A Trail System Is Born
A History of the Libby Hill
In 1764, the town of Gray (then called "New Boston") was
settled after a failed earlier attempt in the 1740s. One of the original
settlers Daniel Libby became a prominent local citizen and took ownership of all
the land west of town to Dry Mills and Little Sebago Lake. The high hill
just west of town became known as "Libby Hill". Daniel's son William,
after returning as a prisoner of war in the Revolutionary War began a farm
where the recent Hannaford Supermarket is located on Route 26. William had
a son James who in 1816 began a farm at
the top of Libby Hill. Over the next 50 years the hill was cleared of
trees and was farmed until abandoned around the civil war.
In 1973 the Town of Gray received a donation
of 70
acres of land to be used for park and recreation
activities from Sylvia Dow, a descendent of Daniel Libby . This property is
located on top of the ridge behind the Gray Middle and High Schools.
This land has had a number of old logging roads that
were used for a variety of activities by a wide range of citizens in
Gray. In August of 1999 the Gray Parks and Recreation department
decided to start an ad hoc committee to make a more formal trail system on the
property. The
committee started out with a half dozen Gray residents who were interested in
finally developing the recreational area.
By
January 2000 the committee had grown to over two dozen interested members and an
outline for how the property should be developed was presented to the town
council. The council approved the
project and encouraged the committee to “think big” and try and make a first
class recreation area. In February
of 2000, the committee obtained a grant from the Maine Forest Service, which has
funded nearly 100% of the project. In
June of 2000, a trail designer was hired to make the trail system blend
optimally with the contours of the property.
Every Thursday evening during the summer volunteers showed to help clear
the initial brush from the newly marked trails.
A formal forest management plan was created and implemented in the fall
of 2000. Volunteers 
continued
to work their way up the hill that sometimes seemed much higher than its 480
feet of elevation! Excavation began
in November for 6 weeks removing
stumps and leveling out depressions in the trails.
Between December 2000 and February 2001 the signage and mapping of the
trails were finished with the efforts of nearly 100 volunteers and over 2000
hours of volunteer time. The website
www.libbyhill.org also began operation in
February 2001.
The trail
system opened with nearly 5 miles of non-motorized trails and 2 miles of the
original logging roads that can still be used by motorized vehicles.
In 2002, the Gray
Community Endowment (GCE) was formed to promote community projects in Gray.
In 2003, the GCE obtained a donation of 46 additional acres for the Libby Hill
Trail from Richard and Wilbert Libbey. This combined with an easement from the
Mathew Morrill Trust allowed the construction of the
Harold Libbey Trail in
2005 and the Outback Trail in 2007.
The GCE in 2008 took ownership of the 29 acre Hancock
Property that abuts the middle school permanently giving access to the public to
the trails
of
Libby Hill. Financing of the is parcel still
requires donations from the public and must be completed by June of 2010.
The trails offer a great place to walk, ski, bike, run,
walk your dog, or just enjoy nature! They
are available for year round usage and parking is available at the
end of the paved portion of Libby Hill Road. The
main entrance for the trail is not at the orange gate but rather starts
behind the Middle School.
Trail maps are available online or
at the kiosk behind the school. Come come and explore Libby Hill Forest and discover one
of southern Maine's best outdoor recreations spaces.!