LYNDEBOROUGH – The state has installed a new sign at the entrance to the Curtiss Dogwood Reservation on Perham Corner Road.

The original sign, which probably dated to the establishment of the park in 1945, was time-worn and falling apart. The new one is less elaborate than the old, but clearly visible, although the trail head is not. The path is not clearly marked.

The Curtiss Dogwood Reservation is a 13-acre state-owned botanical wayside park. The state acquired the hillside through the efforts of Wilton summer residents Mr. and Mrs. Frederick H. Curtiss. Frank Blanchard, who owned the site, agreed to sell it for $500, with the land to be known forever as the Curtiss Dogwood Reservation.

The idea of preserving the area was first suggested by E.D. Putnam of Antrim to Philip W. Ayres of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests in the 1930s.

Ayres had a survey done, but no money was available during the Depression years or during World War II. In the meantime, houses were built along the road, which becomes Whiting Hill Road in Wilton.

The flowering dogwood (Cornus florida L.) is native to the more southern parts of the country, with many of them growing along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. New Hampshire is in the northernmost part of its range, and the Curtiss Reservation once contained the largest stand in Southern N.H.

The park is open to the public, but there is very little parking along the road. Over the years, maintenance of the road has cut the bank back leaving a large step at the roadside. The trail is steep.

The Conservation Commission is nominally in charge of the area and has worked at various times on the restoration. Much of the dogwood has been crowded out by other types of trees. While the park may have few of the trees left, they have spread along Perham Corner Road making a glorious spring display.

The area also supports a wide variety of native wild flowers and many birds, in some years a pair of hawks. It is a nice – if in places difficult – hike to a grand view of Wilton at the top.