Good Will-Hinckley Trails, Fairfield

Because this is such an interesting place to walk and explore — dotted with early 20th-century monuments and memorials, and designed for the edification of students and in honor of conservation leaders — it is kind of shocking to think that logging can take place here. But it does! However, despite logging in 2023, the basic trail system remains intact, it’s just tricky at times to spot the next blaze when crossing a logged area. I hope the harvesting has abated for now, allowing the forest to regenerate.

The trail system, which is open to the public, is on the 600-acre campus of Good Will-Hinckley. The Good Will Home for Boys and Girls (its original name) was founded in 1889 by George Walter Hinckley, a minister and farmer, to help young people with behavioral challenges. The campus is listed on the Natural Register of Historic Places and contains Good Will-Hinckley’s educational programs, the Good Will Farm, the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences, and the L.C. Bates Museum, “an early 20th-century museum full of unique cabinets of curiosities and Maine wildlife dioramas.” The museum asks trail walkers to check in before heading out.

The highlights of the trail system are the stone structures found along the trail system, all created between 1912 and 1940. The Cultural Landscape Foundation says this about their history:

“…The Good Will Homes for Boys and Girls was influenced by the national conservation movement, which saw nature as an endangered but important economic, aesthetic, and spiritual resource…In 1914 Hinckley hired Carl Rust Parker to design a campus expansion. In support of the home-like landscape, Parker designed a curvilinear road system planted with sugar maples, stone entrance gates, an artificial pond, and outdoor athletic facilities…Paths wove through the woods and meadows, interspersed with stone monuments, archways, and fire circles honoring benefactors and leaders in the outdoor movement, such as Ernest Thompson Seton and Theodore Roosevelt. The Olmsted brothers, led by Parker, prepared additional plans from 1926 to 1928, and again in 1965; it is unclear how much of this work was implemented.“

You can find more details about the monuments on this Good Will-Hinckley pamphlet.

Anyway, as of 2024, the trail system’s natural beauty has been blighted a bit by the logging, but all of the historic structures remain (although some in disrepair), so this remains a compelling place to walk. The trails are generally easy. For especially gentle footing, head down the mossy dirt roads that form a half-circle around the property (marked in green on my map).

Directions: The trail system’s kiosk is behind the L.C. Bates Museum, which is located at 14 Easler Road, Hinckley. A large steel sculpture, which the Portland Press Herald describes as a “geometric minimalist sculpture created in 1971 by John Raimondi,” stands in front of the trailhead. I parked behind the museum; Maine Trail Finder indicates parking is also acceptable behind the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences.