Weir Hill

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Weir Hill Reservation (historically pronounced “wire hill”) is a 194 acre park located in the town of North Andover, Massachusetts. The Trustees of Reservations owns and maintains this property.

Rising gently above Lake Cochichewick, Weir Hill offers hiking trails that pass over the crest of the 305-foot double drumlin and track the shore of the lake.

Prior to European settlement, the Weir Hill area was used by Algonquin peoples. A 1968 archaeological survey identified a campsite at the southeast end of the reservation. It is likely that Native Americans periodically set fire to the hill to improve the landscape for deer hunting and used fishing weirs to catch alewives in Cochichewick Brook before they reached Lake Cochichewick to spawn. The reservation takes its name from these weirs.

In the mid 17th century, early settlers cleared the slopes of Weir Hill for grazing sheep and cattle. In the 18th and 19th centuries, milldams were built along Cochichewick Brook to lumber- and gristmills.

Generations of agricultural use, wildfire, cutting and mowing have created a patchwork landscape on Weir Hill that supports ten different types of plant communities including a 60-acre oak and hickory, hillside seeps, intermittent streams, and wet meadows. Several threatened species can be found on Weir Hill, including the white bog orchid, violet bush clover and butternut trees.

This reservation was first established in 1968 and has been expanded numerous times since.