Hingham Adventures: Bear Cove Park

Situated just south of the Hingham Shipyard Marina is a gem called is Bear Cover Park.  Looking at the map below you can see the marina in the center.  Immediately to the west (left) is a dog park called Stodders Neck.  Follow the Weymouth Back River from Stodders Neck as it turns south, go under route 3A and on the east side is the north end of Bear Cove Park.  The next map shows the entire park.

Hingham Shipyard Marina and surrounding parks

Map of Bear Cove Park showing paved trails

Bare Cove Park consists of 484 acres. It was set aside as a wildlife sanctuary and a place for public recreation in 1972 when the US Government declared the ammunition depot surplus and closed it down.  The park is an exceptional area of river shoreline, wetland, open fields, dense woods, and diverse animal and plant life. Many wild animals inhabit the park including coyote, fox, and deer.

The park is a 5 minute walk from the boat and it has become our favorite place for our morning walk. Unlike Stodders Neck which is an on leash dog park where everybody goes off leash, Bear Cove is an "official" off leash park.  Stodders Neck is essentially a circular dirt path. Bear Cove is about 4 miles paved paths, all of which used to be roads that were part of the military base and naval ammunition depot.

View looking north west with ammunition dock remnants

And that brings us to today's history lesson (just kidding).  Seriously, the history at Bear Cove is very rich.  In fact there is an informal museum that documents the events that took place here.  It opens once a month for two hours.  I visited it for the first time last Sunday.

The Bear Cove Museum

Bear Cove served as a US Naval Training Station circa 1918 and.  Below are two photos, one of group pictures and the other a map and photo of the Naval Training Station.

US Naval Training Station at Bear Cove Park

Later, the site was used as the Hingham Naval Ammunition Depot. At peak capacity in 1945, over 2,400 civilians and military personnel worked there. In the mid 1950s, the site contained over 90 buildings, its own telephone exchange, rail lines to each ammunition bunker and 15 cranes. During the period when the Hingham Shipyard was building warship, 1942 to 1945, the ammunition depot was connected by a rail line that ran under route 3A, which you can see in the photo below (look hard it's in the left center of the photo).

Hingham Shipyard in 1970

Explanatory Note: Along the right hand side of photo above are the remnants of the ways where 227 warships were built including Destroyer Escorts, LSTs and LCIs.  To the left of the ways is the steel fabrication plant and to the left of that and beyond the highway are buildings connected with the shipyard.  Stodders Neck is visible in the upper center and what was Hewitts Cove Marina, the forerunner of Hingham Shipyard Marina, is visible in the upper right.  The north end of Bear Cove is visible in the upper right.

Bear Cove Ranger Scott, the museum's curator

The marine uniform to the right was worn by Scott's father when he was stationed as a guard at the ammunition depot

Workers, mainly women, assembling top secret proximity fuses used only with naval guns.
Military authorities feared the fuses would fall into enemy hands if used with ground force artillery

Fall colors in Bear Cove Park

Today, only four of the 90 building remain (e.g., the museum, model train center and fire museum). The rest are gone with grass fields where they once stood.  The ammunition bunkers are gone as are rail lines and the docks that were used to load ammunition on to barges that ferried them to ships in Hingham Harbor.  What's left is wonderful park that is just perfect for our morning and afternoon walks.

Did I mention  that we LOVE Hingham and that we are definitely coming back next summer.

Written by Les.