Neponset River - History

History

Before Europeans arrived, the area was inhabited by Algonquian-speaking Native American tribes. Evidence of habitation along the Neponset River dates back at least to the Middle Archaic (ca. 5000 BC) at sites such as Green Hill near the Blue Hills. The river's recorded history begins in 1619 when the English began fur trading on Thompson's Island, where Native Americans used the Neponset River to bring skins for sale. The falling waters of the Neponset provided the energy for the country's first water-powered grist mill, gunpowder mill, paper mill and the Revere Copper Company, among others.

The upper stretch of the Neponset River, in Foxborough, Walpole and Norwood, is steeply sloped, dropping about 228 feet (69 m) over its first 12 miles, (19 km) and so the earliest years of the Industrial Revolution brought the Neponset to prominence. In 1635, Israel Stoughton built the first dam on the Neponset (only the second dam in the entire New World) for his grist mill. It was the first of three mills for flour, gunpowder and paper making. In 1640, shipbuilding began at Gulliver's Creek Wharf and in 1673 John Trescott built a lumber mill on the river.

In 1765, a chocolate mill was established by Dr. James Baker and Irish immigrant John Hannon (later known as Baker's Chocolate) in the Lower Mills section of Dorchester, and in 1770 Daniel Vose's Wholesale Shipping Warehouses at the second Milton Town Landing at Lower Mills were at the peak of their operation. Ship building and commercial shipping were the major river industries at the estuary. In 1773, George Clark built a paper mill on remnants of Trescott's Lumber Mill, which became the Tileston and Hollingsworth Paper Mill in 1836. And in 1826, the river became the terminus of the Granite Railway, the first commercial railway in the United States. This river was central to the establishment of the town of Walpole.

After much remediation, the Neponset is now cleaner than it has been in almost two centuries. At present, two dams block fish from entering the river; there is some pressure for their removal.

Today the Neponset River and its watershed are increasingly being protected and opened up as a recreational destination for the benefit of local residents. Several recommendations of the 1966 Lower Neponset River Reservation Master Plan have been implemented, including the reclamation of the former Hallet Street landfill and the old Neponset Drive-In to provide the 66-acre (270,000 m2) Pope John Paul II Park, which opened to the public in 2001. At Squantum Point in Quincy, phase one of Squantum Point Park, 25 acres (100,000 m2) of a 50-acre (200,000 m2) former U.S. Navy Airfield, was developed as waterfront parkland with assistance from National Grid plc and dedicated in the spring of 2001. Also 2.4 miles (3.9 km) of the Lower Neponset River Trail opened in 2003.