Red Gold Farm

611 Webster St, Marshfield, MA 02050, USA

Marshfield Conservation: (781) 834-5573

Owned By: Town of Marshfield

• Directions

Marshfield’s Red Gold Farm features about 2 miles of wide flat trails that wind around ponds, wetlands, and active cranberry bogs. The Green Harbor River flows through the property. Watch for a boardwalk connection to the Black Mount neighborhood in the near future!

The Marshfield Trail Committee will be marking the trails very soon! Visitors (including dogs) are permitted on the trails, but they are not allowed in the bogs at any time.

Motorized vehicles are not permitted. Please follow dog and parking regulations listed below.

Hunting is not allowed at Red Gold Farm, nor at any of Marshfield’s other conservation properties.

Features

This property is an active cranberry bog. It was established prior to 1950, but is best known for 50+ years of farming by the Garretson family.

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

Trail Description

From the informal parking area at 611 Webster Street, there are two ways to enter the property. One option is to walk 0.1 mile north on Webster Street and then look for the trailhead on the left, just before the beginning of the sidewalk*. Follow the trail into the woods, where it intersects with the former Old Colony Railroad bed. After another 0.1 mile, you’ll cross the Green Harbor River. Soon after, the trail opens onto an unpaved roadway/electrical easement, and after another 0.1 mile or so you’ll find a gate and access to the bog trails.

There will soon be a more direct pathway from the parking to the trailhead. In the meantime, it is recommended that visitors do not use the unpaved roadway/electrical easement that seems like an obvious route. It belongs to Eversource, and is a regular route for large trucks. An entrance trail adjacent to this roadway will be constructed, and marked, very soon!

The bog trails extend in various directions, for about 2 miles altogether, offering options for shorter and longer explorations. The bog trails are wide and flat — sometimes dirt, sometimes grass. Motorized vehicles are not permitted.

*Note: the sidewalk continues north on Webster Street to the town center. At Dandelion Park, it connects with the longest (3.5-mile) section of Marshfield’s Bridle Path and Rail Trail.

Watch this space: we’re excited about the boardwalk and connector trail planned for the southeastern section of the property. It will provide pedestrian access to and from the Black Mount neighborhood, and also to the southernmost portion of Marshfield’s Rail Trail and Bridle Path (aka Rail Trail South).

Habitats and Wildlife

This property is primarily cranberry bogs, along with some ponds and freshwater wetlands. In the wooded sections, there are some oak, birch, pine and maple trees as well as the occasional cedar, along with fern, sweet pepper bush and viburnum. In and around the bogs, look for cardinal flowers and bog orchids. Some of the many avian species spotted here include great blue heron, green heron, killdeer, and wood duck. It’s also a great spot to see turtles!

The Green Harbor River flows along two sides of Red Gold Farm. The river originates in springs and ponds southwest of the property, in Duxbury. Beyond Red Gold Farm, it flows through the Green Harbor Golf Club, the Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary, property owned by the Marshfield Municipal Airport, and Peter Igo Park. Just downstream of the Dyke Road bridge (and dike) it flows into the Atlantic Ocean at Green Harbor.