Human History of Wildlands: Shifting Lots Preserve

Ellisville men set out with their boats for a day of sea mossing, circa 1969. Sea mossing was a rite of passage for many Ellisville teenagers. Photo courtesy of Roger Janson, via Friends of Ellisville Marsh.

By Skip Stuck, Wildlands Key Volunteer

You probably would not be reading this if you were not already familiar with Wildlands Trust, its mission, the properties it protects, and the value of wild places in Southeastern Massachusetts. 

Interestingly, where we live, "wild" does not mean untouched by human hands. Just as important as our region’s natural history—our wildlife, forests, seashores, rivers, and ponds—is its human history, crafted by the many hands that have touched and shaped this special place. In fact, there are few if any places in America that offer a richer human history than right here in Southeastern Massachusetts. 

Today, each of Wildlands’ wild places has had many other lives—as hunting grounds, farms, villages, and homes, stewarded, inhabited, and explored by diverse groups ranging from Native Americans to settlers from around the world. With a well-trained eye, much can be learned about these preserves’ natural and human history from their present-day landscapes—the plant and animal life, the geology, the relics of historic land use. But missing from this picture are many of the human stories that give these lands color and context. To this end, we at Wildlands hope to increase our understanding of the human history of the landscapes we protect. 

Following, you will find a brief history of one important property, Shifting Lots Preserve in the Ellisville village of Plymouth. This account is far from exhaustive; it is a living document that we will update as we receive more information from the community. This is the first of hopefully many entries in a series about the human history of Wildlands preserves. 

Al Marsh (lower right) and his father Percy Marsh (center) working with the lobster cars in Ellisville Marsh in the 1940s. Photo courtesy of the Marsh family, via Friends of Ellisville Marsh. Read more about Al’s story in his 2020 account, “Ellisville History,” linked in the “Learn More” section below.

We need your help! We will soon be reaching out to volunteer trail monitors, property abutters, local historians, and others to paint a more complete picture of our cherished lands’ storied pasts. If you have stories to share about a Wildlands preserve, please contact Communications Coordinator Thomas Patti at tpatti@wildlandstrust.org. 

Stay tuned...

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A Brief History of Ellisville harbor and Shifting Lots 

Ellisville Harbor has been coveted for many uses by many parties (human and otherwise) dating back to pre-colonial times. As a result, conflict is a recurring theme of the area’s history, with environmental degradation frequently among the collateral damage. Protection efforts by state, nonprofit, and volunteer groups over the past three decades have begun to restore the area to its original scenic and ecological beauty. 

1600s 

  • For hundreds of years, the area was seasonally used by members of the Wampanoag tribe for shellfishing, farming, and hunting waterfowl. In the 1620s, Europeans arrived and settled the harbor area. 

  • Ellisville Harbor was named after Lt. John Ellis, Commander of the Sandwich Militia, who was killed in King Philip's War. Also known as Harlow's Landing, Ellisville was the family's homestead for over 250 years. 

  • Farmers and fishermen settled the natural harbor to grow salt hay, tend sheep and cattle, and harvest codfish, lobsters, and herring from the sea. 

  • A natural spring that fed into the bay is still in use today. 

1700s and 1800s 

  • Saltmarsh Lane was a main road north to Boston. A 1711 inn, now a private home, welcomed wayfarers including Henry David Thoreau. 

  • Farming and fishing continued as the area became more settled. 

  • For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, local fishing families also harvested Irish moss, a seaweed with uses in the production of toothpaste, yogurt, chocolate, and more. It was trucked from Ellisville to Scituate, the American hub of the Irish moss industry, to be processed.   

  • With more use, Elllisville Harbor saw more silting in, and despite being protected by a barrier beach, periodic dredging began. 

Lobster boats moored along the Ellisville channel. Photo courtesy of Don Maricle, via Friends of Ellisville Marsh.

1900s 

  • By 1900, several significant changes occurred. Plymouth and Cape Cod were becoming vacation destinations. While traditional uses continued until the mid-1900s, with the last lobstering and moss boats moving out in the early 1980s, summer visitors were increasingly attracted to the undeveloped barrier beaches. Overuse by off-road vehicles resulted in increased beach damage and littering, troubling the year-round residents. 

  • In addition, the digging of the nearby Cape Cod Canal in the early 1900s changed the tidal patterns and expanded the barrier beach, often closing off the harbor outlet and increasing silting, thus requiring a breakwater. The harbor mouth moved 0.5 miles south. 

  • The Ellisville Harbor area was designated an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) by the Massachusetts Secretary of Environmental Affairs in 1980.   

  • In 1991, an event that came to be known as the “Perfect Storm” closed the harbor outlet altogether, requiring the resumption of dredging. (This happened again in 2005.) 

  • Also in 1991, the state purchased the Harlow property and created Ellisville Harbor State Park on the north side of the harbor. 

2000s      

  • The south side of the marsh and harbor remained unprotected from development until 2003, when it was donated to Wildlands Trust and named the Shifting Lots Preserve. 

  • Recognizing the importance of Ellisville harbor for nesting and the rearing of endangered birds and wildlife, regulations for preserve access and use were soon implemented. 

  • In 2009, a History Channel documentary segment portraying the 1620 landing of the Pilgrims used Shifting Lots as one of its filming locations. 

Learn More: 

To learn more about the history, ecology, and importance of Shifting Lots and Ellisville Harbor, take time to visit and experience it for yourself. Also, see these resources: