Artichoke River Woods

The Artichoke River gets its name from explorer Samuel de Champlain's 1603 account of sunflower tubers, which he described as tasting like artichokes. These sunflowers, native to New England, were cultivated by Indigenous horticulturalists, who used both the seeds and tubers.

They were also growing corn, squash, beans, and tobacco in their gardens. Puritan settlers, believing they were building a new holy land, later named the sunflower tubers Jerusalem Artichokes and gave the Merrimack River tributary its name.

The history of deeded land along the Artichoke River dates back to the earliest colonial settlers in what is now West Newbury. In 1635, 23 men and their families sailed through Plum Island Sound and up the Parker River landing in Newbury. As more settlers arrived, land in Newbury became scare and some, including Edward Rawson, John Emery and Francis Brown, moved westward to the Artichoke River. Town records show that parcels of land around the river were granted beginning in 1638.

The most-recent landowner, Preston Rogers, traces his family’s history to 1883 when his great-grandfather purchased 50 acres that included a 1738 farmhouse.

The property protects a critical drinking water supply for Newburyport and West Newbury.

Greenbelt was able to purchase the property in 2021 with funding from West Newbury CPA funds, the City of Newburyport, a Drinking Water Supply Grant, the Massachusetts Division of Conservation & Recreation, Fields Pond Foundation, Massachusetts Conservation Partnership, ECCF Essex County Land and Environment Initiative Grant, and individual donors.

Read the Artichoke River Woods Conservation Chronicle

There are red fox, gray fox, deer, turkeys, fishers, bobcats, weasels, mink, owls, wood ducks, pileated woodpeckers, and coyotes. There are mature forests of pine, oak, hickory and juniper trees.