An Obscured Confluence

 

My objective this past week was to take advantage of our high water levels of late and paddle to the confluence of the Quinsigamond and Blackstone rivers (opening photo) in Grafton, MA.  I visited the area on 2 days, Tuesday and Thursday, launching both times from Riverview Park.  The area of the confluence is within present-day's Fisherville Pond as can be seen on this 1953 USGS topo map found on the UNH/Wayback Machine website...

An 1831 map by Charles Brigham Jr. shows the actual confluence more clearly...

The mill pond created by the dam is often weed-choked due to the combination of shallow water and accumulation of nutrients...

At the launch site a fellow paddler shared knowledge of an active eagle nest near the confluence and sure enough an adult eagle was encountered...

The nest was located not far from there with an eaglet awaiting its next food delivery...

From the confluence I paddled up the Quinsigamond River in a mostly northerly direction...

At one point I came across riverside plants which looked to me like tobacco plants...

Less than 800 feet from this spot is a Native American cemetery dating to the 1660s which I stopped at on my drive to the boat launch...

There were about 8 small gravestones...

A boulder in the cemetery was inscribed with words which were difficult to discern...

I ended up reading them as if using Braille.  It read "Eliot's Band of Praying Indians" and was dated 1890.

According to Frederick C. Pierce's 1879  History of Grafton, Worcester County, Massachusetts, from its early settlement by the Indians in 1647 to the present time, 1879  "The tribe which made the location of this town their home were called the Hassanamesits, who were in subjection to the Nipmucks. Hassanamesit was the third town, which was established in 1660 by the Rev. John Eliot, for the praying Indians, Punkapoag  and Natick being established prior, in 1647".  Eliot and a Native American known as "James the Printer" would later undertake the task of translating the English Bible into the Algonkian language.  The praying village was 4 square miles. 

In the book The Sacred Landscape of New England's Native Civilization- Manitou by James W. Mavor Jr. and Byron E. Dix the authors noted Hassanamesit's proximity to several rivers: Assabet, Blackstone, Charles, Quinsigamond, and Sudbury rivers noting "It is likely that Hassanamessitt, the seat and sacred center of the Nipmuck Nation, was, with the adjoining strips of land, retained by the Indians because of its special location at the source of the waters of Massachusetts, making this area a place of powerful manitou."  

My guess is the location of the praying Indians cemetery, which overlooks a brook and intervale leading to the Quinsigamond River, also was a place of powerful manitou.

  

A sign across the road from the cemetery commemorated the village's name...

Further up the Quinsigamond I reached the Pleasant Street Bridge built in 1886...

...and just beyond some interesting rock formations...

...where I turned around and headed back.

On another day (with sunnier skies) I paddled up the Blackstone River from the confluence...

...up to different Pleasant Street Bridge...

Before reaching the bridge I encountered another strong-flowing stream entering from the Blackstone from its south side.  I believe this stream was where the river took a shortcut via the abandoned Blackstone Canal route.

Once back at the confluence I headed the short distance down the Blackstone to the dam at Fisherville...

...where there were no visible warning signs for the dam.  A short distance to the dam's west was the gate structure which formerly allowed water into the mill works...

This spot was where earlier the Blackstone Canal approached Lock 30 on its way downstream from Worcester to Providence.  The lock is said to have been covered over by the mill.  I'm left to wonder if any of this stone work once served the canal...

The canal re-emerges across the road from the Fisherville Mill site and heads south...

A bronze plaque in Mill Villages Park (across Main St. from the mill) shows the canal's route through this area...

A faded map shows the many transportation routes which funneled through this spot: the Blackstone River, Blackstone Canal (and towpath), and the Providence and Worcester Railroad...

Pierce's 1879 History Of Grafton notes "The first start in manufacturing, at this place, was made by Timothy McNamara, who having purchased the land where the mills now stand of Moses Sherman, and the water power rights of Austen Holbrook, in 1830 began work upon the dam, building it jointly with the Blackstone Canal Company, they using it as a feeder for their canal".  Pierce also noted that in 1869 the mill expanded to three stories and 160 looms that processed 400,000 pounds of cotton into 1,500,000 yards of cloth.

The brick mill building stood for many years before being destroyed by a fire in 1999.  Today the place is for sale...

Nonetheless, water still flows over the dam...

...just as it has since 1831.

Trash encountered over the two days...

...included 81 "nip" bottles and a Boston Celtics basketball.

 

A Pair of Ponds

 

Sandwiched around this past week's Nor'easter I paddled two Massachusetts ponds: Fresh Pond in the Manomet section of Plymouth, MA the day before the storm and West Waushacum Pond (photo above) in Sterling, MA two days after the storm when its effects still lingered.  Both ponds appear to have been favored by Native Americans.

Paddled Fresh Pond this past Wednesday under darkening skies...

The North and South Rivers Watershed Association's website describes Fresh Pond as "a 62-acre natural kettle hole pond with an average depth of 10 feet.  It is fed by groundwater, as well as a small inlet from Warner Pond.  It has an outlet to cranberry bogs and to Beaver Dam Brook".  Beaver Dam Brook eventually reaches the ocean near White Horse Beach.  Paddling the pond's circumference brought me to a park at the pond's south end with a small sandy beach...

