Across the Acushnet river from New Bedford is scenic Fairhaven, and shares the same harbor as its more urban neighbor.
Reserves we have visited in Fairhaven:
There is no trail map for Fort Phoenix.
We visited Fort Phoenix during our first outing in May 2020. The park is tucked away at the end of a residential street, and is on one side of the entrance to the New Bedford Harbor. The original fort was destroyed during the American Revolution in 1778. The story is that it was rebuilt so quickly they called it Phoenix after the mythical bird. It was obviously associated with the Revolutionary War based on this relief:
Although there is no longer an actual building there, there are bits of the old fort remaining. The canons were mounted on holders that rolled along tracks for aiming at encroaching enemy boats.
Today, the park provides visitors access to the harbor breakwall. We didn't go on the wall, since this visit was during the COVID-19 pandemic and space is limited on the breakwall.
Looking into the harbor provided this interesting view. You can see a Steamship Authority passenger ship M/V Iyanough. This ship provides transportation between Hyannis and Nantucket during the season. (There was reduced boat service when we visited, which is probably why the boat was in Fairhaven instead of Hyannis.) The tall gray obelisk-looking item in the middle of the picture is actually the 'hybrid wing rig' of the catamaran Eagle Class 53. New Bedford is in the background.
The park would be a great spot to take small children, with rocks for them to run around on.
There were some benches, which would certainly be popular on mild summer days. We took a close-up view of the bench.
Spring plants were bursting up from the ground.
A couple more images from the park:
These two spots on West Island have a separate page: Click here for that page.
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Updated September 2020