Dorothy and Herman Miller Family Memorial Forest

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Scroll down for directions, trail information and property information.  

 The Miller Family Memorial Forest comprises 37 acres located on Old County Road North in Francestown. Owned by the Miller family for over 129 years, it had been used by the Miller and Woodbury families primarily as a woodlot. The Miller family sold the land to the Francestown Land Trust (FLT) in 2014 at well below the fair market value. Their goal was to honor Dotty and Bing Miller who loved Francestown, spending many, many years serving the citizens of the Town. Their family chose to honor them by conserving the land, for the benefit of all future generations. We are all grateful. 

The Miller Forest includes vernal pools, floodplains, wetlands and approximately 34 acres of working forest of primarily hemlock and pine. Collins Brook, with 1320 +/- feet flowing through the Miller Forest, is a major tributary of the South Branch of the Piscataquog River. 

The Miller Forest is surrounded almost entirely by approximately 1,300 acres of abutting land already protected by FLT, the Town, and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (SPNHF). It plays a key role as a connector between two large protected lands areas, the Dinsmore Brook Conservation Area (DBCA) owned by the Town and managed by the Francestown Conservation Commission along with the Collins Brook Headwaters (CBH) owned by FLT, both to the west, and to the east, the 418-acre Shattuck Pond Town Forest and the 

216-acre Kermit A. Schott Property owned by the Monadnock Conservancy. Shattuck Pond Town Forest with its fens, bogs and emergent marshes contains exemplary natural communities and the DBCA and CBH to the west with their extensive wetland complexes, floodplains and brooks, protect the headwaters of Collins and Dinsmore Brooks 

From the intersection of Routes 136 and 47, follow Rte. 47N toward Bennington. After .9 miles turn right onto Pleasant Pond Road. After .6 miles, turn left onto Old County Road North. After 1.6 miles the trailhead and kiosk will be on your left. Parking is limited.

The Miller Family Memorial Forest provides the starting point for an easy yet rewarding one-way 7/10-mile hike that extends into the DBCA and showcases FLT’s conservation land. It’s suitable for hikers of all levels. 

Starting at the kiosk for the Miller Family Forest on Old County Road North, an old logging road winds for a few hundred yards down to Collins Brook. The foot bridge that travels over Collins Brook has a bit of history in itself. It was built in 2014 with the help of many volunteer hands only to be washed downstream some 500 feet in the fall of 2017. Again, with the help of many volunteers, it was returned to its proper location and provides access to the bulk of the Miller Family Forest.

Marked by blue rectangles, the trail meanders uphill through a bony landscape populated primarily with hemlock and pine. It then travels along the south stretch of the Forest and passes through a stone wall on the west edge, where it leaves the Miller Family Forest and enters the DBCA. Passing impressive glacial erratics the trail follows the contour of the hill through some small trees and blueberry ledges before descending to Dinsmore Brook. It is a 7/10-mile hike from the kiosk and parking to where the trail ends, intersecting with the main trail alongside the Dinsmore River in the DBCA.

At the termination of the trail, where it intersects with the DBCA main trail, you may choose to continue on trails in the DBCArea or turn around and return to the trailhead kiosk. But before turning around, you might take a short walk north along Dinsmore Brook to the base of an impressive rock outcrop. 

 The old stone walls along the property attest to attempts to farm this land in the nineteenth and probably the eighteenth century. Stonewalls delineate all the property lines except near where they cross Collins Brook. There are no interior stone walls or cellar holes although there are old homestead sites very near the northwest and northeast corners of the property.  The land was most likely pasture for sheep and or cattle with little if any cultivated soils. The second growth forest has been selectively harvested periodically over the last 150 years, most recently in 2010. A skid road goes from Old County Rd North westerly across Collins Brook and winds its way to the height of land in the northwest corner. 

Wildlife observed in the area include: black bear, bobcat, turkey, fisher, moose, coyote, gray fox, otter, mink, yellow bellied sapsucker, pileated woodpecker, ruffed grouse with chicks, barred owl, sharp-shinned hawk, Cooper's Hawk, goshawk, broad-winged hawk, red shouldered hawk, wood thrush, hermit thrush, veery, a variety of warblers, flycatchers, and sparrows & fish, including brook trout, blacknose dace, common shiners, longnose dace, fallfish, and white sucker.

  In March 2014, FLT adopted a Stewardship Plan which provides guidance for protection and educational, scientific and recreational use. This reflects FLT’s commitment to preservation of high-quality habitat and protection of water quality while offering excellent outdoor recreation opportunities including but not limited to, walking, hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hunting and fishing.