Swift and Chute Preserve

ACCESS: Park next to the Goodwill Park playground, which is at the end of the access road into Goodwill Park (park entrance is 0.2 miles north of 416 Gifford Street). From the playground, walk down the gated paved road and follow as it turns sharply to the right. About 100 feet after the turn is a trailhead marked with a red arrow and green sign that says "Angel's Mirror Trail." Or the trails can be access from the Long Pond trail system.

HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY

These 24 acres within the watershed of Long Pond, the Town's primary drinking water source, were donated to The 300 Committee as two separate gifts eight years apart. The first nearly 13-acre parcel was given to T3C in 2006 by E. Kent Swift, Jr., a local businessman with ties to the marine industry who served on the Board of Trustees of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. In 2014, T3C accepted a gift of 11 additional acres from the estate of Oliver Swift Chute. These parcels are further protected by conservation restrictions (CRs) held by the Town of Falmouth. Documents relating to the CRs indicate that the land had been owned by "Oliver S. Chute and his family since approximately 1680."

In 2016, T3C conveyed a 500-foot "buffer strip" on the western shore of Long Pond to the Town in accordance with a watershed agreement for the protection of Long Pond dating back to 1960.

The land for many years included a summer cabin where the members of the Chute and Swift families would gather to enjoy the quiet woods and fish in the small pond to the west of Long Pond. The setting was so idyllic and the reflections on the water so clear that the family named this small pond "Angel's Mirror." Today, a path from Pumping Station Road winds through the woods, downhill and around the lovely pond. A bit farther along, hikers can branch right to meet the main trail that encircles Long Pond (southern section of Falmouth's Moraine Trail), or branch left to continue through a less-travelled section of woods to the west. that encircles Long Pond.

The property's technical street address is 76 West Falmouth Highway.