The Natural Resources Trust of Plainville is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of the Shepard Mill wildlife sanctuary and other natural areas within the town of Plainville. We presently protect 60 acres in three parcels, which include old fields and mature pine and oak forest, with an esker (Pigeon Hill), which still has remnants of the chestnut forest which once provided shelter to flocks of passenger pigeons.
The mill was constructed by Benjamin Shepard in 1791, and for one hundred years thereafter was engaged in the manufacture of textiles. Benjamin's wife Suzannah operated a shoddy mill on the site, thus becoming one of the first, if not the first, woman industrialist in this country. The mill was the second-oldest continuously operated, water-powered cotton mill in the United States, established one year after the Slater Mill in Rhode Island.
The woodlands, streams and 1/4 mile mill canal provide habitat for over 222 species of wildlife, including 63 trees and shrubs, 47 species of wildflowers. Our sanctuary also provides a refuge for fox, otter, great blue heron, owls and hawks, protecting part of the watershed and streams feeding Mirimichi Lake, which supplies drinking water to the City of Attleboro.
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