Dudley Pond's Missing Link

 

Dudley Pond in Wayland, MA has long been on my radar but I just never managed to paddle it...until this past Sunday morning.  I'd recently read in the 1868 History of the Introduction of Pure Water Into the City of Boston by Nathaniel Bradlee about Lake Cochituate being used to supply drinking water to the City of Boston (previous post).  According to Bradlee there was an 800-hundred foot long pipeline connection between the neighboring 80-acre Dudley Pond and Lake Cochituate beginning in 1861. With Dudley Pond being at a higher elevation the water would flow by gravity to Lake Cochituate.  My goal was to see if anything remained of the one-time pipeline connection.

This map from Bradlee's book shows Dudley Pond and its connection (upper red arrow) to Lake Cochituate...

Two red arrows to the right show where I'd launched into Dudley Pond and, later that same day, into the east side of Lake Cochituate.  The arrow furthest to the left points to Lake Cochituate's outlet.

Bradlee described the connection between the pond and lake as "iron pipe eighteen inches in diameter and almost eight hundred feet long, which passes under the road leading from Wayland to Newton: in making this connection, it was necessary to cut through an embankment sixty feet high, as the nature of the soil prevented it being tunneled."

The location depicted on the map shows the beginning of the pipeline having been somewhere in the vicinity of Dudley Pond's Mansion Beach...

There was a good-sized pipe a little to the north but it was concrete rather than iron, smaller than 18" in diameter, and seemed too close to the water's surface...

...perhaps it's a storm drain outlet.

According to the book Wayland A - Z: A Dictionary of Then and Now by Evelyn Wolfson and Dick Hoyt "In 1926 the concrete pipe connecting the pond to the lake was discontinued because the pond had become more polluted than the lake and was no longer a desirable source of drinking water.  The pipe was finally sealed in 1935."  

Is there an unseen groundwater connection between Dudley Pond and Lake Cochituate? A 2012 USGS study, Simulation of Groundwater and Surface-Water Interaction and Effects of Pumping in a Complex Glacial-Sediment Aquifer, East Central Massachusetts by J.R. Eggleston, Carl S. Carlson, Gilliam M. Fairchild, and Phillip J. Zarriello addressed whether or not there was a groundwater connection between the higher elevation Dudley Pond (153 ft) and the lower elevation Lake Cochituate (138.5 ft): "Permeable sand and gravel deposits between the two sets of ponds should result in groundwater flow causing the level of Dudley Pond to drop closer to the level of Lake Cochituate.  The reason these ponds can maintain such a high hydraulic gradient may lie at the bottom of the ponds.  Sediment cores collected as part of a eutrophication study of Dudley Pond by the Town of Wayland (IEP, Inc,. 1983) indicated a layer of bottom muck sediments up to 14 ft thick.  This muck layer referred to as gyttja, is partially decayed organic material that settles out of the water column through time and has black gel-like consistency.  These deposits are an impediment to seepage losses from the pond to the aquifer and a likely explanation for why Dudley Pond exists and why the surface level does not substantially drop during the late summer when inflows to the pond are typically small."  My first time ever hearing the word "gyttja".  

Finished my paddle around the pond's perimeter passing some interesting artwork along the way...

Also saw the pond's natural outlet in the northeast corner...

...where exiting water flows eventually to the Sudbury River Watershed.  Like Lake Cochituate Dudley Pond's waters are very clear.

Got back to where I'd launched from with the Dudley/Cochituate pipeline still on my mind so I loaded my boat and headed over to Cochituate's north pond to see if I could find any sign of the pipe's outlet.  Launched from the Wayland Town Beach...

...and paddled along the lake's eastern shore to where the map shows the pipe entering Lake Cochituate.  The only pipe/outlet structure in that area where water is piped to Lake Cochituate was this...

...which, perhaps, is a storm-drain outlet.  It did, however, look very similar to the pipe seen at Dudley Pond.  
 

Since finding myself back in Lake Cochituate I decided to take another stab at exploring the lake's outlet structure into Cochituate Brook.  When I was there the previous Tuesday the northeast wind was too busy for my liking.  Sunday's wind being out of the northwest was much better.  Headed down pond towards the outlet on the west shore...

Found conditions at the outlet to be relatively calm...

...and soon found a place to land my boat.  Then explored the two dams on foot.  The upper dam...

...and the lower dam...

