Fletcher Shore Loop

Fletcher Island is a mounded shape, full of mature pine trees, with a carpet of pine needles covering the island. Great views of Silver Lake, and usually you have the place to yourself. It's part of the Grafton Land Trust parcel known as Fletcher Reserve.

For several years through the late 1960s the then-named Grafton Forest Association sought to purchase the island on Silver Lake from Judge Gordon A. Shaw of Milford, MA. The Trust's initial offer for the island was $3,500. Ater several years of intermittent negotiations, the purchase of the island and some of the eastern shore of the lake was closed in March of 1970 for $5,000. The money came from member contributions and fundraising, including $1,000 from Wyman-Gordon.

At the time, the island was not accessable from the eastern shore. That summer, 75 people went to the island by boats for a picnic and a dedication ceremony. The property was dedicated to the memory of Helen Fletcher, a former naturalist and a GFA member and was named the Fletcher Reserve.