Costly River Diversion

Wrapped up last week with a Friday morning paddle on the Nashua River from Petapawag in Groton, MA.  I knew at the outset that my paddling odometer for 2020 would eclipse the 1,000 mile mark on this day.  The last time I paddled that many miles in a year was 15 years ago when a bit younger and stronger.  I never really expected to hit that mark again...that is until COVID 2020 came along.  Guess this might serve as my COVID achievement.

Paddled up to a cut-off section of the Nashua known these days as the "Dead River"...

It's located upriver of the Route 225 Bridge and before the river's confluence with the Squannacook River.  Where the other end of this cut-off section was located, and just how the river's change in course came about mystifies me.  After leaving the main stem of the Nashua I entered the Dead River section...

...and paddled about 0.7 miles in what formerly would have been an upstream direction until reaching navigations end.  There I marked my gps position and after going ashore followed the old and now dried-up riverbed.  The photo below is looking in a northwesterly direction or downstream...

Before paddling back out to the Nashua proper I went ashore for lunch at the apex of the Dead...

Once back out on the Nashua I found the spot where the river long ago turned westward...

This spot is about a tenth of a mile upriver from the present entrance to the Dead.  Hard to believe it could have filled in so much.  This got me wondering how long ago the break through happened, and if it was brought about by man or nature.  Once home I researched the issue not expecting to find much in the way of information...boy, was I wrong.  Samuel A. Green in his 1912 The Natural History and Topography of Groton Massachusetts provided an historical account of the river's change in course at this location.  Green describes an area once known as "The Neck" as a peninsula that was a part of Amos Farnsworth's farm.  The peninsula was "one hundred and thirty rods around (2,145 '), and joined to the main land by a neck, probably not more than thirty rods (495') wide."  The map below has been modified to show the river's original course and the neck/peninsula...

Green tells us "It is highly probable that the neck was cut through, and the island formed, during a freshet which took place in January, 1751."  

  

The same map as above but showing where the river broke through the neck...

...thus creating an island.  I tried to imagine the farmer, Amos Farnsworth, finding that the river had cut through the neck and isolated about twenty acres of his property.  For the next 24 years he need to use a boat in order to access this part of his farm.  Little did he know that the river's diversion would ultimately cost him and his youngest son, Benjamin, their lives.

Tragedy struck the Farnsworth family on December 5th of 1775 when Amos and Benjamin both drowned while trying to cross over the river from the island.  A somewhat detailed account of this tragic event was found in People and Their Homes in Groton, Massachusetts in Olden Days by Francis M. Boutwell published in 1890.  Boutwell relates an account told to him by Amos Farnsworth's granddaughter, Lydia Farnsworth.  She explains that her 71 year old grandfather had sheep grazing on the island, and with the approach of winter was attempting to bring them back to the main land in a boat.  His 18 year old son Benjamin was helping him.  Apparently, the sheep became agitated and caused the boat to capsize.  Other farmers working a distance off heard Amos telling his son to stay calm, However, by the time the men arrived to help, both Amos and his son had drowned.  Benjamin's body was readily found, but the body of Amos wouldn't be discovered until the following March when his surviving son, Amos Farnsworth, Jr., walked the river for "not less than ten miles" before finding his father's remains in Hollis, New Hampshire.  Boutwell reminds readers of this son having fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill the previous June and subsequently losing his father and brother only 6 months later. This story has me wondering if the name "Dead River" originated with this event rather than in reference to it being a cut-off section.  Both father and son were buried in the Old Burying Ground where their tombstones stand near one another...

The inscription on the father's tombstone...

      The poem at the base of the father's grave reads:

Tho in deep water was my Body lost,

And found before it crumbled into dust,

And Buried here as this dost say,

Till trumpet sound at the last day-

And tho in Adam all mankind did die,

But yet in Christ we may grim death defy.

(*a few letters changed to suit present day spelling)

After finding their graves I visited the spot where their farm was located and looked out upon the view they had towards the river...

Once back at Petapawag and the weather improving by the minute, I decided to take another shot at locating the spot where John Tinker's trading post once stood.  Since my last attempt I'd realized the 1659 course of the river was to the east of Boutwell Island rather than west of it as it is today.  Near the mouth of Nod Brook I followed the old and now partially cut-off section of river while imagining my kayak to be a canoe loaded with pelts.   I was looking for a spot not far from Nod Brook's mouth where such loaded canoes may have easily landed.  Other than right at the mouth of Nod Brook the riverbank is about 12 to 15 feet high for most of this section but there was one spot with a swale...

...sloping very gently up from the river and where canoes could land.  I was feeling good about this location being ideal and as I got ready to re-enter my boat a frog decided to hitch a ride...

Took a fair bit of persuasion before he finally agreed to vacate my boat's cockpit.

In heading back to Petapawag I followed the river's old route the short distance to the mouth of Nod Brook, and stumbled upon this granite marker and a tree with 3 blue blazes...

The map below shows the area in relationship to the John Tinker historical marker which states the "Indian Trading Post" was located "about 500 yds easterly of this marker"...

So, was the granite marker I came across placed there as a boundary marker possibly before the dam downriver at Babbitasset Falls raised the water level in 1860?... or was it used to mark the spot referenced on the John Tinker historical marker? The distance for the Tinker marker is very close to 500 yards.  As to the swale, if it's natural rather than man-made, I believe it would've made an ideal path up from the river to the Trading Post.   

Trash was on the light side...