Riverbend Farm Brochure

DIRECTIONS BLACKSTONE RIVER VALLEY NATIONAL HERITAGE CORRIDOR BLACKSTONE CANAL Uxbridge is located at the junction of routes 122 NORTHBRIDGE – UXBRIDGE, MA 190 290 and 16. From Rte 146, take 495 290 Rte 16 east to Uxbridge WORCESTER 9 9 Towpath Walk Center and turn left onto Leicester 122 90 1 Rte 122 north. In 1 ⁄2 miles Grafton 90 Upton turn right at traffic light onto Millbury 395 146 East Hartford Ave. In 1 mile Sutton Northbridge Hopedale 16 495 turn right on Oak Street at Mendon Uxbridge Millville 16 the Tri-River Family Health RIVER BEND FARM 122 Blackstone B lac Douglas ksto ne Ri ver Center. The Visitor Center CONNECTICUT MASSACHUSETTS 395 RHODE ISLAND Woonsocket is located in the large red 102 146 Cumberland Burrillville N. Smithfield barn at River Bend Farm. 295 Glocester 295 95 Smithfield Lincoln 44 Central Falls Pawtucket 146 East 44 Providence 102 PROVIDENCE ALONG THE WAY ❑ Lookout Rock provides one of the best views in the Valley. To get there, follow the 1.5-mile trail beginning at the Heritage State Park parking lot on East Hartford Avenue. Or go to the Quaker Street parking lot and follow the trail a short distance into the woods. Refer to the map inside for directions. ❑ Nearby historic sites in Uxbridge include the Cornet John Farnum House (c. 1710) at 44 Mendon Street (Rte. 16), home of the Uxbridge Historical Society, and Prospect Hill Cemetery, diagonally across from the Farnum House. An Uxbridge walking tour brochure is available at the River Bend Farm Visitor Center. ❑ Be sure to visit Millville Lock, the best preserved lock along the canal. Follow Rte. 122 South from Uxbridge to Millville Center. Turn right at the traffic light at the intersection of Rte. 122 and Central Street. Parking is available at the corner of Hope and Central A self-guided walk along 3 streets. Follow the old railroad bed to the lock, which is about ⁄4-mile away the historic Blackstone Canal. ❑ The Blackstone River runs wild through high rocks at Blackstone Gorge about 6 miles away. Follow Rte. 122 South through Millville into Blackstone. Turn right on County Road, following signs to the gorge. There is limited parking at the end of the street. Trails are left of Roaring Dam. ❑ America’s Industrial Revolution began when Samuel Slater established the nation’s first mechanized textile mill on the Blackstone River in 1793. Be sure to visit this historic working mill museum, just 20 miles south of Uxbridge in Pawtucket, RI. Free parking. Restrooms. Admission charged. Open June 1 through Labor Day, Tuesday–Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m., and Sunday 1 p.m.–5 p.m. 401-725-8638 THE BLACKSTONE RIVER & CANAL HERITAGE STATE PARK ❑ To take a riverboat excursion–spring, summer, or fall–call for the schedule for The Blackstone River and Canal The Explorer, Blackstone Valley Tourism Heritage State Park is owned and Council, 1-800-619-BOAT. managed by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental ❑ For further information about events, Management. The park includes restaurants, and lodging in the Valley, restored segments of the canal in Massachusettes call the Blackstone and tow path, a visitor center River Valley Visitors Bureau, at with exhibits, canoe launch sites, 1-800-841-0919; in Rhode Island call maps, brochures, interpretive the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council tours, concerts, and special at 1-800-454-BVTC. events. Free parking and free admission. Open daily. 287 Oak Street, Uxbridge, Massachusetts. 508-278-7604 Cover photo: Oil Painting of Lady Carrington by Rudolf Gniadek; Inside upper right: Illustration from engraving of the Blackstone Canal from an advertsement for the Providence & Worcester Boat Company, 1829, RIHS Collection (RHi X3 2739). 20: 07-97 BLACKSTONE CANAL In the early part of the th century, America was in the midst Inspired by the success of the Erie Canal [begun in ] of a second revolution. In many ways it was a quiet revolution, and spurred by the remarkable expansion of textile manufac- one that has gone largely unsung and uncelebrated. turing along the Blackstone in the early th century, Yet it was a revolution that profoundly and permanently a group of Providence and Worcester merchants formed the changed the way Americans live. It transformed a provincial Blackstone Canal Company in . The canal would meet agrarian society into an industrial giant, moved whole the considerable transportation demands of inland factories, populations off the farm and into the factories, and altered which needed both to obtain raw materials and to ship our relationship with the finished products to market. land, with time, and Overland travel on poor with each other. In time, th-century roads was