Trashpaddler: Great Meadows Near and Far

My river travels this past week brought me to the Concord, Connecticut, and Assabet rivers.

Got my week started at Egg Rock where nearly all of its text was visible...

...indicating river levels had fallen to something closer to normal.

The Old North Bridge was no longer flooded...

...as it was two weeks ago when the annual re-enactment of the April 19,1775 battle was cancelled due to high water.

Further downriver this bench, possibly from the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge trails, attested to the recent flooding...

Turned about at Davis Hill...

The otherwise dreary day was brightened up a bit by these flames...

...where someone was burning brush.

On my way back upriver I stopped at October Farm and explored the ruins of William Brewster's riverside cabins.

Drove to Vermont on a whim Tuesday morning and launched from Putney Landing...

...located about 15 miles upriver from the Vernon, VT dam.

Waited for the very tail-end of a thunderstorm to clear the area before heading upriver...

Passed along knobby hills on the river's west side...

Noticed an occupied eagle nest to the east of the river...

Eventually reached the shallow area where Mill Brook enters the river...

...which provided a good spot for lunch and was across the river from Putney's Great Meadow.

This stitched-together map from UNH's Dimond Library shows Great Meadows near the top, and Putney Landing just off the page bottom left...

According to Rich Holschuh, Public Liason for the Elnu Abenaki Tribe, in an article, Putney Great Meadows (K'tsi Mskodak) found on the Brattleboro Historical Society's website: "When the British first ventured up the Kwenitekw (Connecticut River) in the early 1700s they found a glorious stand of yellow pine trees covering the K'tsi Mskodak, the Great Meadows of Putney, Vermont...this fertile floodplain, encompassing 500 acres of well-drained sandy loam, projects eastward toward New Hampshire nearly a mile, with the Connecticut River sweeping in a broad arc around its fertile expanse." Rich also explains that what was called "yellow pine" back then is today known as red pine. "The stand at K'tsi Mskodak certainly caught the attention of the merchants in New London, Connecticut, already a well-established center for shipbuilding, In 1732 a party of seventy men was sent upriver to cut the tall arrow-straight pines for the use of the King's Navy - it was British law that all such trees were Royal property. Accounts indicate that the trees were cut and floated down the river continuing into the following year. Save for Massachusetts' frontier outpost 16 miles downriver at Fort Dummer (at the south edge of what is now Brattleboro, Vermont), this was an exceedingly rare venture into the northern unknown by the English interlopers." It's hard for me to imagine what the native Abenaki people would have thought upon seeing clear-cutting of trees that they also valued for the pitch they produced.

At the south end of Great Meadow stood this log cabin...

...which may have been intended to serve as a reminder of the long-gone Fort Putney. The cabin is located about 1500 feet from a stone marker for the fort. The first fort at Great Meadows was built in 1740 and later demolished. A second fort was built in 1755 and is described as having been built of pine logs with the following dimensions: 120 ft by 80 ft with walls 17 ft high. It encompassed some 15 dwellings and a staff of 10 or so soldiers. Fort Dummer was about 12 miles downriver, and Fort Number 4 was about 20 miles upriver. These forts allowed English settlers to gain a toehold on these valuable tracts of land along the Connecticut River. The forts were put to the test during the French and Indian wars.

My trip back downriver to Putney Landing was swift and saw brightening skies...

On Thursday I was back on my local waters launching from Chapin Road in Hudson, MA and paddling the Assabet River. Enjoyed the best weather of the week with temps near 75 degrees F.

Passed under the Taylor Bridge at Wood Park...