Isaac Davis Trail

The six-mile-long Isaac Davis Trail, also known as the Line of March of the Acton Minutemen and the  Acton Trail, commemorates the route taken by Captain Isaac Davis and the Acton Minute Company on their march to Concord on April 19, 1775.

The trail begins where the Isaac Davis House once stood on Hayward Road in Acton and ends at the western end of the North Bridge in Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord. Along the route, it passes the 75-foot-tall Isaac Davis Monument, erected in 1851 in memory of Acton’s citizen soldiers who lost their lives on April 19, 1775.  Each Patriot’s Day during the Issac Davis Trail March, the Acton Minutemen stop here for a moment of reflection.

Today the trail is defined by twelve granite markers (nine in Acton and three in Concord) erected by the Massachusetts Society Children of the American Revolution in 1975. Prior to that it was marked by wooden signs installed by the Captain Isaac Davis Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution during the 1960s. According to the Acton Historical Society, the original markers were designed in partnership with local Boy Scout leaders, who led their troops in an annual retracing of the march. Their construction and installment were a community endeavor.

The route that the Acton Minutemen took on April 19, 1775 is described in detail in Acton in History written by historian James Fletcher in 1890. According to Fletcher, “on a bright and genial morning… when the birds were chanting the very best songs of the opening spring” the Acton Minutemen set foot for “Mother Concord.”

In 1972, the trail was added to the National Register of Historic Places. While most of the trail is now on paved roads, it follows the original route as closely as possible.