Ashland Town Forest and Witch Caves

My interest in Ashland Town Forest dates back to the early 1980s. My grandmother lived on Salem End Road and fed my interest in history with stories about the Salem witches who settled in Framingham-Ashland (and about the houses that hosted parts of the Underground Railroad). I also attended Pilgrim Day Camp in 1988-1991 and we made several side trips to the Witch Caves and the old car (we called it Crazy Mary's car - not sure why). It was 25 years later that I finally made it back to explore the Forest on my own.

The Ashland Town Forest is 575 acres in the North end of town with Salem End Road in Framingham forming the Northern border. Hiking and biking trails run for 6 miles within the woods. It's a different forest than nearby Ashland State Park.

Much of the Forest is former Indian land. The Forest contains Cowassuck Woods - "the place of the pines". The Magunkook Indians sold much of the land to early colonials, including Thomas Danforth, a Deputy Governor of Massachusetts, who established a plantation here in the 1660s.

In 1693, five families fled the Salem Witch Trials and sought refuge on the Danforth Plantation. Danforth was sympathetic to their innocence, having served on the tribunal early in 1692, but had his reservations to the veracity of the proceedings. The families are said to have sought shelter in the many granite outcroppings scattered throughout the Danforth property. The images below are thought to be the caves where they stayed.

In the late 1800s a granite quarry operated in the Western part of the Forest. The open pits remain along with piles of cut stone.

Today, the Forest has several established single-track trails. It's great for hiking but a little tough for a novice biker like me. It's defintely not like the rail trails that I'm used to. On a Saturday morning there were only a handful of other people hiking on the trail. It was just me and the chirping of birds.