To the west of the park was a small boat launch at the base of a steep slope.  At the top of the slope and overlooking the pond was a Native American burial ground...

...serving to remind that this area is home to the Wampanoag people.  The day before and just about 4  miles away I visited the Historic Patuxet Homesite at Plimoth-Patuxet Museums.  In addition to a bark-covered "wetu" (staffed by a Museum Historian) there were several dugout canoes or "mishoons" on display.  The larger dugout looked like it could accommodate 20 paddlers. 

At one spot on the pond wisteria draped almost to the water...

Saturday was an extremely fickle day with dark clouds, white clouds, blue skies, and rain showers...all of which varied from minute to minute.  Launched into West Waushacum Pond in Sterling, MA...

Mt. Wachusett was seen looming to the northwest...

...seemingly indifferent to the crazy mix of weather.  

There are 2 Washacum ponds: East Waushacum and West Waushacum.  Long ago a village between the ponds served as the residence of Nashaway sachem Nashawhonan also known as "Sholan".

In the 1840s a railroad causeway was built dividing West Waushacum Pond. According to an article in the July 2015 Wachusett Greenways Newsletter, the Fitchburg and Worcester Railroad in 1879 built Waushacum Park Picnic Grounds at the pond's north end.  The article mentions the park having a dance hall, bowling alley, merry-go-round, baseball diamond, and boats/canoes for rent.  Patrons could arrive at the park by train or travel from the pond's south end via a steam-powered boat named "Sterling".  

This stone work along the pond's north shore may have been part of a dock structure.  Perhaps the vessel "Sterling" dropped folks off here...or possibly it's where boats were rented..

A wide pathway runs along the pond's north shoreline from the nearby rail trail...

...perhaps leading to the park?  The park is said to have closed down in 1916 after the Wachusett Reservoir was built and human activities within the watershed were restricted. 

Continuing a little further brought me to where the present-day rail trail crosses over the passageway to the area of the pond cut-off by the railroad causeway.  The cut-off portion is known as the "Quag" which I suspect is short for "quagmire"...

...referring to the large marshy area at the Quag's north end...

One of the Quag's tributaries, Connelly Brook, had this blue heron  standing atop a submerged beaver dam...

Back on West Waushacum the pond's sole island was circled before reaching the takeout...

Because West Waushacum waters ultimately follow Waushacum Brook into the Wachusett Reservoir at the Stillwater Basin, activities are regulated by the Mass Dept. of Conservation and Recreation,,,

 
It was a good week trash-wise with small amounts encountered:

Fresh Pond had only this...

West Waushacum/Quag only this...

Hopefully fair weather will prevail for our Memorial Day.

Sudbury River's Got Moxie

Launched this past Tuesday morning at Sherman's Bridge in Wayland, MA where water levels in the Sudbury River were found to be still on the high side...

This left me cautiously optimistic that I might be able to float over the top of the sheet-piling barrier where the waters of Pantry Brook enter the river...

Approached slowly and found passage into the Pantry Brook Wildlife Management Area was mine for the taking.  Just inside the barrier I watched a northern water snake swim across my path...

The WMA area opens into a large expanse of marshland and is only accessible by boat during periods of unusually high water levels...

A cormorant used a wood duck nest box for a diving board...

A group of white-tailed deer were seen grazing along the shore...

Once back on the Sudbury River I was able to paddle right up to the earthen dam holding back Farrar Pond in Lincoln, MA...

Further downriver Lee's Bridge shadowed a kayaker's passage...

The day was a beauty with a brisk and refreshing breeze.  Went ashore at Brooke/Scout's Island...

 

On Thursday under cloudy skies and eventual rain showers I headed up the Sudbury River from Rt. 20 in Wayland with hopes of entering Heard Pond.  

Approaching Pelham Island Road Bridge ...

Arriving at the spot where I'd exit the river I found an unobstructed passageway leading to the pond...

...which soon opened before me...

The high water levels allowed for a circumnavigation of the pond's island...

...which is about the same size as Fairhaven Bay's Brooke Island.  

Back on July 31, 1859 Henry David Thoreau boated upriver to Saxonville, and in passing today's Heard Pond wrote in his journal..."We could not now detect any passage into Pelham Pond, which at the nearest, near the head of this reach, came within thirty rods of the river." (Journal entry found on the Walden Woods Project website.)

My two outings on the Sudbury River this week provided 2 eagle encounters:

One with an eaglet in the river's long-time nest...

...the other with an adult eagle who kept a close eye on me...

I'm wondering if this eagle might be the same "dark-eyed" eagle I often see on the Assabet River.

Trash on Tuesday consisted of flotsam most of which was found in the shallow waters around Sherman's Bridge where it had previously been litter on dry ground.  More plastic bags of clothes were found in the river below Lee's Bridge...

Thursday's trash, in addition to two dozen "nip" bottles, had an empty quart-bottle of Moxie possibly dating from the 1920s...

The Moxie bottle with A.B.CO. on the base...

According to an article on the Society of Historical Archaeology website by Bill Lockhart and Bob Brown, "So, Moxie bottles with the 'A.B. Co.' and no date codes can be dated between 1914 and 1925."

If correct this means the bottle is possibly 100 years old and despite all those years looks pretty good...perhaps an aftereffect of its original contents?