Saturday, September 30, 2017

Meaningful Boulders

Earlier this month I was able to visit a recently placed boulder commemorating the nearby burial location of the Wampanoag Massasoit, 8sameeqan (Yellow Feather), at Burr's Hill Park in Warren, Rhode Island.
A closer look at the inscription...
 
It seems the question of where Massasoit's remains were buried has finally been resolved as well as where Massasoit's village, Sowams, was actually located. 

Apparently, the original burial site was ripped asunder when a railroad connecting Providence and Bristol was built in the mid 1800s.  According to an article found on RhodyBeat more than 600 funerary objects were removed from the burial ground over many years.  It took 20 years of tedious work by the Wampanoag Tribe to track the objects to the many different museums where they had ended up. Many of those objects have now been returned to the tribe, and this past May were reinterred.


Previously I'd visited other boulders commemorating the final resting place of two other Native American leaders who lived during the contact period and were contemporaries of Massasoit.  One in Tyngsborough, MA marks the grave of Wannalancet, the last Pennacook sachem...


The other is in Hamilton, MA and marks the grave of Masconomet, Sagamore of the Agawam...
 
 
This boulder and an adjacent (even older) stone appear to have been in place for many years with numerous offerings placed about them...

 
 
All of these markers are tastefully done and show great reverence. 


Friday, September 29, 2017

In the Half Moon's Wake

Last Thursday (September 21) after launching into the Hudson River from the Glasco (NY) Mini Park, I looked southward to where the bridge in the distance spans the river between Kingston and Rhinecliff.  Much further to the south the Hudson Highlands can be seen.  If I were sitting at this spot on September 15, 1609 I would have seen what might look like a floating castle attached to small clouds approaching in a northward direction.  It would have been Henry Hudson's ship, the Half Moon, and more than likely, the first European vessel to ever traverse these waters.  I'm left to wonder how the Native Americans living in this area reacted to the unfamiliar vessel conveying strange beings into their homeland.  Perhaps their reaction was similar to how we'd react if an alien spacecraft landed in our midst.

While I've long known the Hudson River was named for Henry Hudson who "discovered" it while trying to find a shortcut across North America, I really didn't appreciate just how much interaction there was with the many different groups of native peoples.

This past April while staying at a hotel in Peekskill, NY, I saw a model of the Half Moon on display in the lobby and was struck by how much it indeed looked like a floating castle.  It got me thinking and soon I was searching for a first-hand account of the Half Moon's journey.  Fortunately one exists in the form of Juet's Journal of Hudson's 1609 Voyage from the 1625 Edition of Purchas His Pilgrimes.  It was written by Robert Juet, one of the Half Moon's crew, and later transcribed by Brea Barthel.  Juet's account is sparse on details and not overly descriptive.  For example he doesn't mention tributaries and at several points, where landings are made, fails to mention on which side of the river the landing occurred.

The Half Moon set sail from Amsterdam on March 20, 1609 and after covering some considerable distances the ship eventually found and sailed up the river known today as the Hudson.  Just exactly how far up the river the Half Moon sailed is a matter still debated to this day.  Some say the Half Moon reached Albany and others say the Half Moon lay anchored to the south while its ship's boat made it as far as Albany. 

In looking for a point corresponding with Juet's account I selected his entry for September 15, 1609 and found this: "At night we came to other Mountaines, which lie from the Riuers side.  There we found very loving people, and very old men: where we were well vsed."
So when I turned to the westward from near Cruger Island I found this view of the Catskills mountain range roughly corresponding to Juet's description...

This became my starting point in attempting to paddle in the Half Moon's wake over four days.  My tent was pitched at the Saugerties/Woodstock KOA and from it each morning I'd head out to one of three different boat launches on the Hudson River: Glasco Mini Park, Kiwanis Park/Catskill Creek, and Coxsackie Boat Launch/Riverside Park.

In addition to Juet's first hand account I'd brought along a copy of Douglas Hunter's 2009 Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage that Redrew the Map of the New World which provided a wealth of information regarding Henry Hudson, the Half Moon's voyage, and the tidal aspects of the Hudson River.

