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Mill River Greenway Initiative

A community-based steward for the Mill River

History

Autumn 2018 Newsletter

December 19, 2018 by JW Sinton

Hello Autumn! Hello Mill River Community!

Hoping this finds you refreshed by the crisp weather and busily battening down the hatches for the winter ahead.  We three humble co-conspirators at the MRGI continue our diligent efforts to celebrate and elevate our river. To wit…

Mill River, the Book

We were delighted and humbled to see so many of you at the launch party for John’s gorgeous new book, Devil’s Den to Lickingwater: The Mill River Through Landscape & History, published by Levellers Press. Deeply researched and lavishly illustrated, the book is a must-have for Mill River lovers (holiday gift time is not so far off!).

John will be presenting different sections of the book at upcoming events at Historic Northampton at 4:00 Saturday, December 1; at the Leeds School on Wednesday evening at 7:00 January 9 (snow date January 10); on Feb. 21st at 7:00 a re-run of the Historic Northampton talk at Northampton Community Arts Trust at 33 Hawley St. (Historic Northampton is undergoing renovations); at Meekins Library in Williamsburg on March 13th at 6:30; and at Audubon’s Arcadia Sanctuary on October 8th. Additional events are in the planning stages for Smith College, Forbes Library, University of Massachusetts, and the Hitchcock Center. John would be happy to entertain invitations for other venues as well.

 You can pick up a copy at Collective Copies in Florence or Amherst or at Broadside Books in Northampton. You can also order it from Amazon.

Williamsburg Rolls Along

Team Williamsburg has been able to accelerate its progress this fall with an additional $100,000 in funds from the Massachusetts DCR Recreational Trails Grant program. Design and engineering work continues under the town’s contract with the great folks at VHB Engineering. The Phase II Pre-Construction Design Development Study has been expanded to include survey and field research toward the development of the new Skinnerville park parcel approved for purchase at Town Meeting in June.

VHB is also helping the Williamsburg Mill River Greenway Committee move forward on two fronts:

1. Improvements to the safety and accessibility of the Fort Hill Road-South Main Street intersection in Haydenville;

2. a study to qualify South Main Street for the MA DOT Complete Streets program, which funds improvements that benefit cars, bikes, and walkers as they traverse South Main Street between the Rail Trail and the Greenway (which will begin at the Library Bridge in Haydenville).

3. Surfacing of the rail trail from Leeds to Haydenville was completed this fall under an elegant partnership between Williamsburg and Northampton. Because the project spanned the town line, the two communities made an agreement to have Northampton supply materials, and Williamsburg Highway Department perform the work.  The 1/2 mile or so of pavement formally linked Haydenville into the Mass Central Rail Trail system, which will someday connect all the way to Boston. The Burgy Greenway committee hopes to create a wayside parklet at the switchback, with benches and interpretive signage to mark the terminus of the MCRT.

Smith Design Clinic Rides Again!

We’re blessed once again this year to have the extraordinary help of Smith College’s Design Clinic under the masterful guidance of Engineering Professor Susannah Howe. Our four Smithie seniors (Jess McKnight, Bea Dalton, Kelsey Hammond, and Serena Cattau) will be providing us with designs for the final grade and a new pedestrian bike bridge at the terminus of the Mass Central Rail Trail in Haydenville, the gateway to the Burgy Mill River Greenway. Everyone will have the chance to check out their work and provide feedback at a community forum in April 2019.

MRGI 2023

Your humble co-conspirators are opening a discussion on a strategic plan for the next five years of MRGI initiatives. We expect that the Haydenville to Williamsburg Center project will break ground five years from now in 2023 (fingers crossed!) by which time will need to:

1. Consider a more robust organization with its own 501(c)(3) non-profit status that can serve as a “Friends of the Mill River Greenway” advocacy group;

2. Establish the next steps in the development of a physical greenway connecting Goshen to Northampton via trail, scientific study areas, and virtual trails along reaches that need to remain off limits to active recreation.

See You in Spring, We’re Wintering on the Website

We will organize a MRGI meeting for our community next spring, but for now, we open the floor to your ideas. We have already received several suggestions about the website, which we will spend some time this winter updating. If you have any thoughts about the river or MRGI, please let us know.  Are there river reaches you’d like us to focus on for whatever reason, whether recreation, scientific or cultural study, or exploration?  After all, the river runs through all of us.

We hope to see you a book event in the coming months and to hearing from you about any Mill River thought on your mind.

