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Schoolhouse Pond is the best freshwater swimming in Chatham.  Unfortunately the town of Chatham only allows residents (with a beach sticker) to park their cars here.  Non-resident stickers (only available by paying cash at the booth at Cockle Cover, Ridgevale, or Hardings Beach)

are not honored here.  So, walking or riding bikes is the way to go for non-residents.

This 23-acre natural kettlehole pond has an average depth of 20 feet and a maximum depth
of 47 feet. Transparency is good, the bottom is composed primarily of sand, and aquatic
vegetation is sparse and mostly submergent. The shoreline is moderately developed with
permanent residences and a beach.

Schoolhouse Pond is located just south of Queen Anne Road, west of Goose Pond, and northwest of
the Chatham Municipal Airport. From the Sagamore Bridge, take Route 6 east to exit 11; take
Route 137 south. Take a left onto Queen Anne Road, then a right onto Sam Ryder Road. The
access is on the left and over a town beach. It is suitable for launching car top boats and canoes.
Electric motors only — no internal combustion engines are allowed.

Fishing:

This pond was reclaimed in 1963, at which time is found to be dominated by yellow perch and
brown bullhead. It was treated 10 tons of agricultural limestone in 1971 to counteract increasingly
acid conditions. It and the adjoining Ryders Pond were reclaimed for trout management in 1973
to control an expanding goldfish population. The pond was stocked with smallmouth bass adults
in 1980 and 1987. A fisheries survey conducted in 1952 found banded killifish, yellow perch, brown bullhead and chain pickerel.