Hetzel Refuge offers trails

#Middlebury

Humans and dogs alike can enjoy the trails in the Hetzel Refuge. The Refuge, conserved by the Flanders Land Trust, is on Breakneck Hill Road. (Janine Sullivan-Wiley photo)

By JANINE SULLIVAN-WILEY

Thanks to Tom Albon, who asked me to write about one of his favorite trails, in the Hertzel Refuge.

The property has a fascinating history. According to Anne Hetzel Nalwalk, her mother, Margaret “Margie” Hetzel, purchased it around 1950 from the Swift family. She advised her husband of this fact via telegram as he was happily fishing in Maine: “EGADS JUST BOUGHT THE SWIFT PLACE.” Robin Fenn described “Margie” Hetzel as “a bit of a character.” Peter North recalled Margie’s red Model A with its oogah horn that she happily bugled with as she drove around town. Her daughter noted that car actually belonged to her brother; her mother’s had a wolf whistle. A character, indeed. Margie’s husband, Dr. Joseph Hetzel, was a well-known and quiet pediatrician, skilled in developing their new land.

The property had a freezer locker on it, where you could rent a drawer or cabinet to store venison or a side of beef. Rob Fenn recalled the day it blew up, the flames shooting so high he saw them from a mile away. Anne recalled being delighted that, “The house also came with a barn … and a horse!” Over time her father (with Anne and her brothers helping) planted trees for a Christmas tree farm, and developed two ponds. They used to skate on one, where her father built a small hut from the top of a chicken coop and added a tiny stove so they could get warm. (I have no idea how one can make a hut from the top of a chicken coop; apparently he was a bit of an engineer in addition to being a pediatrician.)

About 70 acres of the original property became the Hetzel Refuge, owned and conserved by the Flanders Land Trust. The Hetzel family deeded it to them in four parts from 1976 – 1994 including where the hiking trails are today, the land at the bottom of the lot that used to be a field (now tree-covered) and the hay field, according to Anne “leaving just enough land to go with the house.” You can access the trails from Breakneck Hill Road, east of the intersection with Mirey Dam Road. Park to the left of the red barn where there is a kiosk with trail maps, walk a short way on the road and enter the trail on the other side of Bronson House. It is beautiful, flanked by stone walls near the entrance and passing the meadow on the left, with three ponds. Following the red to orange to green trails, it is an easy if occasionally muddy stroll of under an hour.

Anne was so happy that the land has been preserved through the land trust, land that the Swift children played in, then the Hetzel children. She said “It feels good that it will be enjoyed for generations to come.” She returns to the trails there when she visits from her current home in North Stonington, where she is a member of their land trust. Truly her parents gave a gift that keeps on giving.

UPDATED June 6, 2019, to correct the family and refuge name.