Areas of the Hudson I especially enjoyed experiencing were Tivoli Bay on the river's east shore where this immature eagle was seen high above Magdalen Island...

Upriver from there is the Saugerties Light House...
...which serves as the gateway to Esopa Creek where a short up-creek paddle brought me past the Coast Guard Station...
...and Lynch's Marina...
...to the falls in Saugerties...

As I paddled out of the Esopa the Riverkeeper was motoring in...

I'm inclined to believe that the "very louing people" Juet described may have resided in this general vicinity.  These people paddled their canoes out to the Half Moon bringing with them "ears of Indian corn, Pompions (pumpkins), and Tabacco..": which were bought for trifles.  The crew of the Half Moon also caught fish and replenished their fresh-water supplies before moving further upriver.

On Friday morning I launched further north at Catskill Creek and paddled out and into the Hudson...

When I turned to the north I was greeted by a gusty north wind associated with the remnants of Tropical Storm Jose.  I found refuge from the breeze to the east of Rogers Island after passing under the Rip Van Winkle Bridge (photo taken looking to the southeast from the west side)...

I hugged the east shore and had just enough water to pass by the east side of Roger's Island.  Eagles were encountered there, and at a rest stop upriver a bit I watched as one osprey tried to make another drop the fish held in its talons...
While resting under the shade of a sycamore on the river's west bank I was tempted to take a nap.  However, the nearby Rip Van Winkle Bridge brought to mind Rip's extended 20-year snooze and at my age I don't think I'd have enough time for a nap that long.

After passing under some impressive power lines, the area I believe Juet referred to as the "shoalds in the middle of the channell" were reached.  At this spot a long, narrow island lies in the middle of the river with navigable channels on either side.  The Hudson/Athens Light House stands watch at the south end...

The city of Hudson sits on the river's east side while the smaller town of Athens with this majestic willow occupies the west shore...

    Looking upriver from the Athens side is this view...

A few miles to the north Stockport Creek enters from the river's east side...
...and may have been where, according to Juet, on September 18, 1609 Hudson left the Half Moon and accompanied an old sachem "who carried him to his house, and made him good cheere."  Another account attributed to Hudson, himself, mentions that upon Hudson's preparing to head back to the Half Moon, the Native Americans thought he was fearful of their weapons, and subsequently broke their arrows and threw them in them into the fire.  Hudson returned to the Half Moon nonetheless.

The next day, September 19,1609 the Half Moon went 2 leagues further upriver and anchored.  Here Juet writes the "people of the Countrie came flocking aboord, and brought vs Grapes, and Pompions, which wee bought for trifles.  And many brought vs Beuers (beavers) skinnes, and Otters skinnes, which wee bought for Beades, Kniues, and Hatchets.  So we rode there all night."


On Saturday I was joined by my friend Paul from the neighboring Adirondacks.  We launched from the Coxsackie Boat Launch and paddled the Hudson between Stockport Creek and Rattlesnake Island...

...which may have been in the general area where on September 21, 1609 Hudson and his Mate decided to "trie some of the chiefe men of the Countrey, whether they had any treacherie in them.  So they took them downe into the Cabbin, and gave them so much Wine and Aquavita, that they were all merrie: and one of them had his wife with him, which sate so modestly, as any of our Countrey women would doe in a strange place.  In the end one of them was drunke, which had been aboord of our ship all the time that we had been there; and that was strange to them; for they could not tell how to take it.  The Canoes and folke went all on shoare:but some of them came againe, and brought stropes of Beades: some had sixe, seuen, eight, nine, ten, and gaue him.  So he slept all night quietly."  I'm thinking the Native Americans after seeing the man (possibly a sachem) drunk, went home to consult their shaman, and perhaps the Beades were brought to help break a spell that they may have believed was placed upon him.

