Rangeway Town Forest
The Rangeway Town Forest is a town forest of about 25 acres in North Billerica, on the west side of the Rangeway Road where the Old Middlesex Turnpike crosses it, between Route 3 and the Chelmsford line. It is mostly pine woods, and the old turnpike, now a dirt road, runs through it. The Conservation Commission manages it; there is no parking lot, and the town's brochure, which pairs it with the Billerica State Forest, Gilson Hill and the McDonald Knowles land, suggests coming on foot or by bicycle from the Rangeway Road.
The forest is a woodlot that changed hands many times before the town got it. William Blanchard sold it to Abel Spalding in 1854, and on April 21, 1857 Spalding, a Billerica yeoman, sold Daniel Floyd for $350 "a certain tract of Wood land, situate in the Westerly part of said Billerica containing twenty five acres more or less", running from the corner of the land of the heirs of Joseph Dows "and Rangeway Road" southerly "about forty nine rods to the crossing of the Middlesex Turnpike", northwesterly along the turnpike about 120 rods, and back by the Dows and Cutler land. Floyd's deed of the lot to the Duren family was lost; in October 1899 he gave Mary A. Duren, a Billerica widow, a quitclaim "to take the place of a deed that has been lost", and on November 4, 1899 she sold the lot, with two other woodlots that Henry Duren had left her, to Laura Hubbard of Lowell. Laura and John P. Hubbard sold all three on January 3, 1900 to Daniel Gage of Lowell, the ice dealer, who died in February 1901. Martina A. Gage of Lowell, the administratrix of his estate, held the lot afterwards.
Martina A. Gage's will, dated February 5, 1935, gave "all my real estate situated outside of Lowell to the city or town in which the same may be located". The special town meeting of November 4, 1935 voted to accept her Billerica land "for the benefit of the poor of said Town", and the 1936 annual town meeting turned it over to the Town Forest Committee. Her Billerica bequest also took in a 15-acre lot on Bignell Road (the Bicknell Town Forest) and land at Nutting Lake. After the 1938 hurricane the town meeting authorized the Selectmen to sell the damaged timber "in the Gage Lot and Town Forests". In 1957 the committee asked for a survey of "the Town Forest property off the Old Middlesex Turnpike near the Chelmsford town line", and at the March 1965 town meeting it won a unanimous vote to set aside "that portion or section of the Old Middlesex Turnpike as part of the Town Forest, running north from Rangeway Road along Town Forest land, (Gift of Martina Gage), to the Chelmsford Town line".
In 1973 the committee reported that "The Martina Gage Forest lot on Rangeway Road has been desecrated by a contractor who bulldozed a roadway over the old pike which is part of the Town Forest system." On October 7, 1997 the town meeting disbanded the Town Forest Committee and put the Conservation Commission in charge of the five town forests, the "Jones Town Forest", "Gage Town Forest", "Rangeway Town Forest", "Bignell Town Forest" and "Shaloo Meadow Town Forest". In fiscal 2015 the commission completed a conservation restriction on 32.05 acres of wetlands and vernal pools that abut the forest, and in 2025 C.A. Realty Corporation gave the town 18.4 acres of woods on the Chelmsford line next to it, which the commission described as part of an unfragmented forest mapped in the state's BioMap.
Deed References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
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| 1854 | Deed | William Blanchard | Abel Spalding of Billerica | William Blanchard sells the 25-acre woodlot to Abel Spalding (1854) | 674/198 (South) |
Dated January 17, 1854 (Middlesex South; known from the recital in Book 9, Page 483). William Blanchard conveys to Abel Spalding the 25-acre woodlot in the westerly part of Billerica between the Rangeway Road and the Middlesex Turnpike.
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| May 22, 1857 | Warranty Deed | Abel Spalding of Billerica, yeoman, and Julia Ann Spalding | Daniel Floyd of Billerica, yeoman | Abel Spalding sells the woodlot at the Rangeway Road and the Middlesex Turnpike to Daniel Floyd (1857) | 9/483 |
Signed and acknowledged April 21, 1857 before Dudley Foster, recorded May 22, 1857 (pages 483 and 484). For three hundred and fifty dollars, "a certain tract of Wood land, situate in the Westerly part of said Billerica containing twenty five acres more or less", "Beginning at the Easterly corner at land now or formerly belonging to the heirs of Joseph Dows, deceased, and Rangeway Road, thence runs Southerly on said Road about forty nine rods to the crossing of the Middlesex Turnpike, thence Northwesterly on said Turnpike about One hundred and twenty rods to a stone upon a stone at land of Joseph Dows", northerly by the Dows land 14 rods and 10 feet, and "thence Easterly by said heirs land and Cutler's land about ninety Eight Rods to the bound first mentioned", "it being land conveyed to me by William Blanchard by deed dated January 17, A.D. 1854. Recorded with Middlesex Deeds Book 674, Page 198." Julia A. Spalding, his wife, releases dower.
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| November 7, 1899 | Warranty Deed | Mary A. Duren of Billerica, widow | Laura Hubbard of Lowell | Mary A. Duren sells the woodlot to Laura Hubbard (1899) | 313/5 |
Signed and acknowledged November 4, 1899 before Joseph P. Thompson, recorded November 7, 1899 (pages 5 to 7). For one dollar and other valuable considerations, three parcels of woodland in Billerica: a six-acre lot by the Turnpike road, by land of Henry Duren, John Baldwin, Major Joseph Manning and one Winning, and an adjoining lot, both "the same premises bequeathed to me by Henry Duren by his will"; and "another tract of Wood land situated in the westerly part of said Billerica containing 25 acres more or less", from the easterly corner "at land of the heirs of Joseph Dows and Rangeway road" southerly about 49 rods "to the crossing of Middlesex Turnpike" and back by the Dows land, "See Book 313 Page 168."
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| October 27, 1899 | Quitclaim Deed | Daniel Floyd of Lowell and Susan M. Floyd | Mary A. Duren of Billerica | Daniel Floyd quitclaims to Mary A. Duren, replacing a lost deed (1899) | 313/168 |
Signed and acknowledged October 16, 1899 before Joseph P. Thompson, recorded October 27, 1899 at 4:30 PM (pages 168 and 169). For one dollar and other considerations Floyd remises and quitclaims "a certain tract of wood land situate in the westerly part of said Billerica, containing twenty five acres more or less", with the same bounds as in 1857 from the corner "at land now or formerly belonging to the heirs of Joseph Dows, deceased and Rangeway Road" to "the crossing of the Middlesex turnpike". "See Book 9, Page 483 M.N.D. Deeds. This deed being given to take the place of a deed that has been lost." Susan M. Floyd, his wife, releases dower and homestead.
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| January 4, 1900 | Warranty Deed | John P. Hubbard and Laura Hubbard, his wife, in her own right, both of Lowell | Daniel Gage of Lowell | John P. and Laura Hubbard sell the woodlot to Daniel Gage of Lowell (1900) | 315/292 |
Signed and acknowledged January 3, 1900 before Joseph P. Thompson, recorded January 4, 1900 at 3:10 PM (pages 292 to 294). For one dollar and other good and valuable consideration, with warranty covenants, the same three parcels of woodland, the third "situated in the westerly part of said Billerica containing 25 acres more or less", beginning "at the easterly corner at land of the heirs of Joseph Dows and Rangeway road and southerly on said road about 49 rods to the crossing of Middlesex Turnpike; then northwesterly on said Turnpike about 120 rods to a stone upon a stone at land of Joseph Dows", "Said three above described parcels having been conveyed to the said Laura Hubbard by deed of Mary A. Duren recorded with Middlesex North District Registry of Deeds Book 313 Page 5, dated November 4, 1899." Daniel Gage (1828 to 1901) was the Lowell ice dealer.
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| 1935 | Will | Martina A. Gage, late of Lowell | Inhabitants of the Town of Billerica | Martina A. Gage leaves her Billerica land to the town; accepted 1935, given to the Town Forest Committee 1936 | ?/? (Probate) |
Will dated February 5, 1935, probated in the Probate Court for Middlesex County (case number not found). "I give, devise and bequeath all my real estate situated outside of Lowell to the city or town in which the same may be located." Her Billerica land included the 25-acre woodlot on the Rangeway Road and the Middlesex Turnpike (bought by Daniel Gage in 1900, Book 315, Page 292), the 15-acre lot on the Bennett (Bignell, now Bicknell) Road (bought by Daniel Gage in 1898, Book 302, Page 158) and land at Nutting Lake. The special town meeting of November 4, 1935 (Article 7) "Voted to accept the real estate situate in Billerica ... bequeathed to the Town of Billerica under the Will of Martina A. Gage ... for the benefit of the poor of said Town", and the 1936 annual town meeting (Article 17) voted that the property "be transferred to the Town Forest Committee for their supervision".
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| August 19, 2025 | Quitclaim Deed | C.A. Realty Corporation | Town of Billerica, by its Conservation Commission | C.A. Realty Corporation gives 18.4 abutting acres to the Conservation Commission (2025) | 39465/185 |
Recorded August 19, 2025. For nominal consideration of one dollar, with quitclaim covenants, under General Laws Chapter 40, Section 8C, the land off the rear of the Rangeway Road on the Chelmsford-Billerica town line shown on Plan Book 150, Plan 137 ("Compiled Plan of Land in Billerica Mass., Proposed for Rangeway Road Investors Project Limited Partnership, Sept. 1985"), "Excluding from this conveyance the fee in the Middlesex Turnpike", title by deed from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation dated October 19, 1993, Book 6741, Page 1. The town's 2025 report calls it an 18.4-acre forested parcel abutting the "Town Rangeway Forest" (assessor parcel 20-4-0).
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.
References
- Town of Billerica: Billerica State Forest, Gilson Hill, Rangeway Town Forest and McDonald Knowles brochure (pine forest crossed by the Old Middlesex Turnpike)
- Annual Reports 1935-1939: acceptance of the Gage bequest (1935), transfer to the Town Forest Committee (1936), hurricane timber in the Gage Lot (1939)
- Annual Reports 1955-1959: Town Forest Committee asks for a survey of the town forest off the Old Middlesex Turnpike near the Chelmsford line (1957)
- Annual Reports 1960-1964: article to set aside the Old Middlesex Turnpike along the Gage town forest land (1964 warrant)
- Annual Reports 1965-1967: Article 79 voted unanimously (1965)
- Annual Report 1973: a contractor bulldozes a road over the old pike in the Martina Gage Forest lot on Rangeway Road
- Annual Report 1998: October 7, 1997 town meeting puts the Rangeway Town Forest under the Conservation Commission
- Annual Report 2015: 32.05-acre conservation restriction abutting the Town Rangeway Forest
- Wikipedia: Daniel Gage (1828-1901), the "Ice King of Lowell"