• Elder Ballou Cemetery/Iron Rock Hill
• Elder Ballou Meeting House Road, Cumberland, RI
• Trailhead:  42° 0’22.74″N, 71°27’25.25″W
• Last Time Hiked: April 29, 2023
• Approximate distance hiked: 0.5 miles
• Easy with some slight elevation.

The Elder Ballou Cemetery was established in the 1700’s when the family came to the “wilderness” of Cumberland. Across the road from the cemetery once stood the meeting house the road is named for. In this cemetery you find almost the entire Ballou family as well as others. Some graves of note are the Place Family grave. Note the entire family passed within months in 1849. Edward Wright, a Civil War veteran, is here and has the distinction of having two headstones. Captain Levi Tower is buried here as well. He served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Some of the oldest graves date back to the 1770’s. Behind the cemetery is a small network of trails the make up Iron Rock Hill. This is a rather significant geological location, as it is the only known location in North America that has a bedrock of Cumberlandite (The official State rock), meaning all boulders and rocks of Cumberlandite found throughout the area has been displaced from here via glaciers. This rock is a dense mafic igneous rock that went through magmatic differentiation, showing almost no crystals on its exterior. Break a piece open though and you will see all of its hidden crystals. The rock, made of iron, magnesium, and titanium, is also magnetic and can rust. The properties also offer several flowering spring trees and a grove of pitch pine. Squirrels, chipmunks, and songbirds were abundant on this spring morning. The two properties combined offer a short, but interesting saunter through local history and geological history.

Cemetery