Pine Hill, in Bourne, Massachusetts, United States, is the highest point in

Barnstable County Barnstable County is a county located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. At the 2020 census, the population was 228,996. Its shire town is Barnstable. The county consists of Cape Cod and associated islands (some adjacent islands are in Dukes ...

and, by extension,

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

. At , it is higher than Dennis's Scargo Hill, sometimes thought to be the highest on the peninsula, among other local favorites. It is located off Frank Perkins Road, within the

Camp Edwards Camp Edwards is a United States military training installation which is located in western Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. Originally the Massachusetts Military Reservation (which was another name for it until 2013) acquired in Se ...

portion of the

Massachusetts Military Reservation The Joint Base Cape Cod is a state-designated joint base created by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the United States War Department in 1935. Governor James Curley signed the state bill to allocate and purchase land for a military facilit ...

. Access to it is restricted, not only because it is on a military facility but because it lies at the rear of an

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, ...

range.

Natural history and geography

The hill is part of the Buzzards Bay Moraine, created over ten thousand years ago by retreating glaciers at the end of the last ice age. It is inland from

Buzzards Bay Buzzards Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is approximately 28 miles (45 kilometers) long by 8 miles (12 kilometers) wide. It is a popular destination for fishing, boating, and tourism. Sinc ...

itself and a mile from Massachusetts Route 28. The area is distinguished by sandy soil, bouldery till and an abundance of the pitch pine that gives the hill its name. Lower, hummocky hills and a few small glacial ponds make up the surrounding landscape., 2-2. The hill was noted as a prominent feature of the Cape Cod landscape as early as 1874, when it was still part of the town of Sandwich (Bourne would not be created for another ten years). Military use of the surrounding area began in 1911; in 1935 the state created and began building the

complex after the Massachusetts National Guard outgrew

Fort Devens Fort Devens is a United States Army Reserve military installation in the towns of Ayer and Shirley, in Middlesex County and Harvard in Worcester County in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Due to extensive environmental contamination it was ...

. Other than the road near it, the Pine Hill area has remained mostly undeveloped. Then-governor

Paul Cellucci Argeo Paul Cellucci (; April 24, 1948 – June 8, 2013) was an American politician and diplomat from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A Republican, he served as the 69th governor of Massachusetts from 1999 to 2001, and as the United States Am ...

wanted to convert the area into a state conservation area in 1999, but dropped the plan after the Guard objected.

Approach

Members of the public may visit Pine Hill, but must arrange advance permission through the base's Public Affairs Office (PAO) and show identification when visiting the base. These requirements were in place before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, but have been more rigorously enforced since then. A PAO escort leads visitors over several miles of roads to a range station on a rise near the hill. From there it is a short walk down Frank Perkins to a narrow road leading up a gentle slope an even shorter distance to the summit of Pine Hill, a small clearing with a USGS benchmark set in a small concrete monument at the middle marking the elevation. It is necessary to stay on the road and path because of the possibility of unexploded ordnance in the woods. Surveying and

meteorological Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

research equipment is sometimes located at the summit. Any view is obscured by surrounding trees.

References

{{Mountains of Massachusetts Bourne, Massachusetts Mountains of Barnstable County, Massachusetts Mountains of Massachusetts