Middlesex Canal Association: 2010-2019 Archived Items

Volunteers and docents are welcome at the museum!
If interested in helping out, contact Betty Bigwood.
[pictured: Gerry & Betty Bigwood, Traci Jensen, and Tom Dahill ~2010]

Sunday, Jan 31, 2010 - Winter Meeting of the Middlesex Canal Association
The Winter Meeting of the Middlesex Canal Association will be held on Sunday, January 31 at 2pm at the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitor Center, 71 Faulkner Rd in North Billerica, Ma. This will be a double header. First Tom Raphael, Chairman of the Middlesex Canal Commission, will show a PowerPoint presentation of his recent September trip to Serbia where he attended the World Canal's Conference.

Secondly, Fred Lawson, keeper of the Leon Cutler glass slides taken in the 1920's, will inaugurate a new PowerPoint presentation using these slides. It will give us a peek at remains almost 90 years ago.

Please join us. Handicapped accessible. Web site: www.middlesexcanal.org.

Feb 1-28, 2010 - Lincoln and Illinois & Michigan Canal exhibit. Lock 16 Visitor Center 754 First Street LaSalle, IL 61301. For information, contact Katie MacKay, 815-220-1848 or <reservations at canalcor dot org>.

Feb 18, 2010: Children's Workshop. An educational program about the Middlesex Canal for children in grades 2 and 3. To be held from 10:00am to 12:00pm at The Middlesex Canal Museum, 71 Faulkner Street, North Billerica. For directions to the museum, see the MCA Winter Meeting notice, above. The $15 enrollment fee includes membership to the MCA. For further information contact Traci Jansen at middlesexcanal4kids@gmail.com.

Sat, Feb 20, 2010 - Reception Honoring Tom Dahill; without whose art work our Museum would not exist, and for which invitations with more detailed information will be mailed to our members and other guests. An Exhibition of Tom's work will be on display in the Reardon Room of the museum from Feb 18th to 28th.

February 25, 2010 - I&M Canal Corridor Association Annual Luncheon, Drake Hotel, Chicago. For an invitation, contact Katie MacKay, 815-220-1848 or <reservations at canalcor dot org>. Lock 16 Visitor Center 754 First Street LaSalle, IL 61301.

March 6, 2010 - CSNY Winter Symposium, Monroe Community College, Rochester, NY. Contact: Tom Grasso <tgrasso1 at rochester dot rr dot com>.

March 13, 2010 - C&O VIP Work Party, 9 to 12 noon. Painting the Georgetown canal boat. Contact Jim Heins (301-949-3518 or <vip at candocanal dot org>.

March 13, 2010 - National Canal Museum, Canal History & Technology Symposium, Easton, PA. Call 610-559-6613; www.canals.org.

Saturday, April 24, 2010 - MCA-AMC Spring Walk.
Middlesex Canal; Joint with Appalachian Mountain Club; meeting time 1:30pm. The walk will originate from the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitor Center in the Faulkner Mill in North Billerica. It will be conducted for 2-3 hours, rain or shine, over 3 to 4 miles of generally level wooded terrain and streets. The route follows the canal south of the Concord River. Sites to be visited include a guard lock, an anchor stone for the floating bridge which once carried the towpath across the river, and many stretches of canal, some still watered. No registration required, for more information: call walk leaders: Roger Hagopian 781-861-7868 or Robert Winters 617-661-9230; robert@middlesexcanal.org. For directions to the museum, see left. The Museum and Visitor Center, and the bookstore, will be open from 12 noon to 4pm.

Sunday, May 16, 2010 - Annual Meeting of the Middlesex Canal Association.
This meeting will elect a new slate of Officers and Board Members. Dorit Lammers, author of the book "German Glass Blowers in Chelmsford" will give a talk about the Hunnewell and Gore Glass Works, which operated in Chelmsford from 1802 to 1839. The meeting will be held in the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitor Center in the Faulkner Mill in North Billerica, beginning at 2:00pm.

April 9-11, 2010: Canal Society of Indiana - "Hoosiers on the Move" - Headquarters: Comfort Inn, Richmond, Ind., 765-935-4766; room rate: $61.60 includes tax. Tour will cover the Whitewater Canal, National Road, Quakers, Politicians, and Underground Railroad in Wayne County, Indiana. Carolyn Schmidt, <indcanal at aol dot com>; 260-432-0279.

April 9-11, 2010 - Virginia Canals & Navigations Society spring conference, Harper's Ferry, WV. Sat. field trips. Bill Trout, 252-482-5946; <bill at vacanals dot org>.

April 16-18, 2010 -- Pennsylvania Canal Society Spring Field Trip: upper grand section of the Lehigh Canal. Contact: Bill Lampert, <indnbll at yahoo dot com>, 215-262-5506.

April 17, 2010 - Annual Douglas Memorial Hike and Dinner. Three different hike length options with bus transportation provided. Cumberland to Spring Gap area with dinner and evening program at the Orleans Volunteer Fire Dept. Dorothea Malsbary, 301-942-2528; <Programs at CandOCanal dot org>.

April 23-25, 2010 or April 20-May 2, 2010 - "Bridging the Tuscarawas Gap" - See trail development along the Ohio & Erie Canal, restored toll house, Trenton dam and feeder & Lock 15 Park. Contact Larry Turner, 330-658-8344 or <towpathturner at aol dot com>.

May 1, 2010 - Canal Walk/Ride. Join the Canal Corridor Association in Morris, IL for the third annual I&M Canal Walk or Ride Celebration. Walk one to five miles or bike ten to twenty-five miles during this fun, family event. Bring a group from your business or invite some friends and make it a team effort! Contact Katie MacKay, <reservations at canalcor dot org> or 815-220-1848.

Sun, May 16, 2010. [AMC Boston Chapter, Forty-Plus Committee] Blackstone River and Canal Walk. Moderate five-mile Sunday morning hike along the towpath of this historic river located 45 miles southwest of Boston in Uxbridge. Leader Bruce Wright, Co-Leader Kathy Moss. [Registration is required for this trip. AMC membership may be required.]

May 21-23, 2010: Canal Society of New York State Spring Field Trip: Champlain Canal and the PCB cleanup project at Fort Edward. Headquarters: Queensbury Hotel, Glens Falls, NY. Room rate: $99 plus tax; 518-792-1121. Check the web, www.canalsnys.org for updates.

May 22, 2010 - CSNY, Dedication of restored Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct, Camillus Canal Society, Camillus, NY. Contact Dave and Liz Beebe, <dwbeebe at verizon dot net>.

June 19-20, 2010 - Heritage Transportation Festival, Delphi, (IN) Canal Park. 1850 transportation, canal boat rides, high-wheel bicycles, carriage rides, etc. See the W&E web site at www.wabashanderiecanal.org, or contact Dan McCain at <mccain at carlnet dot org>.

September 19-24, 2010: World Canals Conference, Rochester, NY. Contact: www.worldcanalsconference.org. Post conference tours Friday 24 September check www.wccrochester.org.

October 1-16, 2010: Study tour of south German waterways. Contact Tom Grasso, www.canalsnys.org.

Historic Bicycle Tour of Middlesex Canal

On Saturday, October 2, 2010, MassBike, the Somerville Historic Preservation Commission, the Middlesex Canal Commission and the Middlesex Canal Association sponsored the 8th annual historic bicycle tour of the Middlesex Canal. The Canal was the "big dig" of the end of the 18th century. Completed in 1803 after 10 years of construction, the Canal connected the Merrimac River in what is now Lowell with the Charles River at Sullivan Square in Charlestown. In many ways it served as a model for later canals including the Erie Canal. The Canal remained in operation for 50 years, providing both passenger and freight service, but could not compete successfully with the Boston and Lowell Railroad which began operation in the 1830's.

The ride met at the Canal marker on the Sullivan Square MBTA station at 9:00am and proceeded from there about 28 miles to the Historic Mill Village and Canal Museum on the Millpond in North Billerica. After a lunch stop in Woburn, the ride continued to North Billerica (for those who wished to catch the 3:07pm train back to Boston) and on to the northern section of the Canal another 10 miles from North Billerica to Lowell and catch the 5:00pm train back from there.

The route is pretty flat and level and cyclists average about 5 miles per hour including all the stops at important remnants, restored sections of the Canal, as well as the Mansion of Loammi Baldwin, the chief engineer of the Canal (who discovered the Baldwin apple while building the Canal), the two remaining aqueducts (which carried the Canal over rivers and brooks), and the northern end of the floating towpath that carried horses over the Millpond.

The ride was led by Dick Bauer of the Somerville Historic Preservation Commission and the Middlesex Canal Commission, Robert Winters of the Middlesex Canal Association, and Bill Kuttner of the Shirley-Eustis House. Steady rain cancels. For more information, contact Dick at dick.bauer@alum.mit.edu (857-540-6293), Robert at robert@middlesexcanal.org, or Bill at bkuttner@ctps.org.

If anyone on the ride has some good photos taken during the ride, we would love to post them here or link to them.

Cue sheet for the Oct 2, 2010 Ride

October 8-10, 2010: Pennsylvania Canal Society fall trip.

The MCA-AMC Fall Walk took place on Sunday, October 17, 2010 along a scenic section of the Middlesex Canal from the Wilmington Town Park to Patch's Pond.

Photos from the 2010 Fall Walk

October 22-24, 2010: Fall tour of historic water-powered mills and a forum/panel discussion on preservation of old hydro mills. Sponsored by the Society for Industrial Archaeology (NNEC) and the Society for the Preservation of Old Mills (SPOOM/NE), in partnership with River Valley Community College. A bus tour of historic water-powered mills in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire will be part of the annual statewide old hydro mills conference held at RVCC, Keene campus, Keene, NH. See website for details : www.spoom.org.

October 22-24, 2010 - "River Boats, Pirates and Caves." Headquartered in Evansville, IN. Bus tour of southeastern Illinois, Cave In Rock, Garden of the Gods, Ohio River locks, Paducah, Kentucky flood wall murals (possibly Quilters Hall of Fame and the Civil War Museum) on Saturday. Friday tour of LST in Evansville, Sunday Wabash & Erie Canal in Warrick County Indiana. Carolyn Schmidt, 260-432-0279; <indcanal at aol dot com>.

Sunday, November 7, 2010 - Fall Meeting - Middlesex Canal Association

Tom Raphael, Chairman of the Middlesex Canal Commission and MCA Board member, will discuss "The Middlesex Turnpike - Partner or Competitor to the Canal?" The meeting will be held, beginning at 2:00pm, in the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitor Center in the Faulkner Mill in North Billerica.

Many of us learned about the 1785 wooden plank road through the Cumberland Pass in Virginia. But few of us were taught that there followed a flurry of turnpike building throughout the 13 colonies, all built by private business. All told, 118 turnpikes were completed in Massachusetts, many of which are still with us. Tom's talk will cover the Middlesex Turnpike's construction, problems and uses, and lead us on a virtual journey over the complete route as it was when built, and how it serves us today.

In addition - Local author and historian David D'Apice will be discussing the content of his newest book, Postcard History Series: Billerica. His efforts to preserve Billerica's history include the restoration of several period buildings in town and the digitization of 1,200 glass-plate negatives and nearly 2,000 pages of the town's earliest historical records. Signed books will be available for sale.

Sunday, February 13, 2011, 2:00pm - Winter Meeting - Middlesex Canal Association: Professor Chad Montrie, from the History Department, University of Massachusetts Lowell will describe Industry and Environment on the Lower Concord River, 1790-1890.

The Lower Concord River, a winding two-mile stretch of waterway that courses through Lowell, has long been neglected in academic histories as well as national park programming. Yet this short section has a profoundly interesting and important story, one that complicates the way we think about the origins and expansion of industrial manufacturing. During the nineteenth century, it not only hosted woolen and cotton textile mills but also an iron works, gunpowder mills, a cartridge factory, and tanneries, all of which used the river for power and waste disposal. At the same time, the banks of the Lower Concord were (and are) the site for one of the nation's first garden cemeteries and two parks landscaped in the romantic tradition, drawing Lowell residents for escape to nature. This presentation will examine both uses, seemingly at odds, and discuss how they were and were not reconciled.

March 5, 2011 – Canal Society of New York State Winter Symposium and Annual Meeting, Monroe Community College, Rochester, New York. www.newyorkcanals.org.

April 3, 2011 - Former MCA President and long-time MCA Board Member Wilbar Hoxie passed away peacefully today, April 3, 2011 at 6:00PM at the Bear Hill Nursing Center. He was 94 years old and in failing health for the last few years. Atty. David Fitch, Past President of the Middlesex Canal Association, has been handling Will's affairs and will arrange for him to be cremated and have his ashes scattered in Maine as his wife Edith's were. There will be a celebration of his life to be arranged within a week or so.

Wil was a very early member of the Middlesex Canal Association, served on its Board of Directors for about 35 years and as its President from 1975 to '77. He was also actively involved with several other historical and preservation oriented organizations. As a career Army Officer, he served in Coastal Defense, Air Defense Artillery and Civil Engineering assignments.

