About Babson’s Boulders
The woods of Dogtown are already unusual. This inland section of Cape Ann contains old cellar holes, abandoned roads, and the remains of a settlement that faded away in the nineteenth century. Then enormous boulders begin talking to you.
Words and commands are carved directly into the glacial stone: COURAGE. WORK. TRUTH. IDEAS. USE YOUR HEAD. KEEP OUT OF DEBT. The messages are the legacy of businessman and Babson College founder Roger Babson, who had strong opinions about work, money, character, and the value of putting those opinions where nobody could ignore them.
The City of Gloucester says Babson mapped Dogtown’s old cellar sites and hired unemployed stonecutters to carve mottoes into boulders near them. The project transformed a rocky abandoned landscape into something like a natural theme park built from granite and unsolicited advice. The Babson family later gave the reservoir property to Gloucester on the condition that it remain a natural park.
There is no single ticket booth or polished visitor center for the boulders. They are spread through woodland trails, and navigation can be confusing. Gloucester’s published Babson Boulder Trail Map includes GPS coordinates for the inscriptions and is worth carrying. The attraction rewards exactly the kind of traveler who enjoys wandering through the woods until a ten-foot rock suddenly tells them to get their life together.