In the 1850s what is now Sheriff's Meadow Sanctuary was a meadow belonging to Sheriff Isaiah Pease, which was known as the Sheriff's meadow. In 1958, Henry Beetle Hough had just sold the magazine rights to his latest book, Once More the Thunderer, when he learned that the meadow was for sale with the possibility that it would be developed. He and Betty Hough used the magazine fee to purchase about 10 acres of land with the hope that it could be permanently conserved. However, the existing conservation groups were not interested in a sanctuary of that small size, so the Houghs eventually decided to create a new Island-based land trust.

On April 2, 1959 Sheriff's Meadow Foundation was chartered, with Sheriff's Meadow as its first sanctuary. Over the years gifts from several neighbors, including Morton and Mary S. Fearey, Alida Carey Gulick, Marion M. Angevin and Edith G. Blake Hough, expanded the sanctuary to almost 20 acres.

Sheriff's Meadow Sanctuary represents a microcosm of the triumphs and challenges associated with conservation on Martha's Vineyard. Despite its relatively small size and proximity to the center of Edgartown, the sanctuary supports a variety of natural communities and several rare and unusual species of plants and animals. A walking trail around the old Ice Pond offers scenic views and a sense of wildness generally associated with much more remote areas.

However, the bittersweet, honeysuckle and multiflora rose, originally planted to provide food and shelter for wildlife, now have run riot and threaten to overwhelm many of the native plants, as well as the more benign ornamentals that the Boughs planted in the early years. Sheriff's Meadow Foundation has recently started an ambitious program to reduce these invasive species, and to restore the native communities occurring naturally in the sanctuary.

How To Get There:
Turn left off Main Street onto Pease's Point Way. Continue straight onto Planting Field Way. Proceed 0.2 miles. Sheriff's Meadow Foundation sign on right side.