Obituary/Guest Book

Sunday, Apr 17, 2011. Middlesex Canal Association Spring Walk, Woburn. Level 3-mi. joint walk w/Appalachian Mountain Club along 2 sections of historic canal, 1:30pm. From Rte. 95/128 exit 35 in Woburn, take Rte. 38 S 0.1 mi., R onto Middlesex Canal Dr. past Ramada Inn to SE corner of parking lot behind Woburn Cinemas. Info: www.middlesexcanal.org. Ls Roger Hagopian (781-861-7868) and Robert Winters (robert@middlesexcanal.org).

After the walk, a presentation will be made in the Baldwin Mansion, the home of the builder of the canal, on the history of the mansion and on the park planned for the mile of canal just walked. The Sichuan Garden II restaurant, located in the mansion, has made a room available for the talk and for dining, menu at http://www.sichuangarden2.com/dinner.shtml.

Sunday, May 1, 2011, 2:30pm - Annual Meeting - Middlesex Canal Association -- in the museum, at 2:30pm. We will elect new officers at that time. The speaker will be Charles Parrott from the National Park Service in Lowell. His topic - The South Mill at Boston's Mill Pond and the Reconstruction of its Waterpower System.

One of America's earliest tide mills was built on the Shawmut Peninsula not many years after Boston was settled in 1630. It was located on the south side of a newly dammed cove, known since then simply as the Mill Pond. Millers ground rye flour and corn meal at the South Mill for the town's inhabitants for more than 150 years until the early years of the 19th century when it was demolished and the Mill Pond filled to make new land for the growing city. However some parts of the wooden gearing system that powered the mill's water wheel were deposited in the water course and were subsequently buried until the 1990s when some fragments of them were archeologically recovered in the work of the Big Dig. From those few salvaged pieces, and an understanding of the millwright technology of the period, a conjectural design of the waterpower system that drove the mill was developed. This presentation will recount the story of that reconstruction and show the three-dimensional solid CAD model drawn to illustrate what may have been the design of the mill's ancient mechanical works.

Directions to the Museum/Visitors Center: Telephone: 978-670-2740.
By Car: From Rt. 128/95, take Route 3 toward Nashua, to Exit 28 "Treble Cove Road, North Billerica, Carlisle". At the end of the ramp, turn left onto Treble Cove Road toward North Billerica. At about 3/4 mile, bear left at a fork. After another 3/4 mile, at a traffic light, cross straight over Route 3A. Go about 1/4 mile to a 3-way fork; take the middle road, Talbot Street, which will put St. Andrew's Church on your left. Go about 1/4 mile and bear right onto Old Elm Street. Go about 1/4 mile to the falls, where Old Elm becomes Faulkner Street; the Museum is on your left and you can park across the street on your right, just beyond the falls.
From I-495, take exit 37, N. Billerica, south to the road's end at a "T" intersection, turn right, then bear right at the Y, go 700' and turn left into the parking lot. The Museum is across the street.
By Train: The Lowell Commuter Line runs between Boston's North Station and Lowell's Gallagher Terminal. Get off at the North Billerica station, which is one stop south of Lowell. From the station side of the tracks, the Museum is a 3-minute walk down Station and Faulkner Streets on the right side.

Apr 1-3, 2011 – "Conquering the Swamp" - The canal societies of Indiana and Ohio will sponsor this tour that covers the Miami & Erie Canal; the Wabash & Erie at Junction, Ohio; and Paulding County, Ohio. Learn the trials and tribulations of digging through a big swamp. www.indcanal.org; <indcanal at aol dot com>. HQ: Holiday Inn, Van Wert, Ohio.

Apr 2, 2011 – Annual Meeting of the American Canal Society will be held in concert with this CSO/CSI meeting; at 8:30 PM. See above.

April 15-17, 2011 – Virginia Canals & Navigations Society annual meeting in Buchanan, the western terminus of the James River & Kanawha Canal, with a catered canoe/kayak voyage on the canal's Unfinished Division. Details: Phil de Vos, <phipfox at yahoo dot com>.

April 28, 2011 – Lock 16 Dinner & Lecture: Morton Salt and Other Companies in Relation to the I&M Canal; Jim Ballowe. Lock 16 Center, 754 First St., LaSalle, Illinois; $27 members, $30 non-members. 815-223-1851; www.lasallecanalboat.org.

April 29-May 1, 2011 – Pennsylvania Canal Society tour of the Lower Division of the Lehigh Navigation. Contact: Bill Lampert, <indnbll at yahoo dot com>.

Sat, June 11, 2011 - Historic Mill Village Field Trip and Bike Ride. We will gather at North Station and take the 10:00am train to N. Billerica ($6.25 one-way). Those who bring bicycles will visit the museum briefly, and then ride to Boston following the route of the Middlesex Canal. Non-cyclists will enjoy the museum and mill village and return on either the 1:07pm or 3:07pm train. Light refreshments will be served and a $5 donation to the museum is requested. Contact: Bill Kuttner 617-973-7132.

June 1 to July 9, 2011 - An exhibit that recognizes "The Canal that Bisected Boston" (aka the Mill Creek Canal, http://middlesexcanal.org/towpath/towpathtopicsMar2008.htm), and the Middlesex Canal, at the 7 West End Museum, in Boston. Details can be found at http://middlesexcanal.org/.

Fri, July 1, 2011, 7:00pm - "The Canal that Cut Boston in Two", a film by Roger Hagopian at the West End Museum. Filmmaker Roger Hagopian will show his film of David Dettinger's thesis: "The Canal that Cut Boston in Two" and discuss the project with the audience.

Early in its operation the Middlesex Canal terminated at the Charlestown Mill Pond near what is now the Sullivan Square T Station. An ingenious method of pulling the boats across the Charles River was devised using a chain marked by floats at the top and tethered by weights at the bottom. This was necessary because the boats had no keel and were 70 feet long and unwieldy; hand over hand the scows and barges of the Middlesex Canal were pulled across the Charles River to Barton's Point.

Sometime later, a canal was dug across the Causeway sand bar and boats were taken across the Boston Mill Pond to meet up with the Mill Creek coming from the ocean. Thus Boston was bisected; cut in two by the Canal.

In 1808, Charles Bulfinch devised a plan to fill in the Mill Pond, and designed the Bulfinch Triangle. At the top of the triangle is Causeway Street, the old sand bar, and through the center of the triangle ran the Canal and is today's Canal Street.

The West End Museum is located at 150 Staniford Street, Lomasney Way side, Boston, MA 02114. For information call 617-416-0718 or visit thewestendmuseum.org.

Sat, Oct 1, 2011 - 9th Annual Middlesex Canal Bicycle Ride. Meet 9:00am at the Middlesex Canal plaque, Sullivan Square T Station. The ride will follow the Canal route 38 miles to Lowell, and return by train to Boston. [Cue sheet for the Oct 2, 2010 Ride]. Snack at Kiwanis Park, Woburn (across Canal from Baldwin Mansion, 2 Alfred St); visit the Canal Museum, 71 Faulkner St, N. Billerica. Riders who leave early can take a Lowell line train back to Boston with opportunities at Wilmington and N. Billerica. Leader: Dick Bauer.

David Dettinger - October 3, 2011

David Dettinger, age 92, of Winchester, died Oct 3, 2011. Born in 1919 in Little Falls NY, he was the loving husband for 59 years of Carolyn (Poole). He was the devoted father of Douglas Dettinger of Woburn, and Ellen Fleischer and her husband Balint of Groton. Dave was the loving grandfather of Kyle and Ryan Fleischer and the dear brother of the late Jane Anthony and her husband Dave of Costa Mesa CA. He is survived by his brother and sister-in-law Archie and Harriet Mathews of Knoxville TN, loving nieces and nephews, and many dear friends. Dave was a graduate of St. Lawrence University and attended graduate school at MIT.

A Memorial Service will be held at the Crawford Memorial United Methodist Church, 34 Dix St., Winchester (corner of Dix and Church St.), on Sat., Oct. 15th at 10am. Relatives and friends are kindly invited.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Dave's memory may be made to CARE Gift Center, PO Box 7039, Merrifield VA 22116-9753 or online at www.care.org.

Dave has been a long-time Board member of the Middlesex Canal Association and the prime mover of the Bicentennial Decade commemoration marking the 200th Anniversary of the opening of the Middlesex Canal. He was one of the nicest and most decent men you could ever know.

October, 2011 - October 1, 8, 15, 22, 29. The 24th annual guided walking tour of all 58.89 miles of the Delaware Canal from Easton to Bristol, Pennsylvania. 12-mile+/- sections. Visit www.fodc.org for full itinerary.

Oct 9, 2011 - Walk the D&R Canal from Alexander Road, Princeton, NJ, to Carnegie Road (5.5 miles). Meet at 10AM at the Basin parking lot on Alexander Road. Contact Bob Barth, 201-401-3121.

Oct 14-16, 2011 - Canal Society of New York State Fall Field Trip, Western Wayne County, with headquarters in Newark. For updates, please check the web at www.newyorkcanals.org.

October 21-23, 2011 - Pennsylvania Canal Society tour of the Juniata Division of the Main Line Canal from Newport to Raystown Feeder Dam. Based at the Quality Inn in Lewistown. Contact: Bill Lampert, indnbll@yahoo.com.

Oct 26, 2011 - National Mule Day. Please check www.lasallecanalboat.org for event updates. 815-223-1851.

Oct 29, 2011 - The Society for Industrial Archeology, Northern New England Chapter, Fall Meeting and Field Trip will be hosted by the Manchester Historic Association and based at the Millyard Museum, 200 Bedford Street, in Manchester NH. The museum will open at 9:00am for a short SIA meeting and a 'change-of-command' as Dave Coughlin steps down and David Dunning takes over as president. The AM program will start at 9:30am and focus on the Canals of the Merrimack River with a presentation by member Bill Gerber and a visit to the sites of both Blodget's/Amoskeag and Merrill's Canals. In the PM, Aurore Eaton, Executive Director of the MHA will conduct a millyard and workers housing district tour. For additional information contact L. Dave Coughlin at <ykforestry@yahoo.com>.

Sun, Nov 6, 2011 - MCA Fall Meeting -- in the museum, at 2:30 PM.
Tom Raphael will start with a report on the 2011 World Canals Conference in Amsterdam. At 3 o'clock, the main speaker, Jeff Ellis, will regale us with illustrated tales of his ride with 500 other bicyclists along the 400-mile Erie Canal.

"In Search of Locks, a 400 mile Bicycle Tour of the Erie Canal".
Multiple New York organizations sponsored this year's 13th consecutive running of Cycling the Erie Canal. This tour began in Buffalo on July 9th and ended 8-days later in Albany. Roughly two-thirds of the tour took place on the completed portion of the Canalway Trail System. When complete, this system will span more than 500 miles and connect the many cities, towns and villages along the Erie, Cayuga-Seneca, Oswego and Champlain canals, making it one of the longest multi-use recreational trails in the country. More than 500 cyclists from about three dozen states participated, among them - our speaker, Jeff Ellis, from Billerica - who will regale you with photos and tales of his extraordinary experience. To 'cram' for Jeff's talk you can find an extensive description of the tour at http://www.ptny.org/canaltour/, and a copy of the tour handbook at http://www.ptny.org/pdfs/canaltour/handbook.pdf.

Directions to the Museum/Visitors Center: Telephone: 978-670-2740.
By Car: From Rte. 128/95, take Route 3 toward Nashua, to Exit 28 "Treble Cove Road, North Billerica, Carlisle". At the end of the ramp, turn left onto Treble Cove Road toward North Billerica. At about 3/4 mile, bear left at a fork. After another 3/4 mile, at a traffic light, cross straight over Route 3A. Go about 1/4 mile to a 3-way fork; take the middle road, Talbot Street, which will put St. Andrew's Church on your left. Go about 1/4 mile and bear right onto Old Elm Street. Go about 1/4 mile to the falls, where Old Elm becomes Faulkner Street; the Museum is on your left and you can park across the street on your right, just beyond the falls.
From I-495, take exit 37, N. Billerica, south to the road's end at a "T" intersection, turn right, then bear right at the Y, go 700' and turn left into the parking lot. The Museum is across the street.
By Train: The Lowell Commuter Line runs between Boston's North Station and Lowell's Gallagher Terminal. Get off at the North Billerica station, which is one stop south of Lowell. From the station side of the tracks, the Museum is a 3-minute walk down Station and Faulkner Streets on the right side.

Nov 20, 2011 - Walk the D&R Canal Feeder from the Ellarslie Mansion in Cadwalader Park, Trenton, NJ, to the junction with the main canal at Old Rose St. Meet at 10 AM at Ellarslie. Contact Bob Barth, 201-401-3121.

Sun, Feb 12, 2012, 2:30pm - MCA Winter Meeting: Uneasy Partners: Wamesit Power Company and the Lowell Bleachery, a talk by Mr. Gray Fitzsimons, Member of the Board of Directors of the Lowell Historical Society and former Historian for the National Park Service in Lowell.

