The
Neponset has a long history of being an industrial river.
The first
mill on the river was a grist mill, built in 1634. What
is a grist mill? A
grist mill processes grain.
Many
other types of mills
followed, including a lumber mill, a paper mill, a woolen mill and a
chocolate mill. In fact, you can still see the Baker Chocolate buildings
at Lower Mills (Dorchester - Milton). Chocolate was made at this
site for almost 200 years!
Waterpower
When
people from Europe began to move to Boston, hundreds of years ago, they quickly started to use the
river as a source of power to run mills.
These
people built dams to control
the water's flow and gather its energy. Water held back by the dam
flowed through a "shute" or "flume," to push a
"waterwheel."
The flume would
be located either over the wheel ("overshot"), or
underneath ("undershot"). The water would then be released back into the river by a
"spillway."
The waterwheel was
connected to other wheels ("gears") which could move things up and
down, like a hammer, or side-to-side, like a saw.
You can still find
dams on the Neponset, but they don't use the water to power mills,
any longer. In fact, the Neponset River Watershed Association is
attempting to modify and remove some of these dams to let fish
swim back up-river!
Some
fish swim between the salt water of the ocean (Boston Harbor)
and the fresh water of rivers and streams (Neponset River
system). Dams block these fish from getting very far into the
Neponset River system.
