Along Mason Brook, two properties were ready to be preserved.
So that’s what their owners did.
Adjacent to each other — in fact, once a single lot — parcels donated to the town of Mason by former long-time resident Sandy Gray and Jennifer Beck of Wilton will be dedicated this Saturday.
Mason Conservation Commission Chair Bob LaRochelle said these pieces add on to several other significant conservation pieces in town, including a large tract donated by Bronson Potter and the Florence Roberts Forest.
This past year, since Gray donated her tract, Milford High School sophomore and Mason resident Michael Piernas has been working to complete a trail system on the property, as part of a National Honor Society service project.
LaRochelle said Piernas did all the work to design, flag and break the trails, with the Conservation Commission’s supervision, and created about a half-mile-long main trail, along with three offshoot trails and created signs.
LaRochelle said Saturday’s ceremony will celebrate Beck and Gray’s contribution, and Piernas’ new trails.
Totaling about 12 acres, the land consists of the site of an old water-powered mill and spillway, and about a 10-acre property of what was once wooded backland, now permanently preserved.
The land used to be owned by Gray, who sold about two acres to Beck decades ago, with plans for Beck to build a home on the property, though that never came to fruition. Both women said the properties are a special place in Mason because they include the Mason Brook and cascades over granite, and the historical mill site.
This is the second gift of land Gray has made to the town. The first was used to extend the Prospect Hill Cemetery on Old Ashby Road. Gray kept the remainder of the property and lived on a portion of it, and said she always wanted to see the rest of the lot remain wild.
“I always wanted to do it,” Gray said, of conserving the backwoods portion of the land. She eventually sold about four acres of the property, where her home was built, but kept the back lot. She said she felt strongly about it.
“The rest was wild, and it should be, always. I always felt that way about it,” Gray said. “There’s just not enough habitat for animals, and I see it. I live in the city now, and it’s very difficult to have any wild places, and we should preserve what we have, not only for the animals, but for us. As humans, we need the wild places.”
Beck bought a portion of the property, which was once the site of a water-powered sawmill, from Gray in the early 1980s. She said she and her then-husband had gone so far as to design a house and begin the process for approvals, but it never came to be. But she held onto the land for a long time, anyway.
Beck said she would regularly visit the property, enjoy the woods and the brook, and think about the potential of the property as a build site.
“I would sit by the brook with a bottle of wine, and think, ‘This is a really magical place.’ Especially when the brook was running hard. And each time I’d go back there, I’d get a little sad. And finally, it struck me that it shouldn’t be built on,” Beck said.
“The property spoke to me. Its wildlife, the brook, the historic site of the old mill … it just needs to stay just the way it is,” Beck said. “Just realizing that it’s a magical little place, and people should enjoy it, more people than just whoever is living on it.”
Beck actually decided to donate the land several years ago, in 2018, when the town of Mason was celebrating its 250th birthday. As a present, Beck took a little dirt and a rock from the property, wrapped it up, and delivered them to the Mason Select Board with a homemade birthday card, as Hallmark lacked a “Happy 250th Birthday” option.
On Saturday, the two parcels, reunited, will be dedicated in a ceremony by the Conservation Commission. The public is invited to attend. Gray’s parcel, called the Happy Trails Conservation Land, after the Roy Rogers song, and the Old Mason Mill Lot will both be dedicated, and “Happy Trails” will be sung. Gray, a published poet, will recite poetry she wrote about the land. The dedication will be followed by a hike of the property.
The dedication of the Happy Trails Conservation Land and Old Mason Mill Lot will be held on Saturday, June 20 at 10 a.m. Meet at the corner of Old Mill Road and Old Ashby Road. Park on Old Ashby Road beside Prospect Hill Cemetery or on the side of the road.