Lincoln Park, Paskamansett Park memorialized on Dartmouth Heritage Trail

Dec 19, 2023

After a decade of work, the town’s Pathways Committee has finished its last two scheduled kiosks on the Dartmouth Heritage Trail, a bike route consisting of stops at informational kiosks around town highlighting Dartmouth’s history.

“It’s an objective on a bike ride,” said Andrew Langhauser, who helped organize the kiosk installation. “Here’s a place of interest you can stop and learn a little bit about the history of Dartmouth.”

The kiosks feature storyboards, which explain the historical significance of the location and highlight the people associated with its history. The final two kiosks and their respective storyboards were placed at Lincoln Park, where the shuttered amusement park once stood, and Paskamansett Park. 

The Lincoln Park storyboards walks through the history of transportation in the region, as well as the joy that people experienced at the old amusement park. The Paskamansett storyboards tells the stories of the Native American tribes in the region, while another looks at the original mapping of the region. 

“Things change and evolve, but you don’t necessarily have to forget things from the past,” Langhauser said. 

Joseph Ingoldsby, the storyboards’ designer, also plans to reproduce the storyboards at a smaller scale and hang them in Town Hall, which he received permission to do from the Select Board. 

The trail received $22,700 from Community Preservation Act funds for the expansion, along with donations from the New Bedford Whaling Museum and community sponsors. The Community Preservation Act, passed in 2000, lets towns and cities place a 1 to 3 percent property tax surcharge on residents, with matching funds from the state, to spend on affordable housing, historic preservation, and open space and recreation.

The Heritage Trail map can be found at http://dartmouthheritagetrail.com/ 

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the Pathways Committee planned to reproduce the storyboards for Town Hall. In fact, it was the boards’ designer, Joseph Ingoldsby.