Ballard State Forest is a
state forest
A state forest or national forest is a forest that is administered or protected by some agency of a sovereign or federated state, or territory.
Background
The precise application of the terms vary by jurisdiction. For example:
* In Australia, a ...
of
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
located in
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...
,
Rockingham County, in the southeast part of the state. The area of the park is . It includes the
Taylor Mill Historic Site, an old sawmill, and Ballard Pond, which provides water for the mill.
The forest is located on Island Pond Road, east of the downtown of Derry. The pond drains via Taylor Brook and
Island Pond into the
Spicket River
The Spicket River is a river located in New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the United States. It is a left tributary of the Merrimack River, part of the Gulf of Maine watershed. It is sometimes spelled "Spickett".
The Spicket River begins at the ...
, a tributary of the
Merrimack River
The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Mas ...
.
The name of the park is due to the former property owner, Ernest Ballard. In 1939, he bought the land. By that time, the original mill was scrapped, and Ballard bought a similar mill, and subsequently spent two years together with his wife restoring the mill and replacing missing parts. In 1953, he donated the mill and the land to the state of New Hampshire.
References
New Hampshire state forests
Parks in Rockingham County, New Hampshire
Derry, New Hampshire
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