time- it altered the landscape consuming and expensive. and affected nearly It could cost as much to haul every aspect of daily life. a ton of freight miles over- The revolution we land as it cost to ship it to are talking about is, England. The Blackstone of course, America’s Canal brought a savings of Provided by: Worcester Historical Museum Industrial Revolution. Towing a canal boat nearly percent on goods There is no better place The Blackstone Canal was built before the shipped to Worcester from Providence by canal over those advent of steam engines and other forms to begin to understand of self-propulsion. Horses were used to pull the boat, carrying as much as 40 tons carried overland from Boston. of freight, along the shallow, slow-moving its development than water. Two horses, one behind the other, But the canal was plagued with problems from the outset. were attached to the boat by a tow rope here on the banks of the and led along the towpath by a teamster. Mill owners argued over water rights. Ice closed the canal in Blackstone River, where it all began over years ago. winter. The canal was susceptible to flood and drought. The Blackstone, once “the hardest working river in The greatest cause of the canal’s demise was the Providence America,” descends feet in its -mile course from and Worcester Railroad, completed in . The railroad Worcester, Massachusetts, to Providence, Rhode Island. was cheaper, faster, and more reliable than the canal, and the By the early th century, feet of the river’s fall was canal ceased operation a year after the railroad opened. utilized by dams providing power to adjacent mills. The trail described in this brochure takes you along the For a span of years, from to , segments of Blackstone River and one of the few remaining sections of the the river were paralleled by a man-made canal on which canal. The numbered sites tell the story of the canal, of the horse-drawn boats carried freight and passengers between shift from farm to factory that it facilitated, and of the impact landlocked Worcester and the wharfs of Providence. of the Industrial Revolution on the land and its people. Local farmers, as well as manufacturers, shipped Plummer’s 1 Canoe Launch a wide range of products Landing from Plummer’s Landing. 2 MENDON ROAD CHURCH STREET QUAKER STREET Blackstone River 3 R TE.122 Blackstone Canal Lookout Rock PLUMMER’S LANDING1 OPEN3 FIELD 4 RD HILL WOLF (0.0 miles, north side of Church St.) (.80 miles) 5 The Blackstone Canal had been When the Blackstone Canal was Goat Hill Lock established for nearly 10 years when operational, most of New England Goat Hill 27-year-old Israel Plummer constructed looked like this cleared land. In fact, 6 ST UPTON a general store and warehouse beside at the time of the Civil War in 1861, Rice City an existing canal lock in 1837. Boats 85 percent of New England had been Pond entering the lock could easily tie up cleared for grazing livestock and 7 in the adjacent basin used to control planting crops. Wood was used for WEST RIVER ROAD Control Gate the water level in the lock. Plummer’s construction and fuel. Stone Arch Bridges Canoe Launch Landing became an important 8 commercial center. Local farmers HARTFORD River BendAVENUE Farm 9 brought their products to be shipped to Visitor Center G R A expanding markets, while coal, cotton, STREET OAK N CANAL IT molasses and other goods produced E S CONSTRUCTION T outside the Valley arrived at Plummer’s. R E 4 E 10 When the Providence and Worcester T (1.4 miles) Railroad replaced the canal in 1847, RTE.122 Plummer took advantage of the railroad The Blackstone Canal merged with 11 for a new business venture, shipping navigable portions of the river for 12 high quality structural granite from a approximately 10% of its 45 mile CROSS ST. quarry just a half-mile west of here. course. The rest was hand-dug, RTE.16 MENDON ST. PARKING Stanley Woolen Mill Today we can walk through the founda- using ox carts, picks, axes, iron bars, WALKING TOUR tion stones of Plummer’s buildings and shovels, and limited quantities of TOW PATH picture a time when this was a bustling black powder. The canal bed was stop on the canal. prism-shaped, 34-feet wide at the top and 18-feet at the bottom, and just 4- to 6-feet deep. It was fed by GOAT HILL a system of reservoirs, most of which LOCK NO. 25 were natural ponds enlarged by 5 LOCK NO. 26 damming. The tow path was about (1.7 miles) 1 2 3 feet higher than the water level A series of canal locks helped boats (0.05 miles, south of parking lot) and 8- to 10-feet wide. A thousand to ascend and descend the elevation The Blackstone Canal was built with men worked in the Massachusetts changes between Worcester and 48 stone locks and one wooden lock.

Load more