Westfield, Massachusetts: Black Squirrel Town

The squirrels' home base is Stanley Park, named for the visionary who brought them to Westfield.

Black Squirrel Town

A rainy day in Westfield, so the elusive squirrels were nowhere to be found. Did try to find some squirrel swag at Conners, but unfortunately, Conners is no more and has been taken over by a cutesy country craft store. The owner did say the Westfield Feed Store has an abundance of squirrel paraphernalia, or go to www.theblacksquirrel.com.

[Chris Johns, 07/31/2012]

Town Promoting Black Squirrels

Westfield Massachusetts has a wonderful black squirrel population. Here is how it began: In 1948 Frank Stanley Beveridge was given a gift of six black squirrels, which he released in the park he sponsored for the people of Westfield, now known as Stanley Park. He loved his black squirrels and delighted in catching the occasional glimpse of one of the original family. Since then they have flourished at Stanley Park and have spread throughout the Pioneer Valley with sightings in nearby Enfield, Connecticut as well.

Although some have preferred to interbreed with the grey squirrel, the product of which is a very dark grey color, there remains a good healthy population of the black squirrel with its base still at Stanley Park in Westfield, MA. Conners, a local gift shop, sells black squirrel t-shirts and other nutty items.

[Roberta Wechter, 03/21/2001]