President’s Note Our Spring / Summer issue of this year’s newsletter focused on the story of the creation of the Wapack Trail and the Wapack Lodge, the roles of the trail founders, Frank Robbins and Marion Davis, and the maintenance and protection of the trail over the past century. As we near the end of this centennial year, our focus for this issue is the same as for our upcoming annual meeting, to share personal Read more…
One hundred years ago, two local farmers and former cattle drovers entered the forefront of the long distance trails movement by creating the Wapack Trail. Marion Buck and Frank Robbins were out working on Robbins’ farm when they were approached by Albert Annett with the idea of creating a trail over land they knew well, the ridgeline between North Pack and Mt. Watatic. The trail was soon publicized in the Boston papers, and by the Read more…
The trail’s popularity grew so quickly that in 1924 Frank Robbins and Marion Buck decided to build the Wapack Lodge to house paying guests. They found a cellar hole near where the trail crossed Turnpike Road in New Ipswich that had once been a house built in 1776, and atop it they built a one-story bungalow. It proved so popular for overnight stays that in 1936 they cut off the roof, raised it with jacks, Read more…