Saturday, October 16, 2021

Norumbega/Skull Rock Lock

This past week found me paddling on two Massachusetts rivers, the Charles River in the vicinity of Norumbega Tower...

...and the Blackstone River above and below Skull Rock Lock in Uxbridge...


  

On Monday, Indigenous Peoples' Day/Marathon Monday I paddled the Charles River to Norumbega Tower after launching at Woerd Ave in Waltham.  It marked the first time I'd ever reached the tower by boat rather than car. The tower was conceived and erected in 1889 by Harvard professor Eben Norton Horsford who was convinced that the Vikings had landed at this very spot at the confluence of the Charles River and Stony Brook.  Most historians don't agree.

Leaving the tower I paddled across the Charles to what remains of the once popular Norumbega Park.  One remnant of the park is this old stairway leading up to a riverside knoll where the park's Summer House once stood...


A former employee of the park, Chip Hayward, created a detailed map of Norumbega Park as it was in 1961.  It can be found here.  The map shows a "Davey Crockett's Nightmare" ride which I want to say was known as "Davey Jones Locker" back when I was a kid 

Leaving the park I continued paddling upriver until I could hear voices shouting encouragement to passing participants in the Boston Marathon as they crossed the Charles on Rt. 16 at Newton Lower Falls...


The trip back to Waltham brought me under a multitude of busy highways, whereas the old Boston and Albany RR bridge maintained a more stately and dignified look...


On Thursday I traveled to the Blackstone River in Uxbridge launching from the Skull Rock Lock access along Route 122...not the easiest place to launch from due to steep and slippery banks.  My hope was to paddle upriver to the confluence of the West and Blackstone rivers.  Things were looking good as I paddled beneath the Providence and Worcester RR bridge...


However, after less than a mile, my upriver progress was stopped by numerous downed trees.  Turned around and headed downriver as far as Millville where the river splits in two at a large rock formation...


Boats traveling to Providence on the Blackstone Canal would leave the river here and pass to the right of the rock.  This would bring them through the Millville Lock.  The route to the left of the rock formation would take one under the Central Street Bridge and through some rapids...


This was another turnaround point where I began the slower trip back upriver...



For most of the approximately 2.5 mile return trip upriver I found myself hugging the river's west shore...not knowing at the time that I was actually paddling a river section of the Blackstone Canal.

Shortly after passing Emerson Brook I came to where Worcester bound canal boats would leave the river and enter Skull Rock Lock.  Hard to make out the stone walls with all the debris.

Back at the Skull Rock Lock parking area there's scant information as to the lock's actual location.  The maps I had with me either didn't show the lock or showed it in a place where it wasn't.  I'd later find a 2005 Blackstone Canal Preservation Study by Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc of the portion of the canal in Massachusetts.  There I found the following: "The Canal enters Uxbridge in the Ironstone section of South Uxbridge with the Canal running in the river and the towpath along the west bank.  The Canal continues along the west bank of the river for approximately 2.2 miles with many sections of the towpath embankment visible, especially north of the power line easement crossing...approximately 0.2 miles above Emerson Brook, the Canal leaves the river and enters a long trenched section with the towpath on the east side, running to South Main Street/Route 122.  The site of Lock #22 (Skull Rock Lock) marks the downriver entrance to this section of the Canal, and is visible primarily as a narrowing of the Canal channel.  Skull Rock Bridge is located 0.1 mile above Lock #22.

Ultimately, I came across an 1830 map of Uxbridge by Abiel Jaques on the digital archives of Massachusetts maintained by the Secretary of State.  This map, drawn when the Blackstone Canal was still in operation, shows the Canal leaving the river above Emerson Brook and then passing under Skull Rock Road (which no longer exists). This road also crossed the Blackstone River where it comes closest to Old Millville Road.  One of the bridge abutments remains on the river's west side...


In the event the link to the 1830 map doesn't work, here's a photo of the map showing the Skull Rock Lock section with my (hopefully correct) notations...




Wildlife seen this week included this wood duck on the Charles...


...and this Osprey near the confluence of the Charles and Stony Brook...


Trash for Monday...


Trash for Thursday...



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