One of the earliest of Lowell's large-scale textile companies, the Lowell Bleachery was established in 1832 not along one of the major power canals or waterways, but instead along Hale's Brook, a small tributary of the Concord River. The Bleachery is very likely the least studied of any of Lowell's large textile concerns and its relationship to the Wamesit Power Company, organized in 1865 out of the industrial enterprises of local capitalist Oliver Whipple, has never been explored. This presentation will highlight both the history of the Lowell Bleachery and the Wamesit Power Company's Wamesit Canal, and will examine the relations between a company, composed largely of outside investors, with the locally held Wamesit concern. As will be seen, a lawsuit in the 1880s over the Wamesit Power Company's legal requirement to upgrade the Wamesit Canal and hydro-mechanical works, sheds a great deal of light not only on the Wamesit system, but also on the relationship between Wamesit Company, the Bleachery, and the other industrial concerns served by the Wamesit Canal.

Directions to the Museum/Visitors Center: Telephone: 978-670-2740.
By Car:
From Rte. 128/95, take Route 3 toward Nashua, to Exit 28 “Treble Cove Road, North Billerica, Carlisle”. At the end of the ramp, turn left onto Treble Cove Road toward North Billerica. At about ¾ mile, bear left at a fork. After another ¾ mile, at a traffic light, cross straight over Route 3A. Go about ¼ mile to a 3-way fork; take the middle road, Talbot Street, which will put St. Andrew's Church on your left. Go about ¼ mile and bear right onto Old Elm Street. Go about ¼ mile to the falls, where Old Elm becomes Faulkner Street; the Museum is on your left and you can park across the street on your right, just beyond the falls.
From I-495, take exit 37, N. Billerica, south to the road's end at a “T” intersection, turn right, then bear right at the Y, go 700' and turn left into the parking lot. The Museum is across the street.
By Train: The Lowell Commuter Line runs between Boston's North Station and Lowell's Gallagher Terminal. Get off at the North Billerica station, which is one stop south of Lowell. From the station side of the tracks, the Museum is a 3-minute walk down Station and Faulkner Streets on the right side.

Mar 10, 2012 - Canal Society of New York State Winter Meeting and Symposium, Rochester, NY. For details, visit www.newyorkcanals.org.

Sun, Apr 1, 2012 - Spring Bicycle Tour of Historic Middlesex Canal.

Spring Bicycle Tour of Historic Middlesex Canal - now an annual tradition

On Sunday, April 1, 2012 and again on Sunday, April 7, 2013, the Middlesex Canal Association sponsored a spring bicycle tour of the Middlesex Canal. The Canal was the “big dig” of the end of the 18th century. Completed in 1803 after 10 years of construction, the Canal connected the Merrimac River in what is now Lowell with the Charles River at Sullivan Square in Charlestown. In many ways it served as a model for later canals including the Erie Canal. The Canal remained in operation for 50 years, providing both passenger and freight service, but could not compete successfully with the Boston and Lowell Railroad which began operation in the 1830’s.

The riders met at 9:30am at North Station (commuter rail) and took their bicycles on the 10am train to Lowell. (Riders could also board at West Medford at 10:11am or meet the Train when it arrived in Lowell at 10:43am). The route visited Lowell canals, river walk, Francis Gate, and then Middlesex Canal remnants in Chelmsford. Lunch at Route 3A mini-mall in Billerica. Quick visit to Canal Museum, then on to Boston.

Riders needing to leave early could get the train to Boston at 1:07pm at North Billerica or at 3:14pm at Wilmington. Participants were responsible for one-way train fare. Complete Lowell line schedules can be downloaded at www.mbcr.net if anyone wishes to plan a rail travel itinerary specific to their needs.

The route is pretty flat and level and the average speed was estimated at 5 miles per hour - easy for most cyclists. Along the way the riders stopped at a number of remnants and restored sections of the Canal, as well as the Mansion of Loammi Baldwin, the chief engineer of the Canal (who discovered the Baldwin apple while building the Canal), the two remaining aqueducts (which carried the Canal over rivers and brooks), and the northern end of the floating towpath that carried horses over the Millpond.

The ride was led by Bill Kuttner of the Shirley Eustis House (617-241-9383, bkuttner@ctps.org) and Dick Bauer of the Somerville Historic Preservation Commission and the Middlesex Canal Commission (857-540-6293, dick.bauer@alum.mit.edu). Helmets were required.

For more information about the Middlesex Canal go to: http://www.middlesexcanal.org.

Sun, Apr 15, 2012 – Joint MCA-AMC Middlesex Spring Canal Walk, N. Billerica. (rain date Sun, Apr 22) Level 5-mi. walk along historic canal N to Chelmsford, 1:30-4pm. Meet at the Middlesex Canal Museum (opens at noon). From Rt. 128/95, take Route 3 toward Nashua, to Exit 28 "Treble Cove Road". End of ramp, turn L toward North Billerica. At about ¾ mile, bear L at a fork. At traffic light, cross over Route 3A. Go thru "S" to a 3-way fork; take Talbot Street (straight ahead, which puts St. Andrew's Church on your left). Go about ¼ mile and bear R onto Old Elm Street, which becomes Faulkner Street. Go about ¼ mile to the falls at the dam; the Museum is on your left, park across the street. No registration required. Info: www.middlesexcanal.org or Roger Hagopian (781-861-7868 to 10pm). L Robert Winters (617-661-9230; Robert@rwinters.com).

Sat, April 7, 2012 (rescheduled) - Lock Tender Training, conducted by Lowell Parks and Conservation Trust, supporting Concord River Whitewater Rafting. To be held at 9:00am at the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center, 50 Warren Street, Lowell MA. Learn to operate a "real" lock! Training is conducted at Warren Locks on the Pawtucket Canal (aka Lower Locks and Concord Locks). Volunteer lock tending shifts are Saturdays and Sundays thru April and May and last from 10:30am to 12:00pm and 2:30pm to 4:00pm. Proper training and a signed release form are required for all lock tenders. For further information - Gwen Kozlowski, Stewardship & Education Manager (gwen@lowelllandtrust.org), Mon. to Thurs., 8:30am to 4:30pm.
Postponed due to low water levels.

Apr 13-15, 2012 - Canal Society of Indiana 30th Anniversary Tour, headquartered in Batesville, IN. Bus & Whitewater Valley Railroad tour of Whitewater Canal locks and dam (Connersville to Brookville). Visit Whitewater Canal headquarters, Gateway Park, Yellowbank Lock 21, railroad shops and yard. Meals at historic Laurel Hotel and Sherman House. Teddy Roosevelt re-enactor on NY and Panama canals

Wed, April 25, 2012, 6:30pm. A Longer Journey Than I Ever Imagined, a talk by Tom Raphael, chairman of the executive committee of the Middlesex Canal Commission, describing the effort to enhance the Canal with money from the federal gas tax. The talk is at the West End Museum, 150 Staniford Street, Suite 7, Boston 02114, across Lomasney Way from the O'Neil Building/North Station. www.thewestendmuseum.org.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LOU ENO AND THE MCA (2012)

Arthur L. Eno, Esquire, first President of the MCA, celebrates his 88th Birthday on April 27, 2012. Lou and a small group of Billerica Historical Society members started the Middlesex Canal Association 50 years ago after hearing a stimulating lecture by Harry Lasher.

Tom Raphael, Louis Eno, and Betty Bigwood at Linscott painting

Sun, April 29, 2012 - MCA's Annual Spring Meeting will take place in the museum, at 1:00 PM. Nancy Lusignan Schultz, author of the book "Fire and Roses", the story of the 1834 burning of the Ursuline Convent and School in Charlestown, the target of a violent anti-Catholic riot in 19th century Massachutts, will be our speaker. Election of officers for the forthcoming year will occur at this meeting. Refreshments will be provided following the meeting.

Strange Tales of Two Canals: Washington City, 1824 and Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1834
Nancy Lusignan Schultz will discuss key events from two of her books that touch on the history of the Washington, DC and Middlesex Canals. Mrs. Mattingly's Miracle (Yale UP 2011) discusses a miraculous cure that took place in the Federal City in 1824, and the burning of the Charlestown Convent, 1834, from her book Fire and Roses. Both books will be available at a special discount after the event.

Wed, Sept 26, 2012, 7:00pm
Viewing of a documentary film by Roger Hagopian: The Canal That Bisected Boston
(Watertown Free Public Library, 123 Main Street, Watertown, MA 02472)
Early in its operation the Middlesex Canal terminated at the Charlestown Mill Pond near the Sullivan Square T Station. An ingenious method of pulling the boats across the Charles River was devised using a chain marked by floats at the top and tethered by weights at the bottom. This was necessary because the boats had no keel and were 70 feet long and unwieldy. Hand over hand the scows and barges of the Middlesex Canal were pulled across the Charles River to Barton's Point.

Sometime later, a canal was dug across the causeway sand bar and boats were taken across the Boston Mill Pond to meet up with the Mill Creek coming from the ocean. Thus, Boston was bisected by the Canal.

In 1808 Charles Bulfinch devised a plan to fill in the Mill Pond, and designed the Bulfinch Triangle. At the top of the triangle is Causeway Street, the old sandbar, and through the center of the triangle ran the Canal, which is today's Canal Street.

Mr. Hagopian is a board member of the Middlesex Canal Association. A history lover since his youth, Roger is a 1972 graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Boston, where he received his degree in music. His films include: Journey Along the Middlesex Canal (1996), Journey of an Armenian Family (1999), Memories of Marash, The Legacy of a Lost Armenian Community (2002), Victory at Van (2006), Our Boys, Armenian-American World War II Veterans (2006), Memory Fragments of the Armenian Genocide (2007), Destination Watertown: The Armenians of Hood Rubber (2009). Hagopian has had film presentations at high schools, universities, libraries, community centers and private homes. "For me, video is a way of telling history that is educational, multidimensional, and compelling."

This program is free and open to the public. For more information, call Joyce at 781-899-7239.

Update - Despite uncertain weather at the start, the Fall 2012 Bicycle Tour had 17 riders
Sat, Sept 29, 2012 - Historic Bicycle Tour of Middlesex Canal: On Saturday, Sept 29, 2012, MassBike, the Somerville Historic Preservation Commission, the Middlesex Canal Commission and the Middlesex Canal Association will sponsor the 10th annual historic bicycle tour of the Middlesex Canal. The Canal was the "big dig" of the end of the 18th century. Completed in 1803 after 10 years of construction, the Canal connected the Merrimac River in what is now Lowell with the Charles River at Sullivan Square in Charlestown. In many ways it served as a model for later canals including the Erie Canal. The Canal remained in operation for 50 years, providing both passenger and freight service, but could not compete successfully with the Boston and Lowell Railroad which began operation in the 1830's.

The ride will meet at the Canal marker on the Sullivan Square MBTA station at 9:00am and proceeded from there about 28 miles to the Historic Mill Village and Canal Museum on the Millpond in North Billerica. After a lunch stop in Woburn, the ride continued to North Billerica (for those who wished to catch the 3:07pm train back to Boston) and on to the northern section of the Canal another 10 miles from North Billerica to Lowell and catch the 5:00pm train back from there.

The route is pretty flat and level and cyclists average about 5 miles per hour including all the stops at important remnants, restored sections of the Canal, as well as the Mansion of Loammi Baldwin, the chief engineer of the Canal (who discovered the Baldwin apple while building the Canal), the two remaining aqueducts (which carried the Canal over rivers and brooks), and the northern end of the floating towpath that carried horses over the Millpond.

The ride will be led by Dick Bauer of the Somerville Historic Preservation Commission and the Middlesex Canal Commission, Robert Winters of the Middlesex Canal Association, and Bill Kuttner of the Shirley-Eustis House. Steady rain cancels. For more information, contact Dick at dick.bauer@alum.mit.edu (857-540-6293), Robert at robert@middlesexcanal.org, or Bill at bkuttner@ctps.org.

Sun, Oct 14, 2012 - A walk with pruning shears and loppers will occur Sunday, October 14th, 1:30pm, to cut back the overgrowth along the route of the MCA-AMC Fall Walk to be held the following week. Contact J.J. Breen at jj@middlesexcanal.org for details. Volunteers most welcome. Meet at the Museum.

Sun, Oct 21, 2012. Joint MCA-AMC Fall Middlesex Canal Walk. Meet at 1:30pm at the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitor Center in the Faulkner Mill in North Billerica. The walk will be over 3-4 miles of generally level wooded terrain and streets, for 2-3 hours, rain or shine. The route follows the canal south of the Concord River. Sites to be visited include a guard lock, an anchor stone for the floating bridge which once carried the towpath across the river, and many stretches of canal, some still watered. The Museum, Visitor Center and bookstore will be open from 12:00pm-4:00pm. No dogs, please. Phone 1-978-670-2740. L Robert Winters ((617) 661-9230; robert@middlesexcanal.org), CL Roger Hagopian ((781) 861-7868 to 10pm).

