Brook -- also called Second Brook -- are the remnants of three dams built from
local stone much like the stone walls you see in the Forest.
The three dams created a mill pond of approximately 100 acres. This created
an adequate supply of water for the sawmill operated at the site during the 1700s by Timothy
Coburn of Dracut. A few artifacts from that operation were found as late as the 1970s.
There were hundreds of these mill sites built
throughout New England during the two hundred years after European settlement -- beginning in the 1630s. The combination of vast forests which
covered North America and abundant water power made lumbering a leading enterprise. In this way,
as in many ways, the Lowell-Dracut-Tyngsboro State Forest is typical of the history of the region.
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