Long Pond Frozen in Time

 

Launched at Long Pond in Rutland, MA early on Thursday morning and paddled southward. The temperature was 58 degrees F. at 7am and it sure didn't feel like early November.  No complaints here.

Long Pond is a tributary of the Ware River's East Branch via Long Meadow Brook and appears on maps dating as far back as 1785.  Historian Jonas Reed in his 1836 History of Rutland, Massachusetts describes the pond: "Gregory or Long Pond is about a mile long but is narrow, resembling a large river, is also fed by springs, and its waters are deep and pure; and is a reservoir for mills and factories.  These ponds were formerly abundantly furnished with fish of a delicious flavor."  I found the water to be crystal clear.

Back in the 1920s (in the leadup to Quabbin Reservoir being built), water from the Ware River began being diverted via an aqueduct from Barre, MA to the Wachusett Reservoir...

...resulting in the the pond's watershed being excluded from development and, according to the Department of Conservation and Recreation regulations, "Direct water contact activities, such as swimming and wading, are strictly prohibited by regulation."  Therefore, paddleboarding is not allowed on Long Pond.

This 1941 map of Paxton, MA (found on the University of New Hampshire collection) shows the pond with black dots indicating where buildings were once located at the pond's north and south ends...

The above map was revised in 1950 and shows all of the dot-indicated buildings having been removed...

...except for the West Rutland Cemetery which is located just northeast of the letter "g" in the word "Long".

Paddling further southward...

...I began seeing some of the stonework remains of the removed buildings:

On the hillside to the pond's west...

...a three-sided structure at the pond's south end...

...and the old roadway leading to it...

...and finally, the creme de la creme, this rather elegant structure featuring some great stonework on a small nameless island in the pond...

...where the hearth and chimney still stand...

The view of the pond occupants would have enjoyed thru their windows...

The island nearly touches the mainland where the short gap between them is crudely bridged by some small fallen trees...

The aforementioned West Rutland Cemetery still remains on the pond's east shore.  A cove brought me close to its location...

I later found mention on the internet of the stone building on the island having been the Priest family summer estate.  Suspecting that some of that family might be buried in the West Rutland Cemetery, I checked the Find a Grave website and found no one by that name buried there.  Just for the heck of it I plugged in my own family surname and was surprised to find more than a dozen long-distant relatives buried there.  My research showed us as having shared a common ancestor many generations back.  These folks appear to have lived and worked in the small but bustling village of West Rutland in the mid to late 1800s. 

A bald eagle was seen on the pond's opposite shore drinking in the view...

Not much trash was encountered until reaching a spot on the pond's east side frequented by shore fishermen...