Fall Walk, Oct 21, 2012 - Pictures by Russ Silva

November 4, 2012 - The Middlesex Canal Association will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary with a van tour of the canal, "the greatest work of the kind that has been completed in the United States." So wrote Albert Gallatin in 1808. The tour will include a dinner in the Baldwin Mansion, home of the canal builder, and birthday cake at the canal museum. Celebrants will be driven to and from their hotel in Boston or Lowell, Massachusetts, both of which are National Historical Parks. The tour will leave the museum, 71 Faulkner St, Billerica MA 01862, at 10:00am and return at 4:00pm for cake and ice cream. Dinner at 2:00pm will be served by Sichuan Garden II, located in the Baldwin Mansion, 2 Alfred St, Woburn MA 01801.

A check for $50/person payable to the Middlesex Canal Association should be mailed to the MCA, P.O. Box 333, Billerica MA 01821, before October 22nd, including an email address or phone number where we can contact you. For just the dinner celebration, a check for $25 should be mailed. Our contact is jj@middlesexcanal.org and our phone, 978-670-2740, is answered by a person when the museum is open, noon-4, weekends.

The preferred hotels are the UMass Lowell Inn and Boston's MidTown Hotel. The Inn is aside the lower locks of the Pawtucket Canal and on the left bank of the Concord River. The MidTown was the least expensive and most accomodating hotel in Boston, according to a brother. Flightline, https://www.flightlineinc.com/ , provides a shared van between the Inn and Boston's Logan or New Hampshire's Manchester Boston Regional Airport for $63 for two, $73 for four, etc.

Celebrants on the 50th Anniversary Tour (Nov 4, 2012)

On the Bus (Nov 4, 2012)

Bill Gerber speaking during the 50th Anniversary Tour (Nov 4, 2012)

Celebration Dinner at the Baldwin Mansion (Nov 4, 2012)

Several members of the MCA Board and Friends Celebrate the Holidays at the Middlesex Canal Museum (Dec 2012)

Sunday, February 17, 2013 - Middlesex Canal Association Winter Meeting, 1:00pm at the Museum
(postponed from Sun, Feb 10) - See Announcement below.

Spring Bicycle Tour of Historic Middlesex Canal - now an annual tradition

On Sunday, April 7, 2013, the Middlesex Canal Association sponsored a spring bicycle tour of the Middlesex Canal. The Canal was the “big dig” of the end of the 18th century. Completed in 1803 after 10 years of construction, the Canal connected the Merrimac River in what is now Lowell with the Charles River at Sullivan Square in Charlestown. In many ways it served as a model for later canals including the Erie Canal. The Canal remained in operation for 50 years, providing both passenger and freight service, but could not compete successfully with the Boston and Lowell Railroad which began operation in the 1830’s.

The riders met at 9:30am at North Station (commuter rail) and took their bicycles on the 10am train to Lowell. (Riders could also board at West Medford at 10:11am or meet the Train when it arrived in Lowell at 10:43am). The route visited Lowell canals, river walk, Francis Gate, and then Middlesex Canal remnants in Chelmsford. Lunch at Route 3A mini-mall in Billerica. Quick visit to Canal Museum, then on to Boston.

Riders needing to leave early could get the train to Boston at 1:07pm at North Billerica or at 3:14pm at Wilmington. Participants were responsible for one-way train fare. Complete Lowell line schedules can be downloaded at www.mbcr.net if anyone wishes to plan a rail travel itinerary specific to their needs.

The route is pretty flat and level and the average speed was estimated at 5 miles per hour - easy for most cyclists. Along the way the riders stopped at a number of remnants and restored sections of the Canal, as well as the Mansion of Loammi Baldwin, the chief engineer of the Canal (who discovered the Baldwin apple while building the Canal), the two remaining aqueducts (which carried the Canal over rivers and brooks), and the northern end of the floating towpath that carried horses over the Millpond.

The ride was led by Bill Kuttner of the Shirley Eustis House (617-241-9383, bkuttner@ctps.org) and Dick Bauer of the Somerville Historic Preservation Commission and the Middlesex Canal Commission (857-540-6293, dick.bauer@alum.mit.edu). Helmets were required.

For more information about the Middlesex Canal go to: http://www.middlesexcanal.org.

Why is Dick Bauer smiling? Because 34 people joined him on the Spring Bike Ride along the Canal route (Apr 7, 2013).

Traci, Debbie, and Bill are deep in thought writing up the messages for QR codes to be attached to each exhibit. Who says we aren't keeping up with the latest?

Sun, April 28, 2013 - MCA’s Annual Spring Meeting will take place in the museum, at 1:00 PM. Proposed changes to our Bylaws will be presented and voted on and election of officers for the forthcoming year will occur at that time. Following a short business meeting, our speaker will be industrial archaeologist and historian of technology Dr. Patrick Malone, Professor Emeritus of American Civilization and Urban Studies and former Director of the Urban Studies Program at Brown University. His topic, Waterpower In Lowell is the subject of a book he recently published. Refreshments will be served.

MCA Vice-President Traci Jansen taught 19 Billerica Teachers at the Museum
on April 11, 2012 - funded by the Will Barker Family Trust.

MCA Vice-President Traci Jansen taught 20 Billerica Teachers at the Museum on March 24, 2013 - funded by the Will Barker Family Trust.

Sun, May 5, 2013. MCA-AMC Spring Walk: Historic Middlesex Canal, Wilmington. Meet at 1:30pm; Wilmington, MA. Walk a rural section of the canal from near the Wilmington Town Park to Patch’s Pond, once a canal basin. Examine grooves worn in a boulder by towropes as boats wound around the Ox Bow; also the remains of Maple Meadow Brook Aqueduct, and a quarry used in its construction. Directions: From Route 128/95 take exit 35 in Woburn. Follow Route 38 (Main St.) north 2.4 miles to the Wilmington Town Park on the left just prior to the railroad overpass. For more information see our web site - <www.middlesexcanal.org> or contact: Roger Hagopian (781-861-7868) or Robert Winters (617-661-9230, <robert@middlesexcanal.org>).

"May the Eye of Wisdom and the Eternal Mind aid this work designed for the benefit of the present
& all Future Generations," prayed Loammi Baldwin. September 10, 1794, Billerica, Massachusetts.

SUNDAY WALK

May 5, 2013, 1:30pm. A round-trip of three miles along some of the best remnants of the Middlesex Canal will begin at the Town Park, 759 Main St (Rte. 38), Wilmington 01887. From the intersection of Rtes. 128 and 38, go 2.4 miles north. The Town Park is on the left. Walkers will cross Maple Meadow Brook on boards. Tea and cookies at Patches Pond, gift of Mike & Diane McInnis. Leader - Robert Winters. Sponsored by Appalachian Mountain Club and Middlesex Canal Association, www.middlesexcanal.org. [Flyer]

The Spring Walk on Sunday, May 5, 2013 drew a crowd of more than 50 people.
At the Maple Meadow Brook, participants crossed the "Bigwood Bridge" built for the day.

Sun, Oct 20, 2013. Joint MCA-AMC Fall Middlesex Canal Walk, Woburn
Meet at 1:30pm at the the SE corner of the parking lot behind the Woburn Cinemas, along Rte. 128. Level, 3-mi., joint walk w/Appalachian Mountain Club along 2 sections of the historic canal. From Rte. 95/128 exit 35 in Woburn, take Rte. 38 S 0.1 mi., R onto Middlesex Canal Dr. past the Holiday Inn to the meeting place. Info: www.middlesexcanal.org. Phone 1-978-670-2740. L Robert Winters ((617) 661-9230; robert@middlesexcanal.org), CL Roger Hagopian ((781) 861-7868 to 10pm).

Sun, Nov 3, 2013 - MCA's Fall Meeting will take place in the museum, at 1:00pm.
Our speakers will be Bob and Linda Barth who will tell us about the Delaware & Raritan and the Morris, the two principal canals of New Jersey. Refreshments will be served.

One of our nation's most successful towpath canals, the Delaware and Raritan has meandered across the narrow waist of New Jersey for more than 170 years. In 1866 it carried more tonnage than the more famous Erie Canal. The D&R transported men and supplies between New York and Philadelphia during three wars, and now provides the people of central New Jersey with both a water supply and a premier recreational facility. Author of many canal and travel articles, historian and frequent tour guide, Linda J. Barth will introduce you to the people, the bridges, the locks, and the aqueducts that made the canal work.

Complementing his wife Linda, past CSNJ President Bob Barth will provide a virtual tour of the Morris Canal. One of six towpath canals built to carry eastern Pennsylvania anthracite coal to market, the Morris connected Phillipsburg on the Delaware River with New York Harbor, opening in 1831 to Newark and in 1836 to Jersey City. A unique engineering marvel, this 102 mile canal crossed the highlands of New Jersey, overcoming more change in elevation than any other transportation canal ever built. Most of the elevation changes were accomplished through the use of 23 inclined planes, on which canal boats were carried up or down long and steep ramps on plane cars, i.e., open-ended cradles, that ran on rails.

Sun, Nov 3, 2013 - MCA's Fall Meeting will take place in the museum, at 1:00pm.
Our speakers will be Bob and Linda Barth who will tell us about the Delaware & Raritan and the Morris, the two principal canals of New Jersey. Refreshments will be served.

One of our nation's most successful towpath canals, the Delaware and Raritan has meandered across the narrow waist of New Jersey for more than 170 years. In 1866 it carried more tonnage than the more famous Erie Canal. The D&R transported men and supplies between New York and Philadelphia during three wars, and now provides the people of central New Jersey with both a water supply and a premier recreational facility. Author of many canal and travel articles, historian and frequent tour guide, Linda J. Barth will introduce you to the people, the bridges, the locks, and the aqueducts that made the canal work.

Complementing his wife Linda, past CSNJ President Bob Barth will provide a virtual tour of the Morris Canal. One of six towpath canals built to carry eastern Pennsylvania anthracite coal to market, the Morris connected Phillipsburg on the Delaware River with New York Harbor, opening in 1831 to Newark and in 1836 to Jersey City. A unique engineering marvel, this 102 mile canal crossed the highlands of New Jersey, overcoming more change in elevation than any other transportation canal ever built. Most of the elevation changes were accomplished through the use of 23 inclined planes, on which canal boats were carried up or down long and steep ramps on plane cars, i.e., open-ended cradles, that ran on rails.

Sun, Feb 9, 2014 — Middlesex Canal Association Winter Meeting
The Winter Meeting of the Middlesex Canal Association will be held on Sunday, February 9, 2014 at 1pm in the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitor Center, 71 Faulkner Street in North Billerica, MA. Our speaker will be Patricia Henry. Her topic is “Billerica’s Utopia”, a planned community from 100 years ago. This was the focus of her master’s degree thesis published at http://tinyurl.com/krq214x. The recognition that North Billerica received as a result of her thesis was from the American Institute of Certified Planners – a National Historic Planning Landmark- in 2005.

“The development was prompted when the Boston & Maine Railroad announced in 1912 it would build a $3 million repair shop in Billerica, which would cause a two-to three-fold population increase in the rural community. To avoid overcrowding, squalor and associated public health risks evident in nearby industrialized communities, the Billerica Board of Trade decided to implement the innovations of the Massachusetts Homestead Commission. The board’s goal was to develop a progressive community where workers would be able to own their own homes with gardens, playgrounds etc.”

The Billerica Garden Suburb is one of the 4 utopias described in Robert Campbell’s “Forgotten Utopias” published in the Boston Globe which won a 1996 Pulitzer Prize [pulitzer.org/archives/5828]. The entrance to Billerica’s utopia is one block east of our Museum, i.e. midway between our Museum and the North Billerica train station. Along with our Museum the presence of the utopia is another reason to visit us here at the Billerica Falls on the Concord River. Please join us for good conversation and refreshments.

Standing Room Only: President J. Jeremiah Breen officiated
over the 2014 Winter Meeting of the Middlesex Canal Association.
Pat Henry spoke of Billerica's Utopia - a planned residential area
near our current museum. It was well attended.
In photo are Josiah Rich,MD,MPH (husband). Pat Henry (speaker) and J. Breen.

Sat, Mar 15, 2014, 1:00-2:30pm: Artist Talk - Thomas Dahill Illustrating the Middlesex Canal (Bestsellers Cafe, 24 High Street, Medford, MA) – Acclaimed artist Thomas Dahill will present a brief history of the old Canal which ran through Medford, with drawings and watercolors from the two books he illustrated, “The Incredible Ditch” and “Life on the Middlesex Canal”. He will also talk about the Middlesex Canal Museum in North Billerica, where he serves as its Resident Artist. The talk will be on illustrating the canal and will include a PowerPoint presentation and actual drawings. Thomas Dahill is a School of the Museum of Fine Arts graduate and a recipient of a painting fellowship to the American Academy in Rome. He has taught for many years at the Museum School and Emerson College, where he has chaired the Department of Fine Arts for 25 years. His works have been exhibited widely in Europe and America.

