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Estabrook Woods

Concord, United States of America

Estabrook Woods

The Estabrook Woods is a wild tract of more than 1,700 acres (6.9 km2) of woodland, hills, ledge, and swamp straddling Concord and Carlisle Massachusetts, two miles (3 km) north of the center of Town of Concord. It is the largest contiguous and undeveloped woodland within thirty miles of Boston. How

ever, the woods have a history of human disturbance dating back to the Algonquian Native Americans who used controlled burning to clear tracts of land. Later, colonists cleared much of Estabrook for agriculture and pastures, although vegetation has since rejuvenated. The Woods are named for the Thomas Estabrook family, prominent in the area since colonial times. Henry David Thoreau is intimately associated with this area, which he called "Easterbrooks Country". In his Oct. 20, 1857 journal entry, one of several on the woodland, he writes: “What a wild and rich domain that Easterbrooks Country! Not a cultivated, hardly a cultivatable field in it, and yet it delights all natural persons.” During the early 20th century, a small number of Concord families began to acquire the land in Estabrook Woods. In 1932, they successfully petitioned the town to close and discontinue the old logging trail...

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