Before leaving the area I walked to the elevated area to the brook's south side where Josiah Temple, in his History of Framingham, said an Indian village was located.  A fish weir was said to have been located downstream of the present dams.  Here's the view looking south and up from the brook from below the dams...

The top of the bluff presently has an off ramp from the Massachusetts Turnpike encircling solar panels...

The view back down to the brook...

The view upwards to the pond from the lower dam's foot-bridge...

With my explorations complete I relaunched and headed across the pond to my takeout at the Wayland Town Beach...

Some trash from Dudley Pond...

...and just a bit from Lake Cochituate...

Cochituate Connections

 

This past week found me out on the Sudbury River where the USGS gauge reading of 5.5 feet at Saxonville had me expecting more water depth than I ultimately found.  Launched from Little Farms Road where the Carol Getchell Nature Trail was undergoing construction/renovation work.  Due to the construction project the access upstream of the short rocky section was fenced-off so I went downriver passing through Stone's Bridge along the way...

Less than a mile downriver I turned around where a fallen tree blocked my passage.  There I came across this swamped metal boat with swivel seating...

Once back at Little Farms it was either tow my boat through the short rapids and continue upriver, or go home. I towed my boat...

...and paddled upriver alongside the aforementioned Carol Getchell Nature Trail up to and under the non-vehicular Danforth Street Bridge...

Ventured just a tad into Cochituate Brook...

...and gave some thought to the meaning of the Native American word "cochituate".  Josiah Temple in his History of Framingham published in 1887 attributes the word being applied by Thomas Mayhew, Peter Noyes, and Edmund Rice in their record of the laying out of Mrs Glover's Farm in 1644: "The southwest bounds are the little river that issueth out of the Great Pond at Cochituate".  Temple writes that "the term Cochituate was applied by the early white settlers, as it was by the natives, not to the water, but to the site of the large Indian village on the borders and near the outlet of the pond. Cochituate...the word signifies, "place of the rushing torrent", or "wild, dashing brook," referring to the outlet in time of high water.

Reaching the pond's outlet via the brook would not be practical, but it did remind me of how long it's been since I last visited the "Great Pond at Cochituate".  

I returned to the river and paddled further upstream to where the bridge abutment of the abandoned Saxonville Branch of the Boston and Albany Railroad can be seen...

On the opposite side of the river and close to the Concord Street Bridge this old stone stairway leads down to the river...

...leaving me to wonder if, perhaps, baptisms were performed here.

This pair of mallards seemed unaware that duck hunting season is open...

...or perhaps they know that hunting isn't allowed in Massachusetts on Sundays.
 

Made it around Otter Neck as far as the Saxonville gauge station...

...where I got a closer look at the gauge noting it showed the level to be about a foot less than what the website indicated...

On Tuesday I returned to the Cochituate area with plans to launch at the North Lake Cochituate but the gate was closed.  As I drove a little further west on Route 30 an adult bald eagle circled twice above my car with its legs and talons lowered.  A good omen?

   

Launched instead at Cochituate State Park where a great boat launch provides easy access for both trailered and hand-launched boats...

This facility also has a porta-potty and trash containers...a five star rating from me.

Once on the water I paddled under the Mass Pike and Route 30 to Cochituate's north pond...

...hoping to see the eagle again.  Instead I ran into this osprey with his catch...

On the pond's west side a northeast wind nudged my boat and me towards the outlet dam where exiting water falls into Cochituate Brook...

...and where the Indian village mentioned by Josiah Temple may have been located. Temple in his History of Framingham provided this account by a Mr. James Brown, who was born near by, and was often on the spot.  Brown recalled "I have been in the old Indian fort which stood on the highest point of the hill south of the outlet of Long Pond, a great many times.  It used to include about an acre and a half of land.  A circular bank of earth with ditch outside, the whole about four feet high, enclosed it; and there was a raised mound in the centre, made I suppose for a lookout.  There were several cellar holes-'granaries'-inside the bank.  It was woods all around; but this place was always bare.  It was first plowed up by Col. James Brown, who levelled the bank, filled up the holes, sowed rye, and made it into a pasture.  There was an Indian weir in the brook, at the foot of the bluff, a little way down from the outlet."  Temple added that "the number of large granaries shows that immense quantities of shad and salmon were caught, dried and stored here in the spring, for use in time of need."