Sat, Apr 12, 2014: Middlesex Canal Association’s Spring bicycle tour. Meet 9:30am at North Station (commuter rail) and take our bicycles on the 10am train to Lowell. Riders meeting the group at Lowell meet at the train station at 10:40am. This year an early group will take the 8:00am train from North Station to allow more time in Lowell and breakfast at the historic Owl Diner (www.owldiner.com, aka the Four Sisters). Route visits the Pawtucket and other Lowell canals, the river walk, Francis Gate, and Middlesex Canal remnants in Chelmsford. Lunch at Route 3A mini-mall in Billerica. Quick visit to Canal Museum, then on to Boston. A long day of exploration (35 miles end-to-end) but sunset is late. (Riders can board northbound trains at other stations or catch southbound trains at 1:07 or 3:14pm to return to Boston early. Complete Lowell line schedules can be downloaded at http://www.mbcr.net) Participants responsible for one-way train fare [$6.75 from Boston to Lowell]. For changes or updates, see http://middlesexcanal.org. Leaders Bill Kuttner (617-241-9383) & Dick Bauer (857-540-6293).

Apr 20, 2014: Easter Sunday, the Middlesex Canal Museum will be closed.

Sun, Apr 27, 2014: Joint Middlesex Canal Association - Appalachian Mountain Club Spring Walk. This walk is jointly listed as a Local Walk of the Boston Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC). “Show and Go”; meet 1:30pm at the Sandy (Shannon) Beach parking lot off the Mystic Valley Parkway by the Upper Mystic Lakes in Winchester. The walk will follow the route of the Middlesex Canal through parts of Medford and Winchester. Sites along the way include the aqueduct and mooring basin, those segments of the canal bed and berm visible off the parkway, and the stone wall of the Governor Brooks estate, in Medford. For additional information, contact Robert Winters (617-661-9230) or Roger Hagopian (781-861-7868).

Sunday, May 4th, 2014: Middlesex Canal Association Spring Meeting will be held in the museum, beginning at 1PM. Our speaker will be Ken Williamson; his topic “Inclined to Succeed: The South Hadley Canal.” Mr. Williamson taught organic chemistry at Mount Holyoke College for 38 years and, for may years, has researched and written about the South Hadley Canal. With its Inclined Plane, the SHC was one of the most technologically ambitious enterprises attempted in the young United States; Loammi Baldwin visited the site in the Spring of 1994, while it was still under construction. Refreshments will be served.

Campaign Launched

The Middlesex Canal Association has accepted the old Talbot cloth warehouse to be used as a future new Canal Museum. The warehouse is adjacent to the site where construction of the canal began. The deed was signed on February 5 and recorded on March 6, 2014.

As of June 1, 2014 the Middlesex Canal Association launched its Fundraising Campaign to raise $100,000 to hire an Architect/Structural Engineer. The initial appeal will go out to businesses. There is an urgent need to replace the roof. The expected total cost of the adaptive use of the building for our purposes is expected to cost less than half a million dollars. The following two page letter is being sent as we speak. Hopefully, our civic minded community will rise to the occasion.

Restoration of Canal Museum seeks to preserve a part of history (June 14, 2014, Billerica Minuteman)

Attorney Arthur L. Eno, Jr. 1924 - 2014
Arthur Louis Eno was a founder and the first President of the Middlesex Canal Association (1962-1972)

Attorney Arthur L. Eno, Jr. was born in Lowell April 27, 1924 and died August 6, 2014, a stone's throw from where he grew up overlooking the Merrimack River in the city he loved.

As the firstborn son of Arthur L. and Claire (Lamoureux) Eno, Sr. his first language was French. He attended St. Joseph Grammar School and Keith Academy in Lowell, and his childhood buddy was Jack Kerouac, another of Lowell's Franco-American sons.

While Jack's destiny was to leave Lowell, Louis' destiny was to stay. Except for college and the war, he never lived more than 20 minutes from the city. Gifted with a strong intellect and an indomitable work ethic, he was accepted into Harvard at age 14. At the suggestion he prepare a bit more socially, he took an additional year of studies at Phillips Academy Andover.

Never one for dawdling, he completed his undergraduate Classics degree in three years; served in the Signal Section of the Army in Morocco, Italy, France and Germany for three years (he was in Paris at the end of the war); spent a year studying at the Sorbonne and returned to enter Harvard Law School, which he completed in just over two years.

After admission to the Massachusetts Bar in 1948, he became an Assistant Professor of Law at Northeastern University at age 24, just as he was opening his own private law practice in Lowell. Then, for the next 53 years, he commuted every day to the same neighborhood, many of them in his bright orange VW bug. In 1994, he created a firm, Eno Boulay and Martin (now Eno Martin Donahue) and retired in 2001.

In 1957, friends masterminded a fateful meeting with Ann Fitzpatrick of New Rochelle, New York. He called her at her New York City office to ask if she could arrange theater tickets for his girlfriend and him. This interesting tactic somehow worked and he successfully wooed Ann to Massachusetts. While the couple couldn't have been more different in temperament or outlook, they were married 56 years and raised three children, John, Madeleine, and Will.

One of their proudest achievements was to move a 300-year-old house from Amesbury to Carlisle.. Louis heard that a beautiful old home was up for auction due to the construction of Route 495. He carefully tucked two sealed bids, one low and one high, into his jacket pocket. When it came time to present bids, he forgot which was which, but still managed to win the house. He & Ann dismantled and moved it-board by board, brick by brick-and painstakingly recreated it on acreage in Carlisle.

Civic involvement was important to him, and he served on numerous professional organizations and political groups: the Lowell School Committee (1951-1955), the Lowell Historic Board (1984-1993), and the Middlesex Canal Commission. He was a Trustee of the Central Savings Bank, a Director of the Jeanne d'Arc Credit Union (1972-1992), President of the Lowell Humane Society, President of the Middlesex Canal Association (1962-1972) and President of the Mass. Conveyancers Association (1982-1984).

While law was his vocation, the history of Lowell was his passion. He edited Cotton Was King, a compilation of essays about Industrial Revolution-era Lowell, published in 1976. He translated Immigrant Odyssey from French to English. Antiquarian books, bottles, and artwork all with the common theme of Lowell lined the bookshelves of the living room, and his office was a veritable museum to the city.

His numerous awards include Honorary Oblate of Mary Immaculate (1979), the Richard Johnson Award (Mass. Conveyancers Association), Lawyer of the Year (Greater Lowell Bar Association, 1991) and Franco-American of the Year (2000).

He was co-author of Massachusetts Real Estate (West Group) and editor of annual supplements of the publication for dozens of years. He edited the Massachusetts Real Estate Sourcebook (published by Mass. Continuing Legal Education).

Deeply religious, Louis rarely missed attending Mass, even while traveling. In his rare spare time, he took the family in the station wagon to explore the canals and locks of the eastern seaboard.

Until he lost his sight several years ago, reading was his ultimate pleasure. All he needed for a happy vacation at the family cabin in Vermont was his tall glass of ice tea and a tall stack of library books. He read quickly and remembered details. His 10-year-old daughter once asked him to read Charlotte's Web so she could discuss it with him. He sat on the porch and read it in a single sitting while she watched. A lifetime classics student, he gave his young children Peanuts books in Latin for Christmas.

He loved lobster, croissants, Paris, Quebec, speaking French, reading the Greek philosophers, sci-fi movies, Bennie Hill, large dogs, and his family. There was very little about the world, history, or politics that he did not know. For the past several decades, he met his friends, Lenny and Jay for lunch, jokes and political talk just about every Saturday. His baby granddaughter was making her entrance into the world at the very moment he departed.

Surviving him in addition to his beloved wife, Ann, are his children John (Jeanne Palanza) of North Andover, Madeleine (John Roper) of Sandy, Oregon, Will (Maria Dizzia) of Brooklyn, NY, and brand-new granddaughter, Albertine Eno. His brother, Paul A. (Janice) Eno of Taunton, MA, and dozens of nephews, nieces, grandnephews and grandnieces, each of whom he adored. He was predeceased by his beloved sister, Jacqueline.

This obituary was published in the Lowell Sun August 9-10, 2014.

Sun, Oct 5, 2014. Bicycle Tour of the Historic Middlesex Canal. MassBike, the Somerville Historic Preservation Commission, the Middlesex Canal Commission and the Middlesex Canal Association will sponsor the 12th annual bicycle tour of the canal which was the “big dig” of late 18th century Massachusetts. Completed in 1803 after 10 years of construction, the Canal connected the Merrimack River, west of what is now Lowell, with the Charles River at Sullivan Square in Charlestown. The Canal provided passenger and freight service for 50 years. It pioneered many innovations and in many ways served as a model for later canals, notably including the Erie Canal.

We will meet at 9:00am by the Canal marker at the Sullivan Square MBTA station. From there we will ride about 28 miles to the Mill Village and Canal Museum by the Concord River Millpond in North Billerica. We’ll stop for lunch in Woburn, so please bring a lunch. We should get to North Billerica in time for anyone who wants to catch the 3:07pm train back to Boston. The ride will then follow the northern section of the Canal another 10 miles to Lowell in time to catch the 5:00pm train back from there.

The ride will be an easy one for most cyclists; the route is pretty flat and we will average 5 miles per hour. Along the way we will stop at: several canal remnants and restored sections; the Mansion of Loammi Baldwin, chief engineer for the Canal (for whom the Baldwin apple is named, discovered during an early canal survey); the two remaining aqueducts (which carried the Canal over rivers and brooks); and the northern end of the floating towpath that enabled horses to tow boats across the Concord River.

The ride will be led by Dick Bauer of the Somerville Historic Preservation Commission and the Middlesex Canal Commission, Robert Winters of the Middlesex Canal Association, and Bill Kuttner of the Shirley-Eustis House and the Middlesex Canal Commission. Steady rain cancels.

For more information, contact Dick at dick.bauer@alum.mit.edu (617-628-6320); Robert at robert@middlesexcanal.org; or Bill at bkuttner@ctps.org (617-973-7132). For more information about the Middlesex Canal go to: http://www.middlesexcanal.org, &/or http://www.massbike.org/resources/rides.htm.

Sun, Oct 19, 2014: Joint Middlesex Canal Association - Appalachian Mountain Club Fall Walk. This walk is jointly listed as a Local Walk of the Boston Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC). “Show and Go”; meet at 1:30pm at the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitor Center at the Faulkner Mill at 71 Faulkner Street in North Billerica. The Museum and Visitor Center, including the bookstore, will open at 12 noon. The 2-2½ hour walk will cover part of the Merrimack branch of the canal in Billerica and Chelmsford, about 3 to 4 miles over generally level wooded terrain and streets. Sites to visit en route will include a guard lock, the anchor stone for the floating towpath that bridged the Concord River, and many stretches of watered canal. For directions to the museum, Middlesex Canal signs point the way, or see the third paragraph under this “calendar of events” section, above. Information: contact Robert Winters (robert@middlesexcanal.org) or Marlies Henderson (978-663-3345).

Walk leader Robert Winters telling tales during the Fall Walk, October 2014

Walk leader Robert Winters jingles the rings of the anchor stone of the floating towpath, October 2014

Sun, Oct 26, 2014. Middlesex Canal Association Fall Meeting will be held in the museum, beginning at 1:00pm. Our speaker will be Skip Smallridge. Mr. Smallridge is a principal of the professional partnership of Crosby, Schlessinger, and Smallridge, a firm specializing in landscape architecture, planning, and urban design. This firm developed the Sullivan Square landuse plan for the Boston Redevelopment Authority in anticipation of the proposed reconstruction of the road network in that area. The overall planning effort and ideas suggested for historical interpretation will be covered in the presentation. Refreshments will be served following the presentation.

Sun, Feb 8, 2015. MCA Winter Meeting will be held in the museum, beginning at 1:00pm. Our speaker will be Don McElroy, from the EPA, to discuss "The Present and Future of the Shaffer Landfill".

The Shaffer brothers have offered to give the one mile of canal between Gray and Pond Streets, the southern boundary of the Philip Shaffer Family Corp.'s 106 acres, to the Middlesex Canal Association. The Association must take all 106 acres not just the twelve acres of canal.

Mr. McElroy is the remedial project manager for Iron Horse Park. UGT Iron Horse Park LLC is developing a photovoltaic facility on land owned by Dow Chemical Co., on both sides of the canal west of Iron Horse Park, with wetland restrictions and UGT making it possible for the canal towpath to remain in use as a footpath.

The Middlesex Canal Association, and the Commonwealth's Middlesex Canal Commission would like to know the feasibility of the future Philip Shaffer Canal Park being connected via a footpath on the former route of the canal through Iron Horse Park proper to the canal on Dow Chemical property west of Iron Horse Park.

Other issues of interest include: development of the towpath west into Iron Horse as a part of a waterfowl observation path, access to the smallpox cemetery, the marking of the historic canal on EPA plans of Iron Horse Park, and anything else of significance to the MCA and residents of Billerica.

