Canoe River Campground

Canoe River Campground is a campground in Mansfield, MA. It offers a family-friendly environment centered on mostly wooded campsites situated midway between Boston and Cape Cod. The facility operates from April 15 through October 15 and features two pools, a large recreation hall, a playground, a baseball field, a basketball court, and an arcade. Guests can rent canoes, kayaks, and paddleboats, or enjoy fishing on the property without a license. The campground includes a general store selling ice, bottled gas, firewood, and food, along with a laundromat, flush toilets, metered showers, and a dumping station. Most campsites provide a fireplace, a picnic table, sewer hook-up, water, 30-50 amps of electricity, and wireless internet access for a fee. A free stretch limo service is available for public transportation, and motorcycles are restricted to the entrance parking lot.

The property spans 34 acres of mostly wooded land surrounding a 10-acre body of water known as Mill Pond, through which the river channels. The site has a long industrial history, beginning with Ephraim Leonard, who excavated the pond to mine bog iron, establishing what is considered the oldest industrial site in Mansfield. After the iron was exhausted, the mill buildings were used by sheep farmers to wash wool, followed by a gristmill for grinding corn and mixing grains. Later, the gristmill was transformed into a sawmill, with remnants of a sluiceway and an open lagoon for storing logs still existing on the property. The wood produced was used to build packing boxes for tomatoes. At the end of World War II, the land became a large duck farm producing down for bedding fill. Joe and Emma Gonsalves purchased the duck farm in 1959, initially using the land across Mill Street as a sandpit for Joe's construction business before developing the campground.

The campground sits on Mill Street, about a mile from the Canoe River and the Canoe River Greenbelt nature preserve. It is located roughly 0.6 miles from the Flint Parcel nature preserve and Eastman Street, and 0.8 miles from East Street. The Mansfield Police Department is about 1.4 miles away.

Canoe River Campground combines a historic setting with extensive recreational facilities, offering a distinct camping experience in Mansfield.

Services:

• Camping Sites
• Free Stretch Limo Service to Public Transportation
• General Store
• Laundromat
• Pool Access