May the river always flow through us!

Gaby, Neal, and John

Filed Under: Community meetings, History, Mill River Greenway

Florence Riverwalk October 1

September 19, 2016 by JW Sinton

Nonotuck Silk/Littfield Parsons Co. ca. 1865

Nonotuck Silk/Littfield Parsons Co. ca. 1865

Florence Riverwalk Oct. 1

Join us for the inaugural riverwalk celebrating the new Florence Self-Guided Tour Brochure!

Saturday October 1st 10:00 am to 11:30 am

Meet at the Nonotuck Mill parking lot across Nonotuck St. from ChemiPlastica (do not park at ChemiPlastica!)

MRGI’s third Historic Mill River Walk brochure is hot off the press, and we’re pleased that Wendy Sinton, author of the brochure, will be our leader for our inaugural guided tour.  The walk is a mile and a half, but those who are unable to walk that far will be able to do the first half mile and then return to their car.

Long the center of Mill River industry, Florence, originally known as Broughton’s Meadow, was home to factories that produced silk thread, plastics, and brushes.  You’ll explore the unique juxtaposition of industrial activity and the abolitionist movement.  Sojourner Truth and David Ruggles once lived and worked here as part of a utopian community.  This tour ends at the farm of a noted abolitionist and the spot where the sad remains from the 1874 flood came to rest.

As usual, the tour is limited to 20 participants, so let us know of your interest.

Filed Under: Florence, History, Mill River Greenway, River walks

Fran Kidder’s 1874 Flood Art Show

January 30, 2016 by JW Sinton

The Flood show announ_Page_1Artist’s Statement:  This work is based on the Mill River disaster, of 1874, which killed 140 people in the towns of Williamsburg, Haydenville and Leeds Massachusetts.

I live on that same river and have watched it, listened to it, and painted it over the years. But after reading Elizabeth Sharpe’s In the Shadow of the Dam, a carefully and beautifully documented account of the flood, I began to think l about making art about this tragic event.  Tragic on two levels: that of man versus nature, but also that of man versus man, since it was shoddy construction, condoned by greedy mill owners, that caused the deaths of so many innocent people.

Filed Under: Art, History, Mill River Greenway

Florence Riverwalks 8/15 and 9/26

July 30, 2015 by JW Sinton

Get ready for some high summer fun on the two Florence riverwalks and prepare for a fantastic fall!

The Florence I riverwalk from Maines Field to Meadow St. Bridge will be led by Wendy Sinton of the Sojourner Truth Memorial Committee and MRGI’s John Sinton.  It’ll feature the Mill River industries that drove Florence’s prosperity with a focus on the underground railroad and the Northampton Association of Industry and Education.  That’s Sat. August 15.

The Florence II walk on Sat. Sept. 26 walk is one of our most popular, featuring naturalist Laurie Sanders and Elizabeth Sharpe, author of In the Shadow of the Dam.  It will cover the river from Meadow St. Bridge to Crimson & Clover farm across from Look Park.

Room is available on both those tours, a sneak preview of which can be found at this link, which you should simply copy onto your browser: https://player.vimeo.com/external/133577379.source.mp4?s=31561790f19a26cad582699c08cf0c56&profile_id=0&download=1

The video was brought to you by Burgy’s inimitable and invaluable Tom Adams, Director/Owner of Reelife Documentary Productions & Folktography by Tom

And get ready for a fantastic fall.  We’ll be working with new partners and old to create a path from Leeds to Haydenville, to begin some invasive management, to develop a partnership with the Conway School, and add to our Mill River History.

With all our best wishes,  John and Gaby

Filed Under: Florence, History, Invasive plants, Mill River Greenway, River walks

Interactive Map for the Hidden Mill Riverwalk

July 1, 2015 by JW Sinton

Here’s an amazing interactive map for the Mill Riverwalk from Paradise Pond to Old South Street.  Check it out and send us your feedback at info@millrivergreenway.org
Thanks to the incredible work of Victoria Beckley and Jon Caris at the Spatial Analysis Laboratory at Smith College, we have an interactive map of the riverwalk from Paradise Pond to the corner of Old South Street and Conz in Northampton.  This is a companion to the brochure, but allows us to display other features and links, such as Smith College’s Paradise Pond monitoring project.  It also provides a more accurate location for the former Hoe Shop at the dam.

Please let us know what you think of it.  You can find it here.

Filed Under: History, Mill River Greenway, Northampton, River walks

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