Mock Moraine Trails

Evidence of glacial activity can be seen in the hilly terrain, boulders and kettle holes of the 20.4-acre Mock Moraine conservation land between West Falmouth Highway and Route 28.

Visitors will also see Cape Cod’s oldest Quaker cemetery and a granite post marking the location of Falmouth’s first Quaker meetinghouse. An ancient way, a path used by the Quakers who traveled from Sandwich as they settled in Falmouth in the 1600s, runs through the property to the nearby burial ground.

Access to this conservation land is from Stagecoach Way off West Falmouth Highway, just north of the West Falmouth Market. A conservation sign and small parking area mark the entrance to the trails. Visitors can also park at the town ball field — at Swift Park — on Blacksmith Shop Road and walk up the hill to Friends Way to reach the conservation area. There is no parking on Friends Way, which is a private road.

The area name comes from the family of the previous owners and from the fact that the land runs along the western edge of Falmouth’s glacial moraine. In 1994, Althea Mock Prouty sold to the town 6.9 acres that had been in her family for several generations. The purchase provided public access to a landlocked parcel the town had purchased in 1986 from Joseph “Fudgie” Figuerido, the town tree warden.

The conservation area was expanded again in 2007 when The 300 Committee purchased 6.3 acres from Alan Laties abutting the the Mock Moraine area to the south. The land trust named the new acquisition the Eaton Preserve after Betty Eaton, long-time steward of the Mock Moraine who died in 2006. Betty left The 300 Committee a generous bequest, which was used for this purchase, fulfilling her wishes to preserve land near the conservation area she loved.