Purgatory Chasm State Reservation is a state park in Sutton, Massachusetts. The park, managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, is notable for its .25-mile (0.40 km) long, 70-foot (21 m) deep chasm of granite bedrock featuring abrupt precipices and boulder caves in which ice lingers into the early summer. The reservation is open to picnicking and hiking; rock climbing is allowed by special permit only. Purgatory Chasm was declared a state park in 1919.
According to the most recent research, the chasm was created when glacial meltwater from a burst ice dam ripped out blocks of bedrock at the end of the last Ice Age (14,000 years ago).
The reservation is located off Route 146 on Purgatory Road.
Read more about Purgatory Chasm State Reservation: Recreation, In Art, Gallery
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“Across Parker Avenue from the fort is the Site of the Old Gallows, where 83 men “stood on nothin’, a-lookin’ up a rope.” The platform had a trap wide enought to “accommodate” 12 men, but half that number was the highest ever reached. On two occasions six miscreants were executed. There were several groups of five, some quartets and trios.”
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—Federal Writers’ Project Of The Wor, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)