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Freetown-Fall River State Forest
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The Freetown-Fall River State Forest (more commonly shortened to Freetown State Forest) is a large tract of forest land located in Freetown and Fall River, Massachusetts. It is owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and operated by the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
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Encyclopedia
The Freetown-Fall River State Forest (more commonly shortened to Freetown State Forest) is a large tract of forest land located in Freetown and Fall River, Massachusetts. It is owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and operated by the Department of Conservation and Recreation. Its headquarters is located in Assonet, Massachusetts.
History
The majority of the land was acquired over twenty years beginning in the 1930s. The forest sits on over 5,400 acres (22 kmē) of land and includes Profile Rock, a granite outcropping which local Native Americans believe to be the image of Chief Massasoit. Also in the forest is a Wampanoag reservation.
The Civilian Conservation Corps worked on the property in its early years. A statue was dedicated in honor of the program and its efforts in the forest in September, 2002.
The forest is home to the annual "Fun Day in the Forest" event sponsored by the Friends of the Freetown-Fall River State Forest. For a number of years, it also served as the course for the Big Bang Mountain Bike Race, a benefit event for the Independence Day events in Freetown.
Fires
The Freetown State Forest has suffered fires on several occasions. In September 1980, a fire burned approximately of woodland adjacent to and in the state forest over the course of a week. Fires in 1988 and 1991 burned an estimated each, while a fire in March, 1976 destroyed an estimated 500 acres (2 kmē). The last major fire occurred on April 30, 2001, when fire destroyed between 90 and of the forest. Most of the fires were put out on April 30, while small fires continued into May 1.
Crimes and incidents
The Freetown State Forest has been the location of several crimes and incidents.
In November, 1978, the body of Mary Lou Arruda, a 15-year-old cheerleader abducted from Raynham, Massachusetts that September, was discovered tied to a tree in the state forest. James M. Kater of Brockton, previously convicted of kidnapping in 1967, was convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Arruda in 1979. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court overturned the verdict, and he was convicted again in 1986. The verdict once again overturned; he was retried in 1992, with that attempt ending in a mistrial.
In 1980, while investigating another local murder, police had been approached by individuals who claimed to have witnessed Satanic cult activity within the state forest. These reports would have bearing on the fourth Kater trial (1996-2000) which ended with the conviction upheld. In the 1996 trial, the defense charged that police had withheld information relating to the alleged Satanic cult activity, which it claimed could have provided an alternative to Kater.
Three more murders were subsequently related to the state forest. In 1987 a transient drifter mistaken for an undercover police officer was murdered in the forest, and in 2001 two men were found shot to death on Bell Rock Road, which runs through the forest connecting Assonet and Fall River. Two assaults were also reported: a Fall River man in 1991 and a teenager from New Bedford in 1998.
Other incidents include hazardous waste dumping (1996), reports of aggressive abandoned dogs (2006), and reports of an escaped emu wandering the forest (2006).
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