Great Pond

Great Pond is the largest body of fresh water in Cape Elizabeth and has been a favorite spot for outdoor recreation for decades.

In the latter half of the 19th century, much of the land surrounding the Pond was owned by the Great Pond Mining and Agricultural Company, which mined peat and other minerals. They were granted permission to drain much of the water from the Pond and grew cranberries in the resulting bogs. Eventually, much of the Company’s property was sold and/or transferred to the newly formed Great Pond Gun Club.

Although the Massachusetts General Court passed a law in 1641 protecting the rights of the public to access any pond “containing more than ten acres of water,” the Great Pond Gun Club hoped to create a private hunting and fishing reserve once the water had been restored to the Pond. Cape Elizabeth citizens were not amenable to the idea of being excluded from an area that historically had been theirs to enjoy. After several years of hearings, arguments, and meetings, the Supreme Judicial Court ordered that access to Great Pond be kept open as originally intended in the 1641 law.

Though access was mandated, it was not clear how the public should access the Pond. In 1983, The Sprague Corporation granted the Town an easement over “existing trails” from Fenway Road, but it did not include a metes and bounds description; over time, the trail meandered and changed depending on the season. The Cape Elizabeth Land Trust created a trail system from Route 77 to the Alewife Brook (read more here), though it did not always link to the easement.

In 2009, after several years of meetings and negotiations between the Town Conservation Commission and The Sprague Corporation, a new easement was created that not only included an explicit metes and bounds description, but also empowered the Town to build a boat rack and issue permits for its seasonal use, thereby protecting vegetation along the existing pathway. The new easement replaces the previous pathway with several “block” easements, which avoids previous problems related to seasonal bog and marshland conditions.

For information about the boat storage at Great Pond, click here.