Refreshments will be served following the presentation.

Sun, Apr 12, 2015: Middlesex Canal Association’s Spring bicycle tour. Meet 9:30am at North Station (commuter rail) and take our bicycles on the 10am train to Lowell. Riders meeting the group at Lowell meet at the train station at 10:40am. This year an early group will take the 8:00am train from North Station to allow more time in Lowell and breakfast at the historic Owl Diner (www.owldiner.com, aka the Four Sisters).

Route visits the Pawtucket and other Lowell canals, the river walk, Francis Gate, and Middlesex Canal remnants in Chelmsford. Lunch at Route 3A mini-mall in Billerica. Quick visit to Canal Museum, then on to Boston. A long day of exploration (35 miles end-to-end) but sunset is late.

Riders can board northbound trains at other stations or catch southbound trains at 1:07pm or 3:14pm to return to Boston early. Complete Lowell line schedules can be downloaded at http://www.keoliscs.com. Participants responsible for one-way train fare [$9.25 from Boston to Lowell]. For changes or updates, see http://middlesexcanal.org. Leaders Bill Kuttner (617-241-9383) & Dick Bauer (857-540-6293).

Poster for Spring 2015 Middlesex Canal Bike Tour (PDF)

April 12, 2015 Canal Ride South

Sun, April 26, 2015. Joint MCA-AMC Spring Middlesex Canal Walk.
Meet at 1:30pm at the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitor Center in the Faulkner Mill in North Billerica. The walk will be for 2-3 hours, rain or shine, over generally level wooded terrain and streets. The route follows the canal for a round trip of under 3 miles south of the Concord River. Sites to be visited include: two guard locks; an anchor stone and the 'peninsula' at the opposite ends of the floating bridge that once carried the towpath across the Concord; the 1825 iron bolt pond-level reference; the “deep cut”; a smallpox memorial marker; stretches of canal some of which are still watered; and possibly the impending photovoltaic facility on High St. The Museum and bookstore will be open from 12:00pm-4:00pm. Phone 978-670-2740. L Robert Winters (617-661-9230; robert@middlesexcanal.org), CL Roger Hagopian (781-861-7868 to 10pm), CL Marlies Henderson.

If you're free before the Middlesex Canal Spring Walk......
The Chelmsford Town-Wide Cleanup will be this Sunday, April 26

• Gloves and trash bags are available upon request from the recycling office at 9 Alpha Road.
• If you can’t pick up on Sunday, another day is fine.
• If you have questions, please call the recycling office between 9am and 1pm at 978-250-5203.
• Our town website has this information on the home page: http://www.townofchelmsford.us
• The cleanup flyer available in PDF format here: http://www.townofchelmsford.us/DocumentCenter/View/4558

Sun, May 3, 2015. Rare Unscheduled Walk on Towpath of Undeveloped, Watered One-Mile of Middlesex Canal. Prior to a Middlesex Canal meeting Sunday a walk on the towpath at the Shaffer Landfill to follow-up on the Feb 8 talk by Don McElroy, EPA's remedial project manager will be available. Mr. McElroy said two lawyers, EPA's attorney and the attorney for the group paying for the 40-year operation and maintenance of EPA's landfill remedy, favor an easement by the owner of the landfill to benefit the Middlesex Canal. The walk to see what the easement might be like will start at the visitor center/museum (71 Faulkner St., No. Billerica MA), 11:00am, Sunday, May 3, with a return in time for the 1:00pm public meeting of the association. The walkers will carpool to the 200-year-old canal and see how little nature has reclaimed of it. More information, www.middlesexcanal.org. L Marlies Henderson.

Sun, May 3, 2015. Middlesex Canal Association Annual Meeting in the museum, beginning at 1:00pm. Our speaker, Marcis Kempe, has as his topic, "Boston's Water Supply and the Middlesex Canal", based on Caleb Eddy's Historical Sketch of the Middlesex Canal, 1843, which can be read at http://tinyurl.com/eddy1843. Refreshments will be served following. [Flyer for Meeting]

Weekend, Oct 16-18, 2015. Pennsylvania Canal Society tour of the Northern Schuylkill Navigation.

Fall 2015 (date to be determined): CSNY, Genesee Valley Canal (section to be defined) Mid-October. See http://www.newyorkcanals.org/explore_events.htm for more information.

Saturday, October 17, 2015. 13th Bike Tour North, starting at 9am, Sullivan Square, Charlestown

We will meet at 9:00am at the Middlesex Canal plaque, Sullivan Square MBTA Station (1 Cambridge Street, Charlestown, MA 02129) and follow the canal route 38 miles to Lowell. [This is a postponement because of rain from the original date of October 3rd.] There will be a stop for a snack at Kiwanis Park across from Baldwin Mansion (2 Alfred Street, Woburn, MA 01801 ~12:30pm), stop for visit at the Canal Museum (71 Faulkner Street, North Billerica, MA 01862 ~3pm), and arrive in Lowell in time for the 5:00pm train back to Boston. Google “canal ride cue sheet”. Riders can choose their own time to join or leave the group by using the Lowell Line which parallels the Canal. (For example, an abbreviated ride can be done by parking at the Sichuan Garden, just off Route 128 at Route 38, cycling with the group to the museum and returning by train to Anderson/Woburn at 3:19pm, three miles from the Sichuan Garden.)

The ride will be an easy one for most cyclists. The route is pretty flat, and we will average 5 miles per hour. Along the way we will stop at several canal remnants and restored sections. Steady rain cancels. Helmets required. For more information: www.middlesexcanal.org.

MCA Fall Walk: Sunday, October 18, 2015

The Appalachian Mountain Club and the MCA will host a walk along a 0.8 mile section of the Canal situated within a 14 acre tract in Wilmington. In 1983 this parcel was gifted by Stanley Weber and his daughter, Julia Ann Fielding, to the MCA. Although the fall foliage, the fresh air, and the camaraderie should be suffi cient to encourage participation, as an added treat, Mike McInnis (from the Middlesex Canal Commission) and his wife, Diane, will serve lemonade and cookies for the walkers at the Patches Pond turnaround. Those planning to attend should meet at the Wilmington Town Park, opposite 760 Main Street, Wilmington, MA (Route #38) at 1:30pm.

Sunday, Oct 25, 2015. Middlesex Canal Association Fall Meeting

At 1:00pm the Middlesex Canal Association will hold a public meeting at the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitors’ Center, 71 Faulkner Street, North Billerica, MA. The featured speaker will James Baldwin, the great-great-great-great-great grandson of Loammi Baldwin, the engineer who supervised the construction of the Middlesex Canal. Mr. Baldwin will make reference to items that have been passed down through the generations of Baldwins. One of these will be George Washington’s invitation to Col. Loammi Baldwin to visit him at what would become the Longfellow House – Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site. Interestingly, the regiment Col. Baldwin commanded at the crossing of the Delaware River and the Battle of Trenton was known as the George Washington regiment.

At the beginning of the meeting the report of the Nominating Committee will be read and the election of officers and directors will take place.

For those planning to attend the James Baldwin’s October 25, 2015 lecture on the Baldwin Family, additional background information can be found in the following issues of Towpath Topics:
Volume 37; #2, March 1999: “The Baldwin Family” by Thomas Raphael
Volume 49; #2, January, 2011: “Biographies of James Sullivan and Loammi Baldwin” Transcribed by Howard Winkler
Volume 50; #3, March 2012: “The Middlesex Canal - It was a Family Thing” by Bill Gerber and Susan Williams

Sun, Feb 14, 2016, 1:00pm – Winter Meeting (Speaker: Tom Dahill, “Summit Pond, Middlesex Canal, Circa 1822”)

At 1:00pm the Middlesex Canal Association will hold a public meeting at the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitors’ Center, 71 Faulkner Street, North Billerica, MA. The featured speaker will be noted artist, author, and educator, Tom Dahill, Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts at Emerson College. The topic of his talk will be the two watercolors of the Middlesex Canal Summit Pond (circa 1822) in North Billerica. Both were assumed to be painted by Jabez Barton during his courtship of Rebecca Farmer Rogers, daughter of William and Hannah (Farmer) Rogers. A View from William Rogers House (Billerica Historical Society) provides a priceless early image of the floating towpath and the North Billerica Mill Village. The William Rogers House (New York Historical Society) portrays the scene from a point on or near the causeway at the east end of the summit pond. The William Rogers House was built about 1807 reportedly partly from funds earned by William in service of the Canal Proprietors, and stands today on Rogers Street.

For those planning to attend Professor Dahill’s Feb 14, 2016 lecture on the Barton watercolors, additional background information can be found in the following two publications:

Seaburg, Carl; Seaburg, Alan; & Dahill, Thomas. The Incredible Ditch: A Bicentennial History of the Middlesex Canal. The Anne Miniver Press for the Medford Historical Society, 1997.

Seaburg, Alan. Life on the Middlesex Canal. The Anne Miniver Press History of American Transportation Publications, 2009.

March 5, 2016 – Bill Gerber will give a talk on "Landings of the Canal and River Navigation System North of Boston" at the Society for Industrial Archaeology Symposium to be held at Plymouth State University.

Notice of Annual Meeting (Middlesex Canal Commission): [This meeting was cancelled.]

The Annual Meeting of the Middlesex Canal Commission will be held on Thursday, March 23, 2017 at 3:15pm at the Middlesex Canal Museum, Faulkner Mills, 71 Faulkner Street, Billerica MA.

Members or their designees or alternate are requested to attend. Visitors welcome.

C/O NMCOG 40 Church Street, Suite 200, Lowell, MA 01852-2686, Tel: 978-454-8021

Sun, Apr 24, 2016, 1:30pm – Spring Walk (Meet at Woburn Cinemas)

Joint MCA-AMC Spring Middlesex Canal Walk, Woburn. Meet at 1:30pm at the the SE corner of the parking lot behind the Woburn Cinemas, along Rte. 128. Level, 3-mi., joint walk w/Appalachian Mountain Club along 2 sections of the historic canal. From Rte. 95/128 exit 35 in Woburn, take Rte. 38 S 0.1 mi., R onto Middlesex Canal Dr. past the Crowne Plaza to the meeting place. Info: www.middlesexcanal.org. Phone 1-978-670-2740. L Robert Winters (617-661-9230; robert@middlesexcanal.org); CL Roger Hagopian (781-861-7868 to 10pm).

Flyer for Spring Walk

Sun, May 15, 2016, 1:00pm – Spring Meeting

Bill Gerber has volunteered to give a talk on boat landings at the May 15 annual meeting. Additional details to follow.

GRAND OPENING!
Wednesday, July 13, 2016 at 11:00 AM
The Lobby at One Canal
1 Canal Street Boston, MA 02114

In November of 2000, David Dettinger presented his paper entitled “The Canal that Bisected Boston”. This was one of 10 events which correlated with the anniversary of the ten years it took to build the Middlesex Canal. The following year, Middlesex Canal Association Directors David Dettinger, Tom Raphael and Betty Bigwood requested that there be some recognition of the Middlesex Canal in the Rose Kennedy Greenway. In response, Dick Garver of the Boston Redevelopment Authority agreed to allow for a space on Canal Street to make some historic interpretation. Fifteen years later and after many more meetings and correspondence, a mural by Thomas H. Dahill titled "The Canal that Bisected Boston" will be officially recognized. You are invited. Please RSVP by July 8th to events@aimco.com if you plan to come. Parking is not easy so allow enough time. If there are any questions please contact Betty M. Bigwood (978-657-7870).

Join state and city officials, business leaders, Aimco representatives and project partners for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the grand opening of One Canal Apartment Homes.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts – Charlie Baker, Governor

City of Boston – Martin J. Walsh, Mayor

Massachusetts Department of Transportation – Stephanie Pollack, Secretary

Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority – Frank Depaola, General Manager

City of Boston – William Christopher, ISD Commissioner

Boston Redevelopment Authority – Brian P. Golden, Director

MCA President J Breen holding one panel of Dahill’s mural

Artist Tom Dahill seeing one of six panels to be hung

Artist Tom Dahill at the installation at One Canal

Sunday, October 16, 2016, 1:30pm – MCA Fall Walk (Winchester-Medford)
On Sunday, October 16, 2016 members and guests of the MCA are invited to a pleasant walk and talk on the remnants of the Middlesex Canal. Those planning to participate in the walk are encouraged to meet at 1:30pm in the Sandy Beach (a.k.a. Shannon Beach) parking lot, 4 Mystic Valley Parkway, Winchester. Sandy Beach is a ten minute walk from the Wedgemere train station. The walk will follow the route of the towpath south for a round trip of four miles. The turnaround at Sagamore John Memorial is near the West Medford train station. This is a joint walk sponsored by the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Middlesex Canal Association. More information is available at www.middlesexcanal.org.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016, 7:00pm – Special Event
J. J. Breen, President of the Middlesex Canal Association, will address the Winchester Historical Society, 15 High Street, Winchester, MA 01890. His talk entitled “The Middlesex Canal in Winchester: 4,000 Tons of Granite at Sandy Beach” should serve to enlighten those in attendance on this fascinating part of Canal history. For background information please read Tom Raphael’s article, pages 13-17, in Towpath Topics, http://middlesexcanal.org/TowpathTopics-Sept2011color.pdf. Refreshments will be served at 7:00pm in advance of the presentation at 7:30pm.

