Fall Foliage Tour at the Blackstone Gorge - October 12, 2024

Rolling Dam

I got a cortisone shot in my heel yesterday, and the doctor told me to keep it dry and go easy. I was originally thinking of a Fife Brook run with the CTAMC, but that seemed a little ambitious. Instead, I decided to do the fall foliage tour with RICKA at the Blackstone Gorge.

The Blackstone River arises in Worcester and flows south for 48 miles, eventually becoming the Seekonk River at the Pawtucket Falls. Native Americans called the river the "Kittacuck", which meant "the great tidal river." Salmon and other migratory fish were plentiful in pre-colonial times.

Blackstone Gorge below Rolling Dam

When English colonists arrived, they called the river the Seekonk, the Narragansett, the Pawtucket, the Neetmock, the Nipmuck and the Great before finally setting on the Blackstone. It is named for William Blackstone who was the first European settler in Rhode Island. He built his house - Study Hall - on the river in what is now the Lonsdale section of Cumberland in 1635 - one year before Roger Williams settled in Providence.

The Blackstone River drops 438-feet in elevation on its way from Worcester to Providence. Early settlers built dams to power sawmills and gristmills to serve the needs of area farmers. With the coming of the Industrial Revolution, the river's steep drop and numerous falls provided ideal conditions for the development of small, rural textile mills around which mill villages developed. Much of this early history can be seen along this section of the river.

Launching above Rolling Dam

We met at the Rolling Dam just above the Blackstone Gorge. A hike along the river below the dam will give you a sense of what the Blackstone River looked like before the European settlers arrived. Its banks are lined with hemlock and mountain laurel, and its rocky course tumbles over a series of three ledges and a small waterfall at the end.

We put in above the dam and headed upstream. We had 8 boats – 7 kayaks and one canoe. The river was a little low - 3.1 feet on the Northbridge gage, 6.6 feet, 78 cfs on the Rt. 122 gage. Paddling upstream from the dam is always a pleasant trip, and the foliage was just about peak. We paddle up to the Triad Bridge site.

Heading upstream

By the middle of the nineteenth century, the Blackstone River Valley had grown to become a major textile manufacturing center. That growth would continue with the introduction of rail service in 1849. With the ability to move raw materials in and finished goods out, railroads linked the Blackstone River Valley to markets around the world.

On this site, three bridges were planned to allow three different railroads to cross the Blackstone River. The lowest, the Providence & Worcester, is still in use. The middle, the New York & New England that was eventually owned by J.P Morgan, has now been converted to the bike path bridge. The top, the Grand Trunk Line, was never completed.

Triad Bridge Site

The Grand Trunk Line was brain child of Charles Hays who was attempting to establish a rail connection from Montreal to the ice-free port of Providence. Construction began in 1912. Unfortunately, on the return trip from a meeting with London bankers, Hays was killed when the ship he was on, the Titanic, struck an iceberg and sank. Construction continued on and off until 1915 when the project was finally abandoned. While the line was 70% complete, not a single mile of track was laid. You can see the concrete footings for the bridge that would have crossed this site.

Just upstream from the Triad Bridge site is the Millville Lock – one of two remaining locks from the 1828 Blackstone Canal. The other is the Goat Hill Lock at River Bend Farm. Opened in 1828, the Blackstone Canal utilized a series of 49 locks to move the barges up and down the 438-foot difference in elevation from Providence to Worcester.

Millville Lock

The canal itself was little more than a muddy ditch with paths on each side for horses or mules to pull barges. The locks used to raise and lower the barges were impressive structures. Made of granite with gates at each end, each lock was approximately eighty-feet long and ten-feet wide. Once a barge was in the lock with the gates closed, it could be raised by opening the upstream gate and lowered by opening the downstream gate.

We continued upstream into Millville below the Millville Rapid. Millville is one of the oldest, and one of the youngest towns in Massachusetts. Originally settled in 1662, it was organized as Mendon's South Parish in 1766, and became part of the town of Blackstone in 1845. It wasn't until 1916 that it was incorporated as an independent town.

Shallow water in Millville

Early in its history, Millville was small farming community. A sawmill and gristmill were operating along the river by 1725. By 1830, woolen mills lined the banks on both sides of the river. Millville would eventually become home to a large rubber mill, which would become part of the US Rubber Company (later Uniroyal) in 1892. Remnants of this industrial past can be seen in the foundations and mill races along the river.

We tuned around in the shallow water below the Millville rapid and headed back downstream. Before we reached the dam, we turned left and followed the route of the Blackstone Canal into Blackstone. It later became the power trench for the Lonsdale Company’s Blackstone Mill.

The crew at the put-in

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