The following day, September 22, the Half Moon remained anchored at this location.  In the morning Hudson sent five crew members out in the ship's boat to, again, scout the river further upstream.  At noon the Native Americans returned to the ship and upon seeing that their chief men were OK were "glad".   They then returned again at 3pm and "brought Tabacco, and more Beades, and gave them to our Master, and made an Oration, and shewed him all the Countrey round about.  Then they sent one of their companie on land, who presently returned, and brought a great Platter full of Venison, dressed by themselues; and they caused him to eate with them: then they made him reuerence, and departed all saue the old man that layd aboord." (this "old man" is the same fellow that had been on the ship since possibly Sept. 15)  Later that night the ship's boat returned and reported having gone upriver 8 or 9 leagues to the end of navigable waters.

On September 23, 1609 the Half Moon weighed anchor and began its return trip downriver.  With little wind they only made it 2 leagues down before running aground.  The next day, Sept. 24 with help from a northwest wind they made it 7 or 8 leagues further down and again ran aground.  On Sept. 25 they rode out a gale while at anchor and then on the morning of the 26th, while still at anchor, "two Canoes came vp the Riuer from the place where we first found louing people, and in one of them was the old man that had lyen aboord of vs at the other place.  He brought another old man with him, which brought more stropes of Beades, and gaue them to our Master, and shewed him all the Countrey there about, as though it were at his command.  So he made the two old men dine with him, and the old mans wife: for they brought two old women, and two young maidens of the age of sixteene or seventeene yeeres with them, who behaued themselues very modestly.  Our Master gaue one of the old men a Knife, and they gave him and vs Tabacco.  And at one of the clocke they departed down the Riuer, making signes that wee should come down to them; for wee were within two leagues of the place where they dwelt."

The next morning, September 27, after overcoming some difficulties in getting the half Moon afloat the ship went downriver another 6 leaagues.  When they stopped "the old man came aboord, and would haue vs anchor, and goe on Land to eate with him: but the wind beinmg faire, we would not yield to his request; so he left vs, being very sorrowfull for our departure."

That evening or perhaps the next morning the Half Moon slowly disappeared in a southerly direction towards the Hudson Highlands from whence it came 11 days earlier...
...and must have left the Native Americans wondering what the hell had just happened.  For them the Half Moon's visit marked the beginning of the end.  Their days of happily living along the river were now numbered.

 During the 12 days the Half Moon was upriver of the Highlands the region was experiencing summer-like weather, similar to the conditions I experienced during my 4 day stay.  Aside from the incident where Hudson and his mate deliberately tried to intoxicate the native leaders, the interactions between the Half Moon's crew and the Native Americans weren't all that bad.  However, it should be noted that interactions that occurred below the Highlands both on their earlier ascent and later descent didn't go so well. As they prepared to enter the river on September 6th there'd been a skirmish in New York's Upper Bay where one of the Half Moon's crew, John Colman, was killed.  Perhaps in retaliation 2 Native Americans were kidnapped and held below deck for several days until they ultimately escaped.
On Hudson's return trip down the Hudson there were more skirmishes which according to Douglas Hunter in his book Half Moon "More than 10 natives had been killed in the exchange."  Hunter goes on to say "Hudson may have come to the river that bears his name as something of a god, if the first-contact oral histories can be believed.  But he must have been leaving as a monster to many of its people."  The "first-contact oral histories" Hunter references are "based on an account compiled by the Reverend John Heckewelder, a Moravian missionary who ministered in Pennsylvania among native peoples displaced by European colonization of the greater New York area."  According to that oral tradition the Native Americans upriver of the Highlands believed that Henry Hudson was Mannito a supreme being who'd come to pay them a visit.  The incident involving intoxication was seen by them as Mannito providing them an elixir.

While visiting the Hudson River I'd paddled under the Rip Van Winkle Bridge twice and driven over it once.  Naturally, as soon as I got home Washington Irving's  Rip Van Winkle  was read and who should appear in the story but the crew of Half Moon who are said to revisit the Catskills area every 20 years to keep an eye on things, do some nine-pin bowling, drink from their flagons, and create a little mischief.


Hardly any trash was encountered in my travels on the Hudson...


Though there may have been some lead under this sign...
 







Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Many Drawn to the River

This past Saturday OARS (For the Assabet, Sudbury, and Concord Rivers) held their 31st annual River Cleanup.  The event mobilized volunteers from 12 communities through which the above rivers flow.

Gathering up trash along the Assabet River in the section flowing through my town I found it comforting to think of the many other folks doing the same, both upstream and downstream, over the course of many river miles. A real sense of riparian connection.

Sunday, September 17, 2017

Dead or Just Resting?

While paddling with friends Paul and Ellen this past Thursday we stopped to admire this old railroad trestle spanning the Charles River in Medfield, MA.  I don't think any of us thought the rickety-looking structure could still support the weight of a freight train.  The tracks leading to the trestle looked neglected and an old diesel locomotive with boarded-up windows looked like it had reached the end of the line...

Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised to find a video (taken last year) that someone had kindly posted showing this very locomotive springing to life and then pushing and pulling a good number of freight cars over the very same trestle.  If I didn't see it I wouldn't believe it.

The paddle upriver from the trestle was a nice one, though plans of paddling to Devilsfoot Island via the Stop River were thwarted by a debris-clogged bridge at Causeway Road.

You'd think this sentry at the confluence of the Charles and Stop would have told us the passage was blocked...


Some trash encountered along the way...


Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Going Up, Going Down

This past Saturday I joined with members of the NHAMC Paddlers in paddling the Merrimack River from Greeley Park in Nashua, NH up to Cromwell's Falls in Merrimack.

Along the way and while hugging the west shore we continued looking for a campsite matching the one Henry David Thoreau described in his A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.

While we didn't find any specific spot that matched his exact description we did come across this stone marker up on the west riverbank and downriver from Pennichuck Brook...
It's marked HENRY 85-95.    No idea if it has anything to do with their campsite or journey.  Others who've stumbled upon it speculate it's possibly marking the final resting place of someone's beloved pet named "Henry".

We pushed on and eventually reached Cromwell's Falls and the very lock which allowed the Thoreau brothers passage up through the falls...

Of the many locks which once comprised the Merrimack River Navigation System this one is said to be in the best condition.  It was placed into service in 1815 and used into the 1850s.  Some of the wood supports for the gate can still be seen at the downstream end...

On this day back in 1839 the Thoreau brothers had begun their return trip from Hooksett, NH back to Concord, MA.  They would camp on this night about 5 miles upriver from Cromwell's Falls in the northern part of Merrimack opposite a large island. 
Thoreau described the seasonal change having occurred while they slept that night:
"We had gone to bed in summer, and we awoke in autumn; for summer passes into autumn in some unimaginable point of time, like the turning of a leaf."

They pushed off from their campsite before 5am, and with help from a northerly breeze sailed and rowed approximately 50 miles to their home in Concord, MA arriving there after dark.  That's a pretty respectable distance to cover in one day.

After our brief visit to Cromwell's Falls and lock we returned to Greeley with some flotsam gathered up along the way...
 

Yesterday, the end of my workday left me within easy striking distance of the Nashua River in Harvard, MA.  After launching from the Oxbow NWA, I made my way upriver needing to find a way under, through, or over a half dozen or so blowdowns in the process...

Kept thinking the next one would stop me until I'd reached a point 3.25 miles up from the launch where one tree, spanning the river bank to bank, did just that.

The stretch of the Nashua River I'd paddled has very few visible signs of civilization.  One of the larger signs is this still active railroad bridge...

Another hint of civilization was the sound of gunfire from the nearby firing ranges of Fort Devens...which served as a fitting reminder that yesterday was the anniversary of 9/11.

Rounded up these pieces of flotsam found slowly making their way downriver, moving from one blowdown to another by utilizing the wind and the currents...
 ...sort of like jellyfish.

