by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Beginning this summer, nature and local history lovers will enjoy hiking Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s Meserve Head Preserve in Machias, a 69-acre preserve with frontage on Elm Street and the Machias River.

The property is named for the Meserve family, early Machias settlers with ties to the Burnham family. Two Burnham sisters, Elizabeth (Betsy) and Pamela, married two Meserve brothers, Joseph and William.

Cellar holes from two Meserve homesteads are still visible, along with at least two stone-lined wells, now collapsing.