Vaughn Hill

Vaughn Hill, a 637-foot height in northwestern Bolton near Harvard, is both a prominent local summit and the center of a 187-acre protected conservation area. Its North Peak ranks among the highest points between Boston and Mount Wachusett, while the public land preserves pine forest, streams, ponds, wetlands, beaver dams, and hiking trails. The hill’s name appears to predate colonial settlement and was long used in forms such as Vans Hill; nineteenth-century historian Henry S. Nourse believed it was likely of Indigenous origin. In the twentieth century, geologists applied the hill’s name to a local rock formation, and Bolton acquired conservation land here in 1990 and 2001.

Bolton, Massachusetts · United States