Sunday, October 30, 2016, 1:00pm – MCA Fall Meeting (Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitors’ Center, 71 Faulkner Street, North Billerica)
Speaker: Bill Gerber on the topic of “Canal Side Landings”.
In the first half of the 19th century a 120-mile system of canals and navigable waterways provided “heavy lifting” transportation services throughout the Merrimack Valley and the area north of Boston. Interspersed throughout much of the system were more than three dozen “Landings” which provided shipping and receiving services for those who had goods to transport. Bill notes that this is something of a status report on a continuing, very long term effort, not a final report.

Abbott's Landing by Louis Linscott (1876-1996)

MIDDLESEX CANAL FALL TALK

On Sunday, October 30, 2016 at 1:00pm, Bill Gerber will describe the "Landings" that were part of the canal and river interstate waterway between Boston Harbor and Concord NH before the steam locomotive transformed transportation.

In the first half of the 19th century a 120+ mile system of canals and navigable waterways provided ‘heavy lift’ transportation services through the Merrimack Valley and the area north of Boston. Over its lifetime, among the myriad of items that were shipped, this system transported countless logs and timber products for construction, heating, shipbuilding and export; granite and brick building materials, gunpowder and chemicals, and boatloads of cotton bales and textiles in support of the growing New England textile industry. Interspersed throughout much of this system were more than three dozen “Landings”, which provided shipping and receiving services for those who had goods to transport. It is these latter portals that are the subject of Bill's talk.

The talk will be in the Reardon Room of the canal visitor center/museum at the Billerica Falls of the Concord River, 71 Faulkner St, Billerica 01862. The visitor center opens at noon.

At 11:30am, all are welcome to join proprietors of the Middlesex Canal on the porch of the visitor center for a walk to the beaver lodge recently built on the Thoreau Towpath, a round trip of less than two miles. A car could park at the Middlesex Canal sign at 100 Brick Kiln Road, Billerica 01862, approximately 1200' from the beavers. Henry Thoreau traveled on this part of the canal September 1, 1839, and wrote as follows:

"in the lapse of ages, Nature will recover and indemnify herself, and gradually plant fit shrubs and flowers along its borders. Already the kingfisher sat upon a pine over the water, and the bream and pickerel swam below. Thus all works pass directly out of the hands of the architect into the hands of Nature,
to be perfected." - A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

The walk is an opportunity to experience Thoreau's prediction after a lapse of 177 years.

Directions. Rte. 3 to exit 28, Treble Cove Road, then follow the Middlesex Canal signs. After crossing the Billerica Falls bridge over the Concord River, the parking lot is 100' on the right. Treble Cove Road, exit 28, is 7 miles north of Rte. 128 (I-95).

On I-495, take the N. Billerica exit south to the road's end at a T intersection, turn right, then bear right at the Y, go 700' and turn left into the parking lot. The visitor center is across the street. North Billerica, exit 37, is between Rte. 3 and I-93. By train, take the Lowell line to N. Billerica Station and walk west two blocks.

Sunday, March 5, 2017, 1pm – MCA Winter Meeting (postponed from Feb 12)
Speaker: Chuck Mower
Topic: Brick Making along the Merrimack [Flyer]

Saturday, April 1, 2017, 10:44am – Bicycle Tour South [CANCELLED due to snow forecast]
If the ride is rescheduled, that information will be posted here.

Sunday, April 23, 2017, 1:30pm – MCA-AMC Annual Spring Walk: Billerica to Chelmsford

Sun, Apr 23, 2017. Historic Middlesex Canal, North Billerica. Level 5-mi. walk along historic canal N to Chelmsford, 1:30-4:00pm. Meet at the Middlesex Canal Museum (opens at noon). From Rte. 95/128, take Rte. 3 N to exit 28, Treble Cove Rd., L towards N. Billerica 1.7 mi., L on Rte. 3A/129 0.7 mi., R on Lowell St. 0.7 mi. becomes Faulkner St., cross river at Faulkner Mills, R into pkg. lot opp. Joint w/Middlesex Canal Assoc. Info: www.middlesexcanal.org or Roger Hagopian (781-861-7868 to 10pm). L Robert Winters.

Sunday, April 30, 2017, 1:00pm – MCA Spring Meeting
Speaker: Susan Stetson Clarke
Topic: 50th Anniversary of the publication of The Limner’s Daughter
Mary Stetson Clarke (1911-1994) wrote a history of the Middlesex Canal (1793-1860) published in 1974, of even date with the photograph of her above with what looks like the newly published history in her hand. The public is invited to hear Susan Stetson Clarke, a daughter of Mrs. Clarke, speak of her mother and celebrate with the members of the Middlesex Canal Association, the fiftieth anniversary of Clarke's historical novel, The Limner's Daughter, which has as its major setting the Middlesex Canal and as characters, Loammi Baldwin, builder of the canal, his friend, Benjamin Thompson, a spy for the British during the Revolution, and his daughter, Sally Thompson, Countess Rumford.

Among her many other works are a biography, Bloomers and Ballots: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Women's Rights, and a compilation, “Women’s Rights in the United States”.

The talk on Mary Stetson Clarke will be in the Reardon Room, Middlesex Canal Visitor Center/Museum, at the Billerica Falls of the Concord River, 71 Faulkner St, Billerica MA 01862. The visitor center opens at noon. The Middlesex Canal Association will have a ten-minute meeting before the talk.

Mary Stetson Clarke, Wilmington 1974

Tom Raphael - Dec 7, 2016

Tom Raphael - May 5, 2002

Raphael, Thomas
Of Winchester passed away peacefully on August 27, 2017. Beloved husband of late Elva W. (Holmes) Raphael. Loving father of William G. Raphael of Wakefield, Constance J. Raphael and her husband Kenneth W. Leach of Medford, the late Allan T. Raphael and his wife Suzanne of Blue Point, NY and the late David G. Raphael. Dear grandfather of Pamela S. Raphael of Blue Point, NY. At the family's request all services will be private. Late veteran US Navy WWII. [Details and online condolences]

Sept 1, 2017 - This week we are grieving the loss of our dear friend Tom Raphael who died on Sunday, August 27 at the age of 95. Tom was a longtime Board member of the Middlesex Canal Association and was the Chair of the Middlesex Canal Commission. He was a Renaissance man, an inventor, an inspiration to all who knew him, and one of the most wise and interesting people I have ever known. - RW

There was an informal gathering in Tom Raphael's memory at the Middlesex Canal Museum & Visitor Center at 4:30pm on Wednesday, September 6, 2017 after the 3:30pm monthly meeting of the Middlesex Canal Association Board of Directors. A portion of Roger Hagopian's Video of the life of Thomas Raphael was shown along with a sharing of reminiscences of those present.

2017 Fall Walk – Sunday, October 15, 2017
This walk is jointly listed as a local walk of the Boston Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Middlesex Canal Association. On Sunday, October 15, 2017 those planning to join the walk should meet at 1:30pm at the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitors’ Center on 71 Faulkner Street in North Billerica. The walk will take 2-3 hours, rain or shine, over generally level wooded terrain and streets. The route follows the canal for a round trip of approximately 3 miles south of the Concord River. Sites to be visited include: two guard locks; an anchor stone and the ‘peninsula’ at the opposite ends of the floating bridge that once carried the towpath across the Concord; the 1825 iron bolt pond-level reference; the “deep cut”; a smallpox memorial marker; and stretches of canal some of which are still watered. The walk will be led by Robert Winters and Marlies Henderson.

Fall Meeting – Sunday, October 22, 2017
On Sunday, October 22, 2017 at 1:00pm the Middlesex Canal Association will hold a public meeting at the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitor Center, 71 Faulkner Street, North Billerica, MA. Bill Kuttner, the featured speaker, is a transportation planner at the Central Transportation Planning Staff (CTPS) in Boston where he works on a range of studies often focusing on freight transportation. He grew up in southern California where he sought out Spanish missions and remnants of Red Car lines, and rowed a boat in Long Beach harbor to try to get a peek of the Spruce Goose when it was Howard Hughes’ personal property.

Bill moved to New England in 1975 to attend M.I.T. Today he serves on the boards of the Shirley-Eustis House www.shirleyeustishouse.org and the West End Museum www.thewestendmuseum.org He has also developed an interpretive map which is now on display by the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/ commonwealth:7h149v32x Bill helps lead the twice-yearly Middlesex Canal bicycle explorations, and is always on the lookout for any overlooked or underappreciated infrastructure that helps explain today’s built environment. Please see the MCA website for more information on Bill’s scheduled lecture History in Modern Surroundings.

Sun, Feb 11, 2018: Winter Meeting: In October of 1961, at the Annual Meeting of the Billerica Historical Society, Harry Lasher was the keynote speaker. The Middlesex Canal was the topic of his presentation. Fred Lawson, who had received a grade of “A” on a college English paper on the canal was in attendance. At some point during Lasher’s talk, Fred suggested “out loud” that Lasher was in error. This prompted a conversation with another member of the audience, Dick Manning. It was this exchange that sowed the seed that eventually give birth to the Middlesex Canal Association.

To learn more of this fascinating story, plan to attend Fred’s presentation on Sunday, February 11, 2018 at 1:00 P.M. in the Reardon Room of the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitors’ Center located at 71 Faulkner Street in North Billerica, MA 01862. Come, share your knowledge of the beginning of the MCA, relish the warm camaraderie on a mid-winter’s day and enjoy the tasty fare at the conclusion of the meeting. You will not regret it!!!!

Bicycle Tour South: On Saturday, April 14, 2018, riders are encouraged to meet at 10:44am at the Lowell Train Station (the time the 10:00am train from Boston’s North Station arrives at the Gallagher Terminal). For those who arrive early, they may wish to have breakfast at the historic Owl Diner. The route visits the Pawtucket and other Lowell canals, the river walk, the Francis Gate, and the Middlesex Canal remnants in Chelmsford. Lunch at Rte 3A mini-mall in North Billerica is followed by a quick visit to the Canal Museum, then on to Boston. It will be a long day of exploration (35 miles end-to-end) but sunset is late.

Riders can board northbound trains at other stations or catch southbound trains to return to Boston. A complete Lowell Line schedule can be downloaded at http://www.keoliscs.com. For changes or updates see www.middlesexcanal.org. Steady rain cancels; helmets are required. The leaders of the tour are Bill Kuttner and Dick Bauer.

Spring Walk: The Spring Walk will take place on Sunday, April 22, 2018. Participants are encouraged to meet at 1:30pm at the Wilmington Town Park across from 760 Main Street (Rte. 38). The Appalachian Mountain Club and the MCA will host the 2-mile walk, roundtrip, along a section of the historic Middlesex Canal. Points of interest along the route will include the Ox Bow Turn where striations from the tow ropes are imbedded in the ledge along the canal, the signs of spring as the trek continues through the 14-acre tract gifted to the MCA by Stanley Webber and his daughter, Julia Ann Fielding, and finally Patches Pond. MCA member, Robert Winters will lead the walk. Additional information is available at www.middlesexcanal.org.

This Saturday, Apr 28, 2018, the celebration of the new Thoreau Towpath exhibit will take place with a ribbon cutting at 11:00am sharp (Lowell St at Nussey Terrace, Billerica). This is a good opportunity to walk the towpath and later visit the nearby Middlesex Canal Visitor Center/Museum, 71 Faulkner St, open noon-4:00pm.

Spring Meeting: The Spring Meeting (Annual Meeting) of the MCA is scheduled for Sunday, May 6, 2018 at 1:00pm in the Reardon Room of the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitors’ Center located at 71 Faulkner Street, North Billerica, MA 01862. A colloquy of Robert Thorsons’s book, The Boatman, is planned.

On Sunday, May 6, 2018, at 1:00pm, the Middlesex Canal Association will host a colloquy about Robert Thorson's book, The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau's River Years. For example, the Billerica town historian has been invited to discuss the credibility of Thorson's aspersion, p. 206, on the character of Daniel Wilson (1790 - 1861):

The next witness was Daniel Wilson, supervisor of the Middlesex Canal before and after construction of the great stone dam. He flatly stated that the dam had not been raised in 1828. He claimed that the flashboards for that dam , even when fully raised, were the same height as those of the older, 1798 dam. You, the reader, can contradict this statement by going to North Billerica and having a look, or by using Google Earth to see that the older dam is submerged by the present one, built in 1828.

Judge Samuel P. Hadley wrote in "Boyhood Reminiscences of Middlesex Village", c1905, that Wilson was a man of "sterling worth" to whom his father, locktender at the Merrimack River, was warmly attached. Thoreau said of the father in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers:

By noon we were let down into the Merrimack through the locks at Middlesex, just above Pawtucket Falls, by a serene and liberal-minded man, who came quietly from his book, though his duties, we supposed, did not require him to open the locks on Sundays. With him we had a just and equal encounter of the eyes, as between two honest men.

