SAUGUS — In the early 1900s, Saugus Field, also known as Atwood Park, was a popular airfield in the state, and was home to many notable airshows and pilots.
While it originally was a horse racing track, known as Franklin Park, it was eventually turned into an airfield, with planes soon taking the place of horses in 1911.
Its other name, Atwood Park, was derived from local Massachusetts pilot, Harry Atwood.
While the airfield never housed any larger commercial aircraft in its hangars, nor utilized it to take off from, it was home to smaller aircraft, and often held airshows.
Atwood and fellow pilot Archibald “Arch” Freeman started a flight school at the field in 1912, to much popularity both locally and nationally, with its 42 students making it the most attended flight school in the United States at the time.
Atwood left the field named after him in June of 1912, in favor of making more money doing exhibitions, but the field continued to operate until 1927, hosting several notable air feats during its time of operation.
For example, Atwood himself had claimed to have broken a world record at the field in 1911, staying in the air in a hydroplane for a then-astounding 80 minutes.
Other events which occurred at the field were less positive with pilot Farnum Fish narrowly avoiding tragedy when his plane dropped down into the field from 150 feet in the air. Both Fish, and the other occupant in the plane, his student, Morris Shoemanhorne, managed to walk away from the incident with only bruises and sprains.
In the years following, after Freeman’s death during World War I in 1918, the field had many uses, from auto racing, to storage for blimps by the Navy.
Notably, a stadium was almost built on the land in 1970, which would have likely been home to the New England Patriots, prior to their choosing Foxborough for their new stadium.
Since 1990, the area has been overseen by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR,) and is now known as Pines River Marshes (part of the larger Rumney Marsh), where individuals may kayak, canoe, hike, and bird watch, per the DCR’s website.
