Sagamore Hill Historic Site

From Indian Council gathering place to a World War II Coastal Military installation. This trail is mixture of field, forest, swamp and marsh.

New England trails

Since COVID hit and all our travel plans got cancelled, we started going for a walk every day.  Soon, we wanted to discover more trails and one of the first ones was a Sagamore Hill Historic Site. 

It used to be a Military Reservation which was established after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The idea was to protect Cape Cod Canal. Luckily it was never in war and was deactivated on April 1, 1945. 

It is located 1.1 miles (1.8 km) northeast of Sagamore in the Town of Bourne. Indian leaders, also called sagamores, met upon the hill, leading to both of its names. It is also a part of Sagamore Hill Historic Site in Scusset Beach State Reservation.

Getting there and parking

The Sagamore Hill Trail is located at Scusset Beach State Reservation at 20 Scusset Beach Rd, Sagamore Beach, MA 02562.

Daily parking fee charged Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. MA resident pay $14 and Non-MA resident pay $40. No R.V. parking is allowed in the main beach or jetty parking lots from May 15 to Sep.15. Resident and non resident status is determined by the vehicle license plate. There are many activities at the park – you can keep track of them on mass.gov site. Since it is a state park if you are MA resident and 62 or older you can get a lifetime parking pass. Learn more here.

There are four different trails – it takes approximately 45 minutes to walk the trail.

The red trail will take you to summit of Sagamore Hill for a view overlooking Cape Cod Bay and the eastern entrance to Cape Cod canal.

Why is it called Sagamore? The name Sagamore is defined as Chief of an Indian tribe. It was on Sagamore Hill that chiefs of the Wampanoag and Monomet Indians would hold tribal meetings. As you look out toward CapeCod Bay, the land has undergone many changes since the Sagamores
last gathered here.

Here are some things you can see during your walk:

Panama Mount

Panama Mount was developed by the U.S.Army for the defense of the Panama Canal, gave the 155 MM greater accuracy and enabled the gun crew to rotate tht weapon 360 degrees. The field artillery piece weighed 12 tons and fired 120 pound projectiles at a rate of four per minute.

With a range of approximately 20 miles, the easterly entrance to the Cape Cod Canal was well protected.

241st Coast Artillery Battery C

On one of the fields there used to be the site of the 241st Coast Artillery Battery C encampment from late 1941 through WW II. At the end of the war, the camp was disassembled and the field has now returned to nature.

Ready Rooms

They are series of underground tunnels connected the plotting rooms and ammunition storage rooms behind the hill to the observation and battery command station atop the hill. 

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“Side tunnels allowed movement of ammunition to the Ready Rooms where it was stored for use at the gun emplacements which flanked Sagamore Hill.”

Panama Mount was developed by the U.S.Army for the defense of the Panama Canal, gave the 155 MM greater accuracy and enabled the gun crew to rotate tht weapon 360 degrees. The field artillery piece weighed 12 tons and fired 120 pound projectiles at a rate of four per minute.
With a range of approximately 20 miles, the easterly entrance to the Cape Cod Canal was well protected

Overall – it is a nice trail. If you are going there in the summer then you can also visit Scusset beach. But this is another story for another blog.