Butterfly Park

199 Central St, Abington, MA 02351, USA

Contact Linda Masabny through the Abington Garden Club.

https://abingtongardenclub.com

Owned By: Town of Abington

• Directions

A tiny, butterfly-friendly park on the Shumatuscacant River. An enchanting spot where visitors are invited to observe and contemplate the natural world.

Features

This grassy park, with plantings designed to attract butterflies, is maintained by the Abington Garden Club. The land is owned by the Trustees of Mt. Vernon Cemetery, who graciously agreed in the late 1990’s to let Abington Garden Club use it as their Community Project. The park was created in 2001. The Abington Garden Club was established in 1931.

This land is within the region of the Massachuseuk (or Massachusett) Native American tribe. According to Martha Campbell’s Remembering Old Abington, the original town of Abington included today’s Abington and Rockland as well as most of Whitman. in the 1660s, European settlers from Weymouth began establishing homesteads within the town. While the settlers came from Massachusetts Bay Colony, the land was part of Plymouth Colony. All of the 18 original land grants were along the Satucket Path, a trail established by Native Americans that extended from Wessagusset Beach in North Weymouth to Robbins Pond in East Bridgewater. 

Campbell also explains how the Native American name for the town was Manamooskeagin, translated from the Algonquin as “great green place of shaking grass.” The Abington town seal incorporates its Algonquian name.

This land is within the region of the Massachusett (or Massachuseuk). To learn more about local Native American tribes, we encourage you to interact with their members. The Mattakeeset band of the Massachusett and the Massachusett tribe at Ponkapoag share information on their websites.

Trail Description

No trails, but this very small parks offers a lovely setting for a quick breath of fresh air, or to contemplate nature.

Habitats and Wildlife

The Shumatuscacant River flows along one side of this property.

The Shumatuscacant River flows for 8.8 miles through Abington and Whitman. In Hanson’s Poor Meadow Brook Conservation Area, it joins with Poor Meadow Brook. The stream continues to Robbins Pond in East Bridgewater, where it empties into the Satucket River, part of the Taunton River watershed. The word “Schumatuscacant” has been translated from the Algonquin as “beaver stream with the stepping-over place.” It originally referred to a specific spot on the Satucket Path where the river could be crossed easily. A similar word, “Schumacastcacut,” has been translated as “beaver stream always dependable.”