Big Maple is a lowland area of about 31 acres between Moose Hill and Chestnut Hill, crossed by the Chestnut Branch of Hoadley Creek, whose headwaters lie just below Rt. 1. It forms part of the open space set aside in 1996 from the Hoyt Farr subdivision, and its 1.1 mile loop trail follows the upland perimeter past farmland reverting to forest. Formerly an outfield unsuited to plowing, the property was likely used entirely as grazing land until early in the 20th century. Rocky promontories with ancient trees above Chestnut Creek and old hedgerows separating this grazing land from more productive land to the east show how earlier land use shaped the landscape. The Moose Hill lands were granted about 1700, sixty years after the formation of the Guilford colony, and this property was a small part of a large holding that straddled Moose Hill Road and included the house lot now known as 1820 Moose Hill Road. Ownership passed through prominent Guilford families including Leete, Bishop, Chittenden, Fowler, and Kelsey until very late in the 19th century. By the 20th century, the economics of small farms and the realities of aging owners began the reclamation process visible today. The dairy barns had been dismantled by the 1950s, and the property became rapidly overgrown when grazing ended, leaving mature hedgerows, stonewalls, and wire fences as reminders of Guilford's agricultural history.