Lansing Bennett Forest – Duxbury, MA

The Lansing Bennett Forest, formerly known as Trout Farm Conservation, is definitely a hidden, less known hike on the South Shore, it’s located in Duxbury and is about a 3 mile loop around the property . The Forest is named after Dr. Lansing Bennett who came to Duxbury in 1952. He was a Conservationist who Chaired the Duxbury Conservation Commission in the 1960s and 70s. According to the North South River Watershed website, “during his tenure, the town obtained over 1200 acres of conservation land.”

I was intrigued by the brief description of Dr. Lansing Bennet’s life on the NSRWA website so I did a little more digging and found that he had actually quite an interesting background, most of the info I found was from the cia.gov website. Dr. Bennet was a lifelong lover of the environment, which ultimately proved true when the 344 acres of the Forest were renamed and dedicated to him in Duxbury. He also was a physician of underwater and emergency medicine and served in the US Navy. In January 1993 Dr. Lansing Bennett was shot and killed outside the CIA headquarters in Virginia where he worked as an intelligence analyst assessing the health of foreign leaders.

Okay, that’s all I have for the history lesson (sort of), now back to the actual hike we took through the Forest. There are three different trails that intersect throughout the property, from the parking lot you’ll set out first by following along with the yellow markers before you eventually collide with red, white and blue ones. We went from yellow to red to white, and then back to yellow to loop through the Forest. The white markers are actually part of the Bay Circuit Trail, which if you’re unaware are 230-mile long trail that runs from the Merrimack River North of Boston and ends in the Kingston Bay, check out the Bay Circuit website for more info.

This path is really unique because of the old trout farms that used to be located here. When walking through the woods you’ll encounter foot bridges, streams and even a few stepping stones near King Phillips Spring. You’ll also find the remnants of the Howland’s Mill in the area which was built in 1830 and was the last mill in the town. The streams here are also mostly sandy bottomed and clear, which is a bit different than the water we usually find on our hikes since they’re mostly filled with mud and boulders and you’re unable to see the bottom.

The Dr. Lansing Bennett Forest is a great, hike, not too difficult as our 2 year old hiked through the whole thing on her own, and filled with history. If you’re looking for a nice, fairly quiet spot in the woods, I would definitely recommend giving this hike a gander!