Neponset River
The Neponset River with the Granite Avenue Bridge in the background
Course of the Neponset River
The Neponset River is a river in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Massachusetts.
It rises in the Neponset Reservoir in Foxborough, near the Gillette Stadium. From there it meanders in a northeasterly direction for approximately 29 mi (47 km) to its mouth at Dorchester Bay between Quincy and Dorchester in Boston.
The catchment area of the river covers an area of about 130 mi ² ( 337 km ²). These include groundwater aquifers, wetlands, rivers and smaller the higher areas. The catchment area also includes parts of the towns of Stoughton, Medfield, Dover and Randolph. In total, about 250,000 people live in the catchment area of the Neponset River.
Geography
Course
The Neponset River forms the southern boundary of Boston and runs through the districts of Readville, Hyde Park, Mattapan and Dorchester. To the north it limits the city of Quincy. In its course it passes by the towns of Foxborough, Walpole, Sharon, Norwood, Canton, Westwood, Dedham and Milton.
Tributaries
A tributary of the Neponset River is the Canton River in Canton, which flows under the Canton Viaduct through.
History
The Wamsutta site (19- NF -70 ) on the Neponset is assign Paläoindianern. It was dated to ( 10210 ± 60 BP).
The flow of the Neponset River supplied among others, the nation's first flour mill, a gunpowder factory, a paper mill and the Revere Copper Company with energy.
The records begin in 1619, when the wool trade was begun by the British on Thompson's Iceland and the Indians use the river to offer their skins for sale.
The headwaters of the Neponset River in Foxborough, Walpole and Norwood drops to a length of 12 mi (19 km) to 228 ft (69 m), so that the early years of the Industrial Revolution made the river famous. In 1635, Israel Stoughton built for his flour mill the first dam on the Neponset River. This was at the time only the second dam in the entire New World. 1640 opened the shipyard Gulliver 's Creek, and in 1673 built John Trescott a sawmill on the river.
In 1765 Dr James Baker and John Hannon of the Irish immigrant, opened a chocolate factory in the district of Lower Mills later in Boston's Dorchester, which became known as Baker 's Chocolate later. 1770 reached the stores of Daniel Vose in Lower Mills the highlight of their existence. The shipbuilding and commercial shipping were the most important industries in the estuary. In 1773 George Clark built a paper mill on the remains of Trescotts sawmill, the Tileston and Hollingsworth for Paper Mill in 1836. 1826 was the river to the terminus of the Granite Railway, the first commercial railroad in the United States. The Neponset River was largely responsible for the creation and development of the city Walpole.
Environment
After an extensive renovation of the Neponset River is now cleaner than it was 20 years. Currently still two dams prevent the fish from the river to swim up, but there is public pressure to remove it. The river and its entire catchment area are increasingly protected and developed as recreational areas for the benefit of local residents. Many of the recommendations of the Lower Neponset River Reservation Master Plan of 1966 were implemented, including the restoration of previously filled areas. So 66 acre ( 267,093 m²) of land for the construction of the Pope John Paul II Park Reservation was provided, which opened in 2001. At Squantum Point in Quincy, the 28 acre ( 101,172 m² ) was completed first phase of the comprehensive Squantum Point Park on a former airfield of the U.S. Navy in the spring of 2001. Opened in 2003, 2.4 mi (4 km ) of the Lower Neponset River Trail.