By Skip Stuck and Rob MacDonald

It's a cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words. In the last installment of the “Human History of Wildlands” series on Stewart/Person Preserve in Kingston, I was disappointed that despite a great deal of written information, I could find few pictures to illustrate the changes that people brought to the property. In this installment, pictures will help tell a story that words alone could not.  

Wildland Trust's Tucker Preserve consists of 78 acres of forested hills and riverside in Pembroke, part of the larger, 325-acre Indian Head River Trail (IHRT) extending into Hanson and Hanover, as well. It lies very close to Wildlands' Willow Brook Farm.  

Known as the Wampanoag Canoe Passage, the Indian Head and North Rivers connecting with the Taunton River watershed and eventually Narraganset Bay was a 70-mile super-highway used by native peoples for thousands of years. As a result, Tucker Preserve shares much of its pre-colonial history with Willow Brook Farm. 

As Europeans arrived in the 1600s, they quickly realized the value of these rivers, not only for transportation and trade, but as a source of energy to propel burgeoning industry. Here lies the main reason why these scenes... 

...became these scenes:  

The story begins with the first mention of the property in 1632, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony governor, John Winthrop, crossed the Indian Head River at Ludden's Ford (also known as Luddam's Ford, now the site of the Elm Street bridge). 

Initially, settlers farmed the land. Although it was good for livestock grazing, much of it was too rocky to produce grains and vegetables. So, they relied on the river for its abundant runs of fish (including alewives and shad for food and fertilizer) and on the surrounding forests for fuel and building materials. 

The river soon drew the settlers’ attention as a power source, with the first mention of a water-powered sawmill in 1693. Thus it began. In the 18th and 19th centuries, unlike at neighboring Willow Brook Farm, people in the Tucker Preserve area looked not to agriculture but to industry, on a scale that dramatically and irrevocably altered the landscape. The saw and grist mills were joined by an iron furnace in 1702, Smith's fulling mill (to clean and thicken wool fiber) in 1726, the Waterman and Perry tack factories in 1830, and others.  

In the late 18th century, the Curtis Iron Works grew as well, supplying the needs of farming and shipbuilding. A local story relates that the factory produced the anchors for the USS Constitution. However, a factory in Hanover makes the same claim, neither town ceding the honor. By the 19th century, industry was fully in control of the area, with the Clapp Rubber Works a major employer, followed later by National Fireworks. Soon, these industries became busy enough to warrant a railroad connection known as the Hanover Branch Railway. The woods were thus transformed into a significant industrial area. 

So much industry sharing such a small area for two centuries came with inevitable consequences. By the early 1900s, industry in the area peaked. Afterwards, factories were closed, abandoned, and razed, and dams were breached and removed. The area returned to woodlands. Crumbling, overgrown foundations are still visible today as a reminder of the land’s industrial past. Less visible, yet even longer lasting, is the pollution remaining in the area’s soils, especially at the river bottom. Each successive industry thus left its signature on the landscape. In the 1980s, the area surrounding and downstream of the fireworks factory was identified as a potential Superfund site, and a major concern for mercury pollution. 

The good news is that federal, state, and local stakeholders have come together to start reversing the damage. In 1993, Sidney and Harold M. Tucker donated the Tucker Preserve property to Wildlands Trust. Together with groups like the North and South River Watershed Association, the Mattakeeset Massachuset (also known as Massachuseuk) tribe, and state and federal agencies, Wildlands helped form the Indian Head River Coalition, which created the Indian Head River Trail, a 6-mile trail network through the attractive woodlands and river you see today. 

In June 2021, another coalition working to improve the Indian Head River area, the Fireworks Site Joint Defense Group, presented its report to the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, outlining their recommendations for remediation planning. Discussions are ongoing. 

Future work notwithstanding, Tucker Preserve and the IHRT now present a reasonable facsimile of its pre-industrial beauty. As you can see, however, a quick look back in time reveals a more complicated history. Without the foresight, generosity, and collaboration of concerned individuals and groups, this serene and stunning landscape could have looked very different. Figuratively and literally, its alternative outcome lies just below the surface. 

Learn more 

To learn more, visit the Tucker Preserve property description here, or visit the preserve yourself. 

Also, stay informed on the Indian Head River recovery efforts via the North and South Rivers Watershed Association website: 

• Indian Head River Restoration Project Update 

• Ludden's Ford Park, Hanover 

Please also view the Town of Hanover and Pembroke Historical Society websites: 

• hanoverhistoricalsociety.com 

• pembrokehistoricalsociety.org

Thanks to Rob MacDonald for many of the photographs used in this piece. To see more, visit his photography website here.