Mystic River
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The Mystic River is the name of a short river in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Its name derives from the Wampanoag word "muhs-uhtuq", which translates to "big river", and it lies to the north of and flows approximately parallel to the Charles River.
Mystic River has a long history of industrial use and a continuing water quality problem. Encompassing 76 square miles (197 km²) of watershed, the river flows from the Lower Mystic Lake, and travels through the Boston, Massachusetts area communities of Arlington, Medford, Somerville, Everett, Charlestown, Chelsea, and East Boston. The river joins the Charles River to form inner Boston Harbor. Its watershed contains 44 lakes and ponds, the largest of which is Spot Pond in the Middlesex Fells, with an area of 307 acres (1.2 km²).
Before recorded history, Native Americans and then later Colonists used weirs to catch alewives and fertilize their crops. In 1631, after the arrival of the English, the first ship built by Europeans in Massachusetts, the Blessing of the Bay, launched from the river's shores. A few years later (1637) the first bridge was built; neighboring towns squabbled about the costs for more than a hundred years.
Over one hundred years later, the Mystic River played a role in the American Revolution when on September 1, 1774, a force of roughly 260 British regulars rowed from Boston up the Mystic River to a landing point near Winter Hill in today's Somerville. From there, they marched about a mile (1.6 km) to the Powder House where the largest supply of gunpowder in Massachusetts was kept, and after sunrise they removed all the gunpowder. In 1775, the British attacked via the river's beach for the Battle of Bunker Hill.
In 1805 the Middlesex Canal linked the Mystic to the Merrimack River in Lowell, and during the 19th century, 10 shipyards along the Mystic River built more than 500 clipper ships. Shipbuilding peaked in the 1840s as schooners and sloops transported timber and molasses for rum distilleries between Medford and the West Indies. In 1882, John Townsend Trowbridge's popular novel The Tinkham Brother's Tide-Mill took place along the river when saltwater still reached the Mystic Lakes, but by 1865 overfishing and pollution all but eliminated commercial fishing.
Nonetheless, extensive salt marsh still lined the banks of the Mystic until 1909, when the first dam was built across the river (Craddock Locks), converting salt marsh to freshwater marsh and enabling development. Today's dam was built in 1966 and named for Amelia Earhart, with three locks to allow passage of boats, and pumps to push fresh water out to the harbor even during high tide. Dam operators leave the locks open at times in an effort to allow passage of fish, most notably the native Alewife. There is a fish ladder but it has never functioned. The dam is closed to the public. The Maurice J. Tobin Bridge also spans the Mystic River, joining Charlestown and Chelsea.
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[edit] Wildlife
At one time, the Mystic River was home to great numbers of many species of fish, including salmon, alewife, blueback herring, striped bass, bluefish, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, bluegill, carp, and more. Although most of these species still live in the Mystic River, pollution and dam building have severely damaged the populations. Pollution came from various mills and a small ship building yard in the past. The main source of pollution in the 20th century and into the present is from drainage from the adjoining cities. Many of the records of nearby drainage pipes have been lost, or have undocumented changes and diversions. Once described as having so many herring that one could cross the river on their backs, the Mystic River herring run is much smaller than it was in historic times. This can be attributed to the pollution and dams. Pollution has raised bacteria levels and turbidity, making it unfavorable for fish to live in. Dams have restricted the access of anadromous fish.
[edit] In Popular Culture
In 1844, Medford abolitionist and writer Lydia Maria Child described her journey across the Mystic to her grandfather's house in the poem "Over the River and Through the Woods." (Grandfather's House, restored by Tufts University in 1976, still stands near the river on South Street in Medford.)
The river gave its name to the well-known Dennis Lehane novel and the 2004 Academy Award winning Clint Eastwood film Mystic River.
In the poem The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Paul Revere is riding along the banks of the Mystic River.
[edit] References
- History of the Mystic. About the Mystic River Watershed. Retrieved on March 12, 2005.
- Paul Revere's Ride. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poem. Retrieved on January 03, 2008.