With Tuesday's building northeast wind funneling fetch towards the outlet, I wasn't able to get close enough for a photo.  This photo I took of the 2-stage outlet back in June 2010...

Was the fish weir down there beyond the lower dam?  Today, the area to the south of the pond's outlet is used by vehicles leaving or entering the Mass Pike to or from Route 30.  A cluster of solar panels stands within the traffic loop.  
  

Prior to 1846 this body of water was known as Long Pond as this 1831 map of Framingham by Jonas Clayes and Warren Nixon (found on the Leventhal Map and Education Center website) shows...

Note the map is oriented with east at the top.  Cochituate Brook can be seen winding its way from the pond's outlet to the Sudbury River in Saxonville near the oxbow once known as Otter Neck.  According to information found on the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority's (MWRA) website the City of Boston, in the 1840s, was in need of an additional source of drinking water. Subsequently in the mid-1840s a dam was built at Long Pond's outlet raising the water level some 9 feet or so thus creating the Lake Cochituate Reservoir. Long Pond became known from that day to this as Lake Cochituate.  

The 14-mile long Cochituate Aqueduct was also built to convey the water to Boston.  The intake, or gatehouse, for the aqueduct still stands on the pond's east shore.  It was built in 1848 as part of the project and was capable of sending up to 10 million gallons of water per day to Boston up until 1951 when the reservoir was relegated to back-up status...

Also in the mid-1840s the Saxonville Branch of the Boston and Worcester Railroad was built alongside the newly created Lake Cochituate.  A triangular-shaped culvert beneath the old right of way allows boat passage from Cochituate's middle pond into the south pake...

The 4-mile long right of way is now a paved multi-use trail.

I entered the south pond...

...and paddled around its tiny island...

...before heading back to the takeout.

 Trash from Sunday on the Sudbury River...

Trash from Tuesday on Lake Cochituate...

 

Where Rivers and "Nip" Bottles Meet

 

Whenever I paddle the Nashua River downstream from the "Meeting of the Waters" in Lancaster, MA there are almost always two things I can count on.  One is a fallen tree across the river which will determine where my upriver or downriver progress comes to an end.  The second is that considerable amounts of plastic containers will be present...especially "nip" bottles.  This past Tuesday and Thursday I paddled the stretch between Roper's Brook on the river's north branch and Pine Hill on the river's main stem.  This modified 1950 map from the UNH Dimond Library shows the area...

  

On Tuesday I launched from Seven Bridge Road and paddled a mile or so downriver alongside Pine Hill and then upriver to a blowdown about 0.75 miles above Seven Bridge Road. Wore an orange vest over my PFD since there were some duck hunters in the area.

Despite the fallen trees and plastic trash, this stretch is beautiful...

...and provides a place where one can truly get away from it all...

On Thursday I launched further upriver in Lancaster right across Route 70 from where the Rowlandson Garrison House stood in the 1600s...

Pushed off from under the CSX railroad bridge and headed down the North Branch of the Nashua River...

It's just a short distance to the "Meeting of the Waters" where the Nashua's north and south branches converge.  Looking back at the confluence from under Center Bridge Road fallen trees can be seen blocking access to the south branch (on the left) whereas the north branch (to the right) is more navigable...

From Center Bridge I went downriver on the Nashua's main stem to the point where a sizable blowdown had blocked my upriver progress on Tuesday...

Returning back upriver and past the "Meeting of the Waters" I once again ascended the north branch...

...as far as Roper's Brook which is fairly close to where the Rowlandson family lived...

 The trash recovered on Tuesday included 130 "nip" bottles...

Thursday's trash included 63 "nip" bottles...

Thus there were 193 "nip" bottles in just 3 miles of river.   Of the 2041 "nips" I've picked up so far in 2025, 1662 have come from the Nashua River.

On the Container Recycling Institute's website I came across an article by Beck Wehner of WWLP.com that mentioned the Massachusetts city of North Adams starting a pilot program where, beginning on November 1st, they'll pay five-cents for each clean and empty "nip" bottle that is returned.  The article states "North Adams officials hope that this pilot program demonstrates how a bottle bill could prevent nip bottle litter in neighborhoods and streets."  Presently the Massachusetts Bottle Bill doesn't include "nip" bottles.  Perhaps the Nashua River communities of Clinton, Fitchburg, and Leominster will consider following North Adams' lead by placing a redemption value on "nip" bottles.