History

Part 4 of A Mill River History —  Contact: The Nonotuck and the English — has now been posted here.

Part 3 of A Mill River History, entitled “The First People,” is ready for you to view here.

This month we are introducing our Mill River History, beginning with the river’s re-emergence from under glaciers after the last Ice Age.

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Introduction and Geological History

We will introduce you to the Mill River and its major features as it brings life to the valley.  You will then discover its recent geological history since the disappearance of the last glaciers and the post-glacial landscape of Lake Hitchcock.  Much of the credit for this account goes to Dr. John Brady, Professor of Geology at Smith College, although the author of the account remains responsible for its writing.

 

We have posted a short history of the Mill River Watershed here.  A longer history is in preparation as a web-based book.  Comments, corrections, and suggestions are welcome.

Please take a look here at the first installment of our mapping project — Kassia Rudd’s (Smith ’11) geographic study of the changing industries and industrial power sources from 1831-1895.  It includes the reach from the Upper Mills (Smith College) to Broughton’s Meadow (Florence).  We’ll be adding historical material from the 17th and 18th centuries shortly, and we look forward to adding the river reach from Leeds to Williamsburg.