The father, locktender and honest man, friend of Wilson, is in the photo. [Flyer]

16th Annual Bicycle Tour North: On Sunday, September 30, 2018 riders are encouraged to meet at 9:00am at the Middlesex Canal plaque, Sullivan Square MBTA Station (1 Cambridge Street, Charlestown, MA 02019). The ride will head north following the canal route for 38 miles to Lowell. There will be a stop for snacks at Kiwanis Park across from the Baldwin Mansion (2 Alfred Street, Woburn, MA 01801 ~12:15pm), stop for a visit at the Canal Museum (71 Falkner Street, North Billerica, MA 01862 ~ 3:00pm) and arrive in Lowell in time for the 5:00pm train back to Boston. Riders can choose their own time to leave or join the tour by using the Lowell line which parallels the canal. For example, an abbreviated ride can be had by parking at Sichuan Garden, just off Rte. 128 at Rte. 38, cycling with the group to the museum (or Lowell), and returning by train to Anderson/Woburn at 3:19 (or 5:19), three miles from Sichuan Garden.

The ride is easy for most cyclists. The route is pretty flat and the tour group will average 5 mph. Steady rain cancels; helmets are required. For changes and updates see www.middlesexcanal.org. The leaders of the tour are Bill Kuttner and Dick Bauer.

Northern New England Chapter of the Society for Industrial Archeology (NNEC-SIA)
October 13, 2018 - NNEC-SIA Fall Tour: Glens Falls Feeder Canal and Old Champlain Canal
Begins at 11:00am - Historic Coal Silos at Griffin Lumber - 72 Maple St. , Hudson Falls, New York
Tour sponsored by the Feeder Canal Alliance of Glens Falls, NY [www.feedercanal.org] Reservations Required.

Click Here for Tour Flyer and More Info

Fall Walk: The Fall Walk will take place on Sunday, October 14, 2018. Participants are encouraged to meet at 1:30pm at the southeast corner of the parking lot behind the Woburn Cinemas. The Appalachian Mountain Club and the MCA will host the three-mile walk along two level sections of the historic Middlesex Canal. MCA member, Robert Winters will lead the walk accompanied by co-leader Marlies Henderson or Roger Hagopian.

Directions: From Rte. 128, take Exit 35, Rte. 38S. Proceed 1/10 of a mile and take a left turn off Rte. 38 onto Middlesex Canal Drive past the Crowne Plaza to the meeting place. Additional information is available at www.middlesexcanal.org.

Fall Meeting: The Fall Meeting of the MCA is scheduled for Sunday, October 28, 2018 at 1:00pm in the Reardon Room (possibly) of the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitors’ Center Located at 71 Faulkner Street, North Billerica, MA 01862. In addition to the formalities of the meeting, the planned topic is "Development of NH & VT Canals" presented by northern New England architect and historian Frank J. "Jay" Barrett, Jr., AIA.     [Flyer for Fall Meeting (PDF)]

Tide Mill Institute
Creating Tide Mills - Then & Now
Saturday, November 10, 2018 at Beverly's Cummings Center
Join educators, historians, environmentalists, archeologists and anyone else interested in tidal power and its history on Saturday, November 10, 2018, for the Tide Mill Institute's 14th annual conference.
Time: 8:30am - 4:00pm
Location: Cummings Center, Beverly, MA
Registration fee, including lunch: $50 for non-members, $40 for members (That's a $10 discount for TMI members! More about joining TMI.)
Conference topics focus on how man once extracted power from the tides and how he seeks to use this power again. Come to learn and participate in the discussions.
Some topics on the agenda for that day:
  • Medieval vertical and horizontal millwheels
  • A tide mill at the heart of the 1775 Battle of Brooklyn
  • Structure of tide mill dams
  • How tides in New York's East River supply power to the grid
  • A possible tidal energy canal for Boston
Save your space and help us with planning by pre-registering now.
More complete topic list and registration details.

Winter Meeting: On Sunday, February 10, 2019, the Middlesex Canal Association will hold a Public Meeting at 1:00pm at the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitors’ Center, 71 Faulkner Street in North Billerica, MA. Bill Kuttner will speak on “Concrete in Boston: Revolution and Evolution” building on his talk in 2017, “History of Modern Surroundings,” to make what would be a subject for specialists interesting for a general audience. Bill is President of the Board of Governors of the Shirley-Eustis House Association as well as a director of Boston’s West End Museum. Bill will be traveling to the meeting on the train from Boston if you would like to have a conversation with a long-time Charlestown Alternate to the Middlesex Canal Commission, Proprietor of the Association, and leader of the canal bicycle tours.

Brooks Bridge over Middlesex Canal, designed by George Rumford Baldwin for Peter Chardon Brooks. Built in 1821
for $1,000, demolished in 1911, ~47 Sagamore Avenue, Medford 02155 (Sagamore John Memorial), 1909 postcard.

Spring Walk: At 1:30pm on Sunday, March 24, 2019, the Middlesex Canal Association in conjunction with the Appalachian Mountain Club will sponsor a pleasant walk along the remnants of the Canal in the vicinity of Sandy Beach. Those wishing to participate in the walk are encouraged to meet in the Sandy Beach Parking Lot, 4 Mystic Parkway, Winchester, MA. Sandy Beach is a ten minutes’ walk from the Wedgemere train station on the Lowell line. The turnaround of the walk is at the Sagamore John Memorial near the West Medford Train Station. Leader: Robert Winters. More information is available on the web at www.middlesexcanal.org.

Bicycle Tour South: On Sunday, April 14, 2019, the Middlesex Canal Association will sponsor a bicycle tour of the Middlesex Canal. Incorporated in 1793 with John Hancock as the first proprietor, the canal connected the Merrimack River at Lowell with the Charles River at Boston by a ditch 3 1/2’ deep, 30’ wide and 27 miles long. It was the greatest work of its kind in the United Sates until the Erie Canal. The canal operated for 50 years, then the one-horse power canal boat quickly lost to a new competitor, the 30-horsepower steam locomotive. The tour will start at the Lowell train station after the 10:44am, when the 10:00am train arrives from Boston. This year an early group will take the 8:00am train from North Station to allow more time in Lowell and breakfast at the Owl Diner, United States Historic Landmark, www.owldiner.com. Train fare is $10.00. The tour visits Lowell canals, River Walk, Francis Gate, the canal plaque at Hadley Field, then south on the route of the canal. Riders will stop at the mini-mall, 95 Boston Road, Billerica, MA for lunch at 1:00pm followed by a quick visit to the canal visitor center/museum, 71 Faulkner Street, Billerica, MA., and then back to Boston. More information is available on the Web at www.middlesexcanal.org.

Spring Meeting: On May 5, 2019 at 1:00pm the MCA will hold a public meeting in the at the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitors’ Center’s Reardon Room located at 71 Faulkner Street, North Billerica, MA 01862. Earl Taylor, has been the President of the Dorchester Historical Society since 2002. He earned his Master’s Degree in Library Science from Simmons College and served as a rare book cataloguer at the Boston Public Library and later the American Antiquarian Society. In 1983 he became the Assistant Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library, then Director of Library Systems at Boston College. In 1987 he switched careers to real estate and mortgages. [Flyer for the May 5 meeting]

Earl has been a Dorchester resident since 1979. He was invited to join the Dorchester Historical Society in 2000, and the following year he became President. Faced with the huge collections at the Dorchester Historical Society including manuscripts, photographs, books, and more, Earl found it was not enough to store information in file cabinets for future reference, he needed a way to find information when desired. To that end he created and still maintains the website www.DorchesterAtheneum.org. devoted to Dorchester history.

Under his leadership the Dorchester Historical Society has raised over $1,000,000 for property repairs, plus another $250,000 toward the endowment. Faced with five buildings in depreciating condition --- which include the James Blake House (ca. 1661 --- Boston’s oldest surviving house), the Lemuel Clap House (1767), the William Clapp House (1806), and various outbuildings --- Earl suggested in 2005 that the Society should engage consultants to create a long-term plan for governance, activities, and property repairs. The result has been an overwhelming response from Dorchester stakeholders far and wide who contributed the money to complete the exterior renovations of all five of the Society’s buildings. So far, these projects have been recognized by two preservation awards from the Massachusetts Historical Commission and two from the Boston Preservation Alliance.

17th Annual Bicycle Tour North: On Saturday, October 5, 2019 riders are encouraged to meet at 9:00am at the Middlesex Canal plaque, Sullivan Square MBTA Station (1 Cambridge Street, Charlestown, MA 02019). The ride will follow the canal route for 38 miles to Lowell. There will be a stops for snacks at the Kiwanis Park across from the Baldwin Mansion (2 Alfred Street, Woburn, MA 01801 ~ 12:30pm) and for a visit to the Middlesex Canal Museum (71 Faulkner Street, North Billerica, MA 01862 ~ 3:00pm). The tour will arrive in Lowell in time for the 5:00pm train back to Boston. Riders are able to choose their own time to join or leave the tour by using the Lowell line which parallels the canal. The ride is easy for most cyclists. The route is pretty flat and the tour group will average about 5 mph. Steady rain cancels; helmets are required. For changes and update see www.middlesexcanal.org. It is anticipated that the tour will be led by Bill Kuttner and Dick Bauer.

Fall Walk: The Fall Walk will take place on Sunday, October 20, 2019. Participants are encouraged to meet at the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitors’ Center (71 Faulkner Street, North Billerica, MA 01862) at 1:30pm. The 2½ hour walk will cover part of the Merrimack River branch of the canal in Billerica and Chelmsford, over about 3 to 4 miles of generally wooded terrain. Sites visited on the tour will include the recently restored guard lock, the anchor stone for the floating towpath that bridged the Concord River, and many stretches of the watered canal. The walk is jointly listed as a local walk of the Boston Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club and the MCA. It is anticipated that the walk will be co-led by Robert Winters and Marlies Henderson. For the latest information please refer to the MCA website, www.middlesexcanal.org.

Concord River, Billerica Falls Dam, and Thoreau

MCA Fall Meeting: Sunday, October 27, 2019, at 1:00pm, 71 Faulkner St, Billerica. The Middlesex Canal Association will host a talk by Robert Thorson, the author of The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau's River Years. His 2018 talk on Thoreau's river years is on video in the Internet Archive. His October 27 talk will be about the river, the Billerica dam and Thoreau, timely as the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wants to remove the dam as a barrier to some fish species. Dr. Thorson is a professor of geology at the University of Connecticut.

References:

1. The River Years, https://archive.org/details/TheBoatman050218

2. See Concord River Diadromous Fish Restoration: Feasibility Study: Final Report, Dec 2016, by Gomez and Sullivan, Engineers (Jill Griffiths, P.E.), http://archives.lib.state.ma.us/handle/2452/626310 . N. B., the appendices, A - I, are separate files. See also "The 1825 Iron Bolt and the Great Billerica Dam Controversy", http://middlesexcanal.org/towpath/TowpathTopics-Sept2013color.pdf, pp. 8-10

3. Professor Thorson, home page, https://robertthorson.clas.uconn.edu

Nov 16, 2019: Lowell Talk on the Middlesex Canal with J. Breen, President of the Middlesex Canal Association: https://www.facebook.com/events/2503744366523773/

Middlesex Canal Association: Lowell and the Middlesex Canal (video of the talk)

November 29, 2019
Dear Fellow Canal Enthusiasts,

On October 15, 2019, Mark LaLumiere, the Building Commissioner for the Town of Billerica, issued the Middlesex Canal Association a Building Permit which allows us to begin the adaptive reuse of 2 Old Elm, and convert it into our new museum. These last two years have been a very challenging time as we worked our way through the long permitting process: while at the same time we staffed our current museum, led our Spring and Fall walks for record crowds, published extra full issues of Towpath Topics, maintained our excellent Web Site, educated hundreds of school children, and held our well attended lecture series. We have been busy and need your continued support for our Annual Appeal. We welcome you to join us as we enter this exciting adventure - building a new museum.

We are fortunate to have a sympathetic contractor, William (Bill) Cogley, who encouraged us along the way and now heads our whole effort. Bill is assisted by Patricia (Pat) Perrino, who will serve as the Project Manager. The official starting date was November 8, 2019. The Plan is to start at the river side - east side - and progress towards the street. The building measures 40ft by 60ft long: we will complete one third (20ft) at a time as long as the weather allows us to proceed. Any work not completed will start again in the Spring.

The current cost projection to allow us to move in is $1.5 million dollars. We need to raise the last $500,000. To do so we need both your financial assistance and your suggestions for available Grants, Trusts, Appreciated Stock Transfer, Generous Individuals, Businesses etc. The current Building Committee will lead the effort to seek new money but we need your participation in coming up with possible donors for our new museum. We are depending on your assistance. Together - we can do this.

Sincerely,
J. Jeremiah Breen
MCA President