True Tales Reprint: Birch Point on Reservoir Pond

This story originally appeared in the Canton Citizen on March 1, 2012

One of the sounds clearly in my childhood memory is that of the distant shotgun through the fields and woods of Canton. It is a sound that has been relegated to my childhood, since the discharge of firearms has largely been regulated in Canton from the 1970s. But as any old-time hunter can tell you, Canton was a great place for hunting fowl.

An early advertisement for the Birch Point Gunning Club on “Lake Reservoir” (Courtesy of Frances Clines)

The abundance of open water, marshland, and fertile upland were many of the elements needed to make Canton an attractive place for wildlife. In 1884, Samuel B. Noyes noted that “the Fowl Meadows have been frequented during the week by flocks of inland ducks, which are now flying southward in vast numbers. Our gunners have been popping away at them with more or less success before sunrise and at about sunset.” So abundant were the ducks, geese, and migratory birds that Canton became a favored destination for “gamming.”

In 1898, along the shores of Reservoir Pond, the Birch Point Stand was erected. To access Birch Point, hunters would travel from Boston via the Boston and Taunton State Highway. This road, now Turnpike Street (Route 138), was the route out from Boston to Canton and points southeast. The directions called for the traveler to “go two miles south of Ponkapoag Village, turn to right at Telegraph Pole No 9390 into wood-road and follow first road on right to camp.”

You can still find the location, although today a massive development is scarring the landscape — soon to be known as Canton Point, an “active adult community” with $400,000 homes. Historically, however, this is Birch Point. On this small piece of land was a hunting stand. The “stand” in those days was a 75-foot long blind that allowed hunters to be shielded from the view of unsuspecting waterfowl. Over the years it developed into a destination spot for sporting men with a passion for shooting birds.

Early accounts of the Birch Point Gunning Club suggest that it was founded by Fred and Tom Jones, brothers and natives of Stoughton. The story goes that upon early wanderings about the countryside of this section, Fred Jones came across this point of land known as Birch Point — so named “for the good and sufficient reason that no birches were ever known to exist among its flora and fauna.”

The only known historical sketch we have of this hunter’s paradise came from the pen of Augustine Jones, the wife of the founder of Birch Point. And only through the efforts of Canton’s renowned gun expert, Ted Clines, do we have any further details on the club. For it was Clines who preserved the decoys, the club diary, and kept photographs as part of his interest in hunting so that we have a fuller picture of this enterprise.

Mrs. Jones wrote a short memoir in which she observed: “I remember my first introduction to the blind. I was engaged to the boy that owned the camp where he and a group of other boys used to decoy and shoot ducks and geese. He told me so many exciting tales about it I wanted to go and see what it was all about. I begged with him and he said women were not allowed.” This was in 1910, and women’s liberation was about to descend upon Birch Point.

Gussie the Goose Girl with live decoys on the shore of Reservoir Pond, 1932 (Courtesy of Frances Clines)

Sneaking along one day, Jones recalled, “As I got into the little forest I saw it covered a building. I peeked ahead and saw a small ladder going up somewhere, so up I went. It led to a small watch tower. I held my breath. Seven wild ducks were headed straight toward the blind, slow but sure. I looked down into the blind and saw four young men standing close to what I later learned was the firing step, hands on guns, crouched below the breastworks, but watching through the holes in the fence. I watched fascinated, not daring to move.

“Closer they came, heads up, suspicious and cautious, yet wanting to beach on the nice white sand where the decoys were apparently feeding. I prayed nothing would happen to spoil that shot. Once they turned and my heart stood still. At long last they came within gunshot. I saw the boys grab their guns, jump to the firing step, and bang, bang, bang. I covered my ears and waited. ‘Get the dog, get the boat,’ someone shouted. I forgot I wasn’t supposed to be there and dashed out to the beach saying breathlessly ‘what wonderful shooting!’ No one spoke, my boy asked, ‘how did you see the shooting?’ He tried to introduce me, but they were all sore. I had spoiled the day”

Click to here to read Part 2 of this story.

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