The expansive fields and trails of Kamon Farm stretch out for 95 stunning acres, part of Turkey Hill – the last remaining undeveloped and unprotected hilltop in Ipswich. The farm has long been a part of the agricultural history of Essex County, owned by the Kamon Brothers, emigres from Poland, in the early 1900s.
Along Pineswamp Road, Kamon Farm features open hayfields, forest and wetlands that connect existing protected land in the Ipswich and Parker River watersheds. More than half of the property protects and filters water flowing into the Bull Brook Reservoir and the Mile Lane Wells. Portions of this land have been used for hay; agricultural uses compatible with drinking water supply goals will continue.
At the time of European contact, Pawtucket people who became known as the Agawam Indians were growing corn on the lower slopes of Turkey Hill and exploiting the subsistence resources of the nearby wetlands and pine groves. They canoed to Ipswich Bay and Plum Island Sound via nearby Bull Brook to Rowley River.
The Kamon Farm area was periodically occupied by Indigenous people since PaleoIndian times circa 14,000 years ago, when bands of hunter-gatherers met near here for the cooperative hunting of caribou. Stone artifacts from archaeological sites on and around Turkey Hill are housed at the Harvard Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Cambridge.
Greenbelt worked with the Town of Ipswich to protect Kamon Farm. The project was made possible, in part, with funding from the Ipswich Open Space Bond Program and the Massachusetts LAND Grant Program. The Bafflin Foundation, Fields Pond Foundation, The George H. and Jane E. Mifflin Memorial Fund and Institution for Savings Conservation Fund and individual donors helped Greenbelt raise the funds needed to complete the project. Conserving these 95 acres permanently protects public trail access, drinking water, wildlife habitat and active farmland.
Take Linebrook Road from downtown Ipswich at the insection with Central Street. Follow Linebrook Road for about 1.5 miles. Take a left onto Pineswamp Road and stay on it for just over a mile. Kamon Farm is on your right.
Tell us about your visit.
Town: Ipswich Total Acres: 95 Year Conserved: 2021 Difficulty: Easy
