The Andover Trails Committee and the Andover Historical Society are teaming up this season to create a three-part hike series in Andover called "Stories from the Trails."
"Each hike in this series will feature both the natural beauty and unique geology of the featured property, as well as the colorful stories of the history specifically related to each property," according to David Bunting of the trails group.
The series, which is free and open to the public, begins Sunday, June 27 at 1 p.m. at the AVIS Skug River Reservation in Andover. This first hike is approximately 2 miles of relatively level walking and will take about 2 hours. On this first hike, Jane Cairns from the Andover Historical Society will share colorful stories tied to the reservation and surrounding area.
The Skug River Reservation is located on Salem Street in Andover, near the intersection of Wagon Wheel Road. Parking for some cars is available in the reservation lot, with ample additional parking available around the corner on Wagon Wheel Road.
Hikers will see the original Jenkins house, which was a station on the Underground Railroad, and a gathering place for William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe and the famous Hutchinson Family Singers.
More of what'll you'll hear about on the June 27 Skug River Reservation hike:
Most of the land that now makes up the Skug River Reservation belonged to several generations of the Jenkins family, who dammed the river to power a profitable sawmill and gristmill. The dam has long since washed away, but the massive stone walls of the millrace can still be seen from the trail. In the middle of the 19th century, William Jenkins quarried and polished stone on the site, and used the mill to cut the locally abundant blue soapstone (a soft, greasy-feeling rock) into tombstones, building faces and other small items.
William Jenkins was also one of Andover's most ardent Abolitionists.
Among the quarried and wedged outcrops of stone lies a "glacial erratic" - an enormous boulder deposited during the last ice age.
The Stories from the Trails hike series will continue with hikes on July 25 at the AVIS Goldsmith Woodlands Reservation and on Sept. 12 at Andover's Pole Hill Reservation. For more information, e-mail David Bunting, Andover Trails Committee member at dbunting@andovertrails.org.