Sunday, September 10, 2017

A Little Nonacoicus

When paddling the Nashua River in Ayer this past Thursday I stopped where Nonacoicus Brook enters from the east.  On my previous visits to this spot, entering Nonqacoicus by boat wasn't possible due to debris blocking the passage beneath the MacPherson Road bridge.  However, thanks to an inch of rain the previous day, there appeared a small opening along the right side.  With a little work (pushing a few branches aside with my paddle) I was through and into the tributary with the Native American name said to have something to do with an earthen pot.  Just a hundred yards or so in from the river was a small knoll which might have made an ideal spot for a trading post...
 
The sun seemed to favor this particular cluster of Cardinal flowers...
 
 
I was able to explore the brook's first half mile until this recently modified beaver dam showing below West Main Street persuaded me to turn back...
 
While the Nonacoicus was free of any trash, the Nashua between the busy railroad bridge by Macpherson Rd...
...and the retired railroad bridge near the Squannacook's mouth...
...coughed up this bit of flotsam...
 
 



Sunday, September 3, 2017

Merrimack's Nashville Ravine

The New Hampshire Appalachian Mountain Club Paddlers held their September Trash Patrol yesterday morning on the Merrimack River in Nashua, NH.  Patrol leader Denise and the usual gang of picker-uppers rendezvoused at the Greeley Park Boat Launch before heading out in small squadrons along both sides of the river.

After a few hours we'd gathered up this assortment of trash...
...to which a sign was affixed to let folks know it hadn't just been dumped there, but would be removed early next week...

Because of when and where we were conducting this trash patrol it occurred to me that it might coincide (both time and place) with the boat trip brothers John and Henry Thoreau undertook in 1839, and which Henry later wrote about in his A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers published in 1849I'd brought along my copy of the book and, checking it, confirmed the two brothers had traversed this very stretch of the Merrimack in their dory-like boat 178 years ago, to the day, on September 2nd 1839.
They were beginning the third day of their journey, having camped the night before in Tyngsborough, MA.  On that third day they continued up the Merrimack passing its confluence with the Nashua River in the late afternoon.  Regarding their day's destination, Henry wrote "Soon the village of Nashua was out of sight, and the woods were gained again, and we rowed slowly on before sunset, looking for a solitary place in which to spend the night.  A few evening clouds began to be reflected in the water, and the surface was dimpled only here and there by a muskrat crossing the stream.  We camped at length near Penichook Brook, on the confines of what is now Nashville, by a deep ravine, under the skirts of a pine wood, where dead pine leaves were our carpet, and their tawny boughs stretched overhead. But fire and smoke soon tamed the scene; the rocks consented to be our walls, and the pines our roof.  A woodside was already the fittest locality for us."

So, at the conclusion of the trash patrol, I returned to the river and sought to find the location where the brothers camped.  My original plan focused on Thoreau's mention of "near Penichook Brook" and I paddled the short distance to where the brook enters the river...
 ...and looked for a deep ravine located downriver from Pennichuck Brook.  I believe it had to be downriver because Thoreau describes their rowing past the brook without seeing it in the early morning fog the following day.

After looking downriver towards the direction the two brothers would be approaching from...
...I returned to Greeley Park and headed home.  This morning I reread Thoreau's description and focused on his words "..on the confines of what is now Nashville".  At the time Thoreau was writing his book in 1848 Nashville, NH was a separate town from Nashua.  It existed as a town between 1842 and 1853 when the towns of Nashville and Nashua combined to form the city of Nashua.   Online I found this 1846 map showing Nashville's location...

The map shows Nashville as having frontage on the Merrimack's western shoreline between the Nashua River to the south and Pennichuck Brook to the north.  This covers just under 3 miles of Merrimack River shoreline.

Oddly enough, one location that clearly meets all of the characteristics mentioned by Thoreau: "near Penichook Brook, on the confines of what is now Nashville, by a deep ravine, under the skirts of a pine wood, where the dead pine leaves were our carpet, and their tawny boughs stretched overhead" is the very location from which we held our trash patrol...the Greeley Park Boat Launch (see opening photo).  It's located just about midway between the Nashua River and Pennichuck Brook, was in the confines of then Nashville, is a deep ravine, and has pine trees galore.
It's distinctly possible that the place I went off to find was actually right there beneath my own two feet.  Wouldn't be the first time.