General Information
Located near the center of the island, Milestone Bog is the heart of cranberry farming on Nantucket. For the past 170 years, commercial cranberry growing has been an important element of Nantucket’s agricultural heritage. Visitors, summer residents, and even long time islanders are often surprised when they learn that the Foundation’s Milestone Bog is the oldest and largest, continually operated farm on the Island. While the primary focus of this property is the cultivation of cranberries, the bog is also surrounded by thousand of acres of rolling hills, grasslands and fresh water ponds in the Middle Moors. With only 25 acres of bog surface used to cultivate cranberries, the remaining land remains open space and an important habitat area for deer, red tailed hawks and a wide variety of rare plants. NCF is committed to preserving this agricultural tradition as well as the fragile wetlands, hardwood forests and unique ecosystems surrounding the bog as part of its overall mission of protecting the island’s cultural and environmental legacy.
For more on the cranberry cultivation history and harvest, read more below or watch these videos from 2012 showcasing the Larrabee Family tradition.
Donors
Tabitha T. Krauthoff in memory of her father, Paul N. Turner
H. Jerome Ayers, Abby A. Ayers, and Alicia Heller
Roy E. Larsen
Mr. & Mrs. Timothy King Mr. & Mrs. J. Seward Johnson, Jr.
Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence Richardson, Jr.
Mrs. Burr P. Wilson
Leeds Mitchell, Jr.
A purchase by NCF made possible by a gift from Mrs. Alfred S. Mills given in loving memory of her husband
Open Land Fund, Inc.
Lester R. Giegerich, Marsha G. Torkelson, and Brenda K. Giegerich
Margaret Z. Larsen
Purchased by NCF and gifts of Tabitha T. Krauthoff and Louis C. Krauthoff II
A purchase by NCF made possible in part by a bequest from Scott Maclain
Mr. & Mrs. Lester R. Giegerich, Marsha G. Torkelson, and Brenda K. Giegerich
Purchased by NCF and a gift of Conantum Trust
Maria Mitchell Association
Walter Beinecke, Jr., The Larsen Fund, and the Nantucket Ornithological Association
Albert M. Lewis in memory of Charles Lewis
Mr. & Mrs. Alton E. Peters in memory of Judge Joseph Rosch Howard M. Jelleme, Lydle L. Rickard, John J. Shugrue, and Richard
S. Sylvia
Nantucket Beach Properties, Inc.
Purchased by NCF with funds received from the Nantucket Green Fund, the Estate of Esther U. Gibbs, the Nantucket Garden Club, the Nantucket High School Class of 1998, the Allegheny Foundation, and an anonymous island resident
Dr. David B. Voorhees


