Lyman Reserve | park, recreation area / ground

 park, recreation area / ground

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Formerly a private fishing camp dating back to 1867, the Theodore Lyman Reserve sits at the mouth of Red Brook on Buttermilk Bay. Red Brook is a 4.5-mile spring-fed, freshwater stream that flows from White Island Pond to Buttermilk Bay. It is home to one of the last remaining native sea-run brook trout (known as "salters") fisheries in the eastern United States. The brook gets its name from the red-tinted color of its waters that are influenced by the iron-rich soil deposits near its source.

In addition to Red Brook, the Lyman Reserve features freshwater wetlands, forested uplands, a sandy beach, and a scenic stretch of coastal shoreline with views of Buttermilk Bay and the iconic Cape Cod Canal vertical lift railroad bridge. The remains of a mud clam and oyster shell midden, taken together with the property's valuable water resources and landscape characteristics, suggest that the Reserve was an important encampment for Wampanoags.

The property honors the naturalist who, in 1867, first experienced Red Brook during a site visit for the Massachusetts Board of Inland Fisheries. For the next 30 years, Theodore Lyman III (1833-1897) worked to protect Red Brook by purchasing parcels of land on both its sides from source to mouth. His legacy is preserved in the form of the 638-acre Red Brook Reserve, which is comprised of the 210-acre Lyman Reserve and the 428-acre Red Brook Wildlife Management Area (Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife). Management for the entire Reserve is overseen by The Trustees, Mass DFW, and our conservation partner, Trout Unlimited.