The Trustees: Hamlin Reservation

During one of my trips to the North Shore in Massachusetts, I visited Hamlin Reservation in Ipswich, which is currently managed by The Trustees of Reservations. This one-mile walking path through the Great Marsh allows some sharp-eyed visitors to see birds that only live in this part of the state, including cattle egrets, snowy egrets, and black-ground night-herons. While I only saw a few crows, the quiet walk was a relaxing rest after running around the center of town, and the land turned out to have a connection to national history.

Hamlin Reservation is named for Lot Morrill Hamlin Jr. and Octavia Peirson Hamlin who lived on the 135-acre farm at 106 Argilla Road. While Lot died fairly young at 55 years old in 1968, Octavia lived to age 83 and died in 1991, bequeathing the property to the Trustees. The property map indicates that her house is currently a private residence, so I did not get any pictures. While the 1784 building is recognized as historic by the town, it is not currently on the National Register of Historic Places.

More interesting to me was how the family managed to own such a large piece of prime real estate. A clue may lie in Lot’s name. While he was directly named after his father, Lot Morrill Hamlin Sr., their name seems to have come from Civil War and Reconstruction Era Maine politician Lot Myrick Morrill. This Lot had an extensive career including serving as a state governor, a U.S. Senator, and Secretary of the Treasury. His fellow Maine politician was Hannibal Hamlin who served as a U.S. representative, senator, and state governor, along with a Vice President under Abraham Lincoln. My one regret was that I could not find the exact connection between these members of the Hamlin family despite searching the Belgrade (Maine) Historical Society website and the History of the Hamlin Family... 1639-1894.

Hamlin Reservation is open from dawn to dusk all year and is free to the public. Plenty of parking is available in an unpaved lot near the trailhead. Ecotourists will note that this site is a stop on the Trustees Remembrance Trail, which in turn is part of Climate Futures, a speculative environmental project that imagines damage to current sites in the North Shore due to climate change. The area may be accessible only twice a day due to flooding by 2057, so make sure you visit within the next thirty-two years.