Little Sandy Bottom Pond, also known as Little Sandy, has 1.23 miles of shoreline. Its depth averages 10 feet, with a maximum of 20 feet. It was originally home to a colony of summer cottages, but it is now populated by year-round homes. It is a small pond in a neighborhood setting, ideal for swimming, fishing, and paddling.

Beginning in 1901, and continuing to about 1940, a hill beside the pond was home to an amusement park known as Mayflower Grove. The park featured games and rides, a penny arcade, a rifle gallery, a mini golf course, concessions, and a replica of Plymouth Rock. Other features included an open-air theater and movie house, a bandstand, a dance hall, a restaurant, a bathhouse, a boat launch, canoe rentals, picnic areas, a small hotel, and even a jail! The park was situated close to the railroad line that passed through Bryantville, making it easy for visitors to make a day trip by train.

Before European colonists arrived, the Pembroke Ponds were home to a settlement of Mattakeeset, a band of the Native American tribe known as the Massachuseuk (or Massachusett). They named their settlement Namassakeesett, or “Place of Much Fish.”

Wampatuck (also known as White Goose and White Deer) was Chief Sachem of the Mattakeesett. He maintained a lodge just off the pathway between Furnace and Oldham Ponds. This spot, on a promontory jutting into Furnace Pond, was later named Sachem’s Point in his honor. The restaurant Lucky Dawg (formerly Hosea’s), is now located there.

Wampatuck began selling his lands to European settlers in the 1640s or 1650s (although “selling” is a relative term, since the Europeans and Native Americans held distinctly different views on the notion of land ownership vs. use or stewardship). The area known as Mattakeeset — today’s Pembroke and Hanson — was transferred to the Europeans in 1662. However, 1,000 acres of this area, directly abutting the ponds, was retained as property of Wampatuck and his descendants. Queen Patience, the granddaughter of Wampatuck, retained significant acreage on Furnace Pond but sold it to European settlers before she died in 1788.

Little Sandy Bottom Pond is a natural pond that rests at the top of a groundwater divide. It is not connected with natural surface water flow with any other ponds in the area. Most water leaves the pond as groundwater recharge. Some of the fish commonly found in Little Sandy Bottom Pond include largemouth bass, white and yellow perch, chain pickerel, and sunfish.