Freetown-Fall River State Forest

June 14, 2020 Sunny

The Freetown-Fall River State Forest is a 5,000 acre forest in southeastern Massachusetts that is mainly for hiking, horseback riding, or riding dirt bikes. Part of it is also home to a Wampanoag (Native American tribe) reservation.

We took a roughly 3.3 mile walk called the “Ledge Loop”. This lasso shaped loop goes to a ledge along an old quarry. The walk is pretty flat and is mostly a gravelly road like this, which is crossed by dirt bike trails on either side. In the picture below you can see a large dirt hill for bikers.

Some sections are more shaded, with dense forest on either side.

About half-way through we suddenly came upon an old quarry, which looked kind of murky or had a film on the surface.

We don’t have a picture of the ledge that day, because we were watching a group of kids down below urging one of their friends to go for it, and jump off the ledge into the water (see the stock photo below). This young guy took a running leap and dropped about 90 feet into the water below with a loud slap.

But what was really terrible was the silence – and that he didn’t surface after a few seconds. The group of kids jumped in and swam frantically over as bystanders on top tried to point to where he hit the water. His friends from the ledge ran down to help.

In any case, we watched all this unfold for a minute or two but then decided to move on. I felt shaken and knew that somehow this young man must have been really injured.

I’ll come back to that later.

As we continued along the path and were nearing the ledge, we heard an ambulance siren. When we reached the ledge, the very same place the man had jumped from, the women in the picture motioned for us to stay back. They were watching a rescue happening in the quarry below. In any case, we kept a safe distance, took a few pictures, and then finished the loop.

A group of park rangers passed us on the loop, probably connected to the rescue mission.

The rest of the trail was uneventful, except that the forest was dense and, strangely, a lot of trees and boulders were spray painted. We had never seen this before at any park, but here are a few examples. It was a sad sight to see.

This section of the trail was shadier, and we did come upon some lovely little brooks, which were the prettiest part of the loop.

We finished the walk solemnly. As we approached the parking area, we saw police talking to the group of young men we recognized from the quarry. The mood was very subdued. They were recounting the details of what had happened to their friend.

Epilogue:

It turns out that the young man who jumped was only 19 years and and was in fact seriously injured in the fall, as this article describes. I don’t know what happened ultimately, but he had to be airlifted to a Rhode Island hospital with serious head injuries.

It turns out that maybe every year or two there’s a serious accident like this at the quarry, but it was a terrible thing to witness in person (all 5 of us saw him jump), and very strange that we came upon that exact spot at that moment. We were only there for maybe 30 seconds when it happened. It left Diana and me shaken.

I should also mention that the forest is part of the Bridgewater Triangle, an area of supposedly high paranormal and UFO activity. The forest itself has been the site of some other accidents, murders, and various strange incidents.

I went there expecting or at least hoping to find something a little spooky or weird, but didn’t expect to witness a tragic accident. In the end, I can’t really recommend this forest for the trails. Probably it’s better to skip it unless you really like to ride motorized dirt bikes.

• The trail was rough and gravelly, and the forest was dense but not picturesque. I can’t say it was a haunted forest, but it was a strange place.
• This place was creepy. The trails were dusty and rocky, and there were too many motor vehicles.
• Supposedly this forest is haunted but nothing happened.
• The forest was supposed to be creepy but it was just weird.
• The forest was kind of scary because a person jumped off a really high place into the quarry. And he had to be taken to the hospital.

For more information: Freetown-Fall River State Forest official site