Fall River, Massachusetts
Copicut Woods
Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
516 acres of shady woods with Miller Lane, a 150-year-old cart path lined with stone walls, and a quarter-mile Discovery Trail built for strollers.
Written for ages 4–12.
Researched from this park's own sources. Nobody's walked it yet.
Read this bit out
Miller Lane was a road. About a hundred and fifty years ago, people drove carts down it, between stone walls, when this was farm country. The farms are gone now, and the lane runs through woods. But the walls are still exactly where somebody put them, stone on stone, for nearly a mile. Walk a stretch of it and imagine the creak of a cart coming the other way.
One of your three free places, or the Explorer Pass. What that costs
Before you go
- Time there
- Plan on about an hour and a half at the park.
- Parking
- Free, sunrise to sunset. A 12-car lot on Indian Town Road in Fall River, plus roadside parking, with a trail map on the kiosk. Don't follow GPS here: the Trustees say it sends drivers down unmaintained roads that need a high-clearance four-wheel drive, and cell service is limited. Use the written directions on their page.
- Underfoot
- 5.4 miles of shady trails past vernal pools and an old farm settlement. The quarter-mile Discovery Trail is a stone-dust path with five play stations, built for strollers and wheelchairs. Hunting is allowed west of Yellow Hill Road in season (never on Sundays), so wear bright orange in the fall. Allow at least an hour.
- Stroller
- A stroller works on some of it.
- Food
- No food for sale. Bring a picnic: the Trustees suggest the timber-frame Education Shed.
22 challenges written for this place
A game deals seven to fifteen of them, so no two visits are alike.
4 things to spot, 3 photographs to take and 3 things to work out.
Every game includes this one
Miller Lane
Find the old cart path with stone walls down both sides, and walk a stretch of it.
A few of the others
The Timber Shed
Find the wooden shed built the old way, out of a frame of big timbers.
On The Wall
One photo of everybody along the stone wall.
Straight Up
One photo taken looking straight up through the trees.
Their Turn
Hand the phone to the youngest. They take one picture of whatever they want.
Walls With No Fields
These walls were built to divide fields. Work out what happened to the fields.
A Hundred And Fifty Years
This lane is about 150 years old. Work out what year it was built and who was alive then.
The rest are a surprise — that's the whole point.
Also around The South Coast
Fort Phoenix
Fairhaven
The remains of a Revolutionary War fort, a universally accessible beach on Buzzards Bay, a playground, and a hurricane barrier to walk along.
New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park
New Bedford
Thirteen blocks of a whaling city: the sailors' chapel from Moby-Dick, granite-block streets, and the house where Frederick Douglass got his name.
Play this at Copicut Woods
Free. Works with no signal once you're there.