Trashpaddler: Knox Between Dams

The last full week of October provided me four opportunities for getting out on the water: The Nashua River on Monday; the Sudbury River on both Wednesday and Friday; and the Assabet River on Sunday.

From the Bill Ashe boat launch in Devens I paddled down the Nashua River to Ice House Dam in Ayer, MA...

...where I walked the portage to get a look at the amount of flow going over...

From Little Farms Rd in Framingham, MA I launched into the Sudbury River and headed around the old oxbow...

...and later paid a visit to Stone's Bridge...

...where I landed so as to get a look at the historical marker at the bridge's east end...

I was curious to see it following my visit to Waltham the previous week when I passed the Knox Trail marker that stands in front of where I attended the Nathaniel P. Banks elementary school. As a youngster I was intrigued by Knox and his men having transported heavy artillery from Fort Ticonderoga in New York some 250 miles to Cambridge, MA passing my school along the way. Because of him being mentioned as a general, I'd always pictured him as an older fellow. Now, all these years later, I learn that he in fact was only 25 years old and had no military title at the time he did the deed. For those unfamiliar with Mr. Knox it was he who volunteered to bring 59 pieces of heavy artillery captured in 1775 at Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point on Lake Champlain to just outside of Boston where it was ultimately used by General Washington to break the British occupation of the city. Once the British saw those guns atop Dorchester Heights they boarded their ships and sailed away. One hundred and fifty years later, in 1926, the states of New York and Massachusetts decided to commemorate the trail the Knox Artillery Train followed by placing 58 historical markers at intervals along the route he's believed to have taken. Most of the markers have the same text and a bas relief sculpture such as the two pictured below which I visited on my way to Framingham on Friday morning. The first was in Wayland, MA at the intersection of Routes 27 and 126...

...and the second at Framingham Center...

These markers are immediately east and west of the Stone's Bridge marker and, unlike it, they are identical and the same as 54 other markers. So, I guess the question is "how accurate is the marker at Stone's Bridge?"

Did the Knox Artillery Train cross the Sudbury River there and if not, then where?

In trying to get answers I learned that the artillery actually stayed in Framingham for some extended period of time until decisions could be made as to where it could be best deployed. According to Framinghamhistory.org "...from Marlborough, the cannon were transported down Nixon Road to Edmands Road and then Grove Street to be concealed in the Pike Row neighborhood (including Belnap Road) on January 24, 1776. The bulk of the artillery remained in Framingham possibly for weeks."

I launched into the Sudbury River at Kellogg Road which is less than a mile south of the aforementioned Pike Row neighborhood and headed upriver...

The Central Street bridge near the boat launch is a possible crossing place Knox might have used and is only a short distance from where the artillery was stored in the Pike Row neighborhood.

Heading upriver I passed under the Main Street Bridge which is another possible river crossing location for Knox...

The Main Street bridge reminds me of the Danforth Bridge in nearby Saxonville. However, unlike the Danforth Bridge, the Main St. bridge still carries vehicular traffic.

Upriver progress ended at a boom beneath the Union Ave Bridge (another possible crossing location)...

I'm not sure as to what purpose (other than stopping river navigation) the boom serves.

Turned about and paddled downriver alongside the Mass Pike, did a short portage around the low-head Fiddlers Green Dam at Fenwick Street and passed under the Mass Pike to where the river widens...

...as it approaches the end of the line at the old Roxbury Carpet mill dam in Saxonville...

As to where Knox and his train of artillery crossed the Sudbury River I guess the jury's still out. You'd think such a sight would be remembered by folks. Knox himself, in a letter to his wife, wrote "We shall cut no small figure going thro' the country with our Cannon Mortars etc. drawn by eighty Yoke oxen!!"

Closed out the week and most likely the month with a Sunday morning paddle on the Assabet River in Concord from a now fully exposed Egg Rock inscription...

...upriver to Main Street in West Concord...

Thinking again of 1775, some folks believe it was at this spot that the Sudbury Minutemen crossed the Assabet River on April 19, 1775 on their way to Barrett's Farm in Concord.

Trash from Monday on the Nashua included 61 miniatures (aka nips)...