Warden of Gloucester watersheds dies
By Michael Cronin
Staff Writer
Joe Orange, Gloucester’s long-time watershed constable, died on Tuesday at the age of 97.
Orange’s passion was preserving Gloucester’s water supply and woods. He made it his duty to clear out squatter camps erected around Babson and Goose Cove Reservoirs. In 2008, Orange told the Gloucester Daily Times he had evicted around 1,000 people from 60 camps at that point in his career. All the while, Orange made sure to keep an eye out for teenagers hosting illicit parties in the woods.
“The watershed is a huge area; you’d need about 50 people to control it,” he said at the time. “But we can control the shore of the water itself, and that is where we have to focus.”
From 1994 until this year, Orange would conduct nightly patrols around Dogtown. Usually, he would takes these walks all by himself.
Gloucester resident Joe Orange wore his trademark shorts for this portrait by Jason Grow made for a series on the city’s World War II veterans. Orange died Tuesday; he was 97.
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