Middlesex Canal Association

The June 2026 issue was mailed to Members and Proprietors on Friday, June 5, 2026.

Calendar of Middlesex Canal Association Events and Related Events

The Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitors’ Center is open every Saturday and Sunday, noon-4, except holidays. [Facebook Page]

First Wednesday - MCA Board of Directors’ Meetings - The Board meets the first Wednesday of every month (except July and August), at the Museum, from 3:30 to 5:30pm Members and the public are invited to attend. [Note: Meetings are currently being held remotely via Zoom.]

Walks and Bicycle Tours: For more detailed information please access the MCA website at www.middlesexcanal.org about a week prior to the scheduled event.

24th Annual Bike Tour North, 9:00am, Saturday, October 3, 2026
Meet at the Middlesex Canal plaque right of the entrance to the Sullivan Square T Station, 1 Cambridge Street, Charlestown, MA 02129.
Leaders: Dick Bauer and Bill Kuttner

Fall Walk, 1:30pm, Sunday, October 18, 2026
Winchester – Medford
Meet at Shannon Beach parking lot, Mystic Valley Parkway

Fall Meeting, 1:00pm, Saturday, October 24, 2026
Speaker: TBA Location TBA

Medford Historical Society, 1:00pm, Saturday, October 31, 2026
Talk on Middlesex Canal by J. Breen

Middlesex Canal Remnants Emerging as Catalyst for Bike/Ped Trail Development
by Bill Kuttner and Andrew Jennings

Early during the COVID lockdown, MassDOT announced a new innovative, competitive grant program “Shared Streets and Spaces.” The program sought creative ideas for reuse of street spaces given the changes in travel demand and the rapid growth of cycling and hiking. It also opened lines of communication among transit advocates, outdoor advocates, and those interested in transportation history. As a result of these new lines of communication, early in 2023 five MCA members began meeting as an informal working group to identify opportunities, develop conceptual plans, and advocate for the construction of new paths for bicycles and pedestrians, referred to in the planning profession as “multi-use paths”. Notably, all five of us are both interested in the historic Middlesex Canal and in active transportation, both for our own enjoyment and as an important use of public space. At our usually weekly meetings, however, we have had guests representing a broad range of interests: sports, open space, history, and politics to name a few. All have given encouragement and many offer practical support. As our efforts became better known we realized we needed a name: we are the Friends of Regional Trails and Towpaths, or FORTT.

As reflected in its name, FORTT decided to focus on regional multi-use paths and the reuse of historic transportation rights-of-way. FORTT sees a significant enhancement of value in connecting and extending existing and planned paths to create a network of paths. Historic transportation rights-of-way, particularly railway and canal rights-of-way make good bike paths as they are level, straight, and have much less interaction with motor vehicles than using streets. A well-designed multi-use path can make the public more aware of the region’s transportation history. The routes are protected from development as they become public recreation lands.

The group quickly focused on two historic rights-of-way, the little used MBTA owned rail line between the North Billerica commuter rail station and Boston Road in Billerica originally built by the Billerica and Bedford narrow gauge railroad, and the remnants of the Middlesex Canal between that right-of-way and the Merrimack River. The map indicates the conceptual route from the Vandenberg Esplanade in Lowell (north of the Merrimack River) to the planned Yankee Doodle Bike Path in Billerica. The route proposes to connect to the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail (built through Concord to Sudbury) and the Lowell Connector Trail (which is planned to connect to the Concord River Greenway) near Cross Point Tower. After finding a route around the US 3 / I-495 / Lowell Connecter interchange, the route will continue to the planned Yankee Doodle Bike Path in Billerica.

The conceptual plan calls for the path to follow four segments of the Middlesex Canal:

1) In Lowell, from the Mount Pleasant Golf Club to where Route 3 was built over the Canal

2) In Chelmsford, along Canal Street from Riverneck Road to the Billerica town line

3) In Billerica, from the Chelmsford town line along McLennan Way and Lowell Street

4) In Billerica, from the summit pond to the former Billerica and Bedford right-of-way.

A shared use path using these railroad and canal rights-of-way builds significant, meaningful connections among existing paths.

We rolled out our concepts in April 2023 at one of the regular meetings of the Middlesex Canal Association. We also hosted a bike ride in June 2023 that included, MassDOT bike/ped coordinator, Pete Sutton. In the morning, we had a multi-modal (bikes and cars) field trip that visited sites of our proposed improvements. After lunch at Captain John’s the Lowell Public Works Department led a tour of trail extension opportunities in Lowell’s dense residential and industrial urban fabric. The canal bike ride that September visited the same locations that we took Pete Sutton to, and a more complete description of our specific proposals appears in the October 2023 Towpath Topics.
http://www.middlesexcanal.org/towpath/towpathtopicsOct2023.htm#FallBike2023

Pete Sutton was supportive of our proposals and noted that our projects were on corridors already shown on or complementary with a planned statewide trail network, available on the MassTrails website (https://www.mass.gov/welcome-to-masstrails). The next steps were for us to work through municipalities which would in most cases be the project proponents and to also work with the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments (NMCOG), the regional planning agency that helps coordinate and program available state funding for projects of municipal and other proponents.

In March 2024 we were invited to present at a MassDOT Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board held at NMCOG. NMCOG was already familiar with most of our proposals because we had suggested them in official comments on their 2050 long-range transportation plan (LRTP). They said that if the project descriptions were fleshed out a bit the projects might be added to a “universe” of potential projects, simplifying the process by which a municipality could step up and become a project proponent.

FORTT is now working on a pre-feasibility analysis of alternative paths for the full route between the new Rourke bridge and the Yankee Doodle Bike Path. The data we are preparing parallels the analyses submitted to support construction of paths in other parts of the state. NMCOG has retained Toole Design to do a regional bicycle/pedestrian study and we want to make sure that the important canal segments will be included in their recommendations.

Next Steps
Building shared use paths is typically a process that takes over a decade. Taking a concept and turning it into a design, particularly along a canal right-of-way where wetlands are present, then turning those designs into a trail is a difficult process. The small immediate steps that are underway include:

1) Continue to vet the plan with local and regional officials. Their feedback facilitates and guides the process.

2) Advocate to get the concept into the formal planning process, particularly the NMCOG active transportation plan and Lowell’s Open Space and Recreation Plans.

3) Develop a pre-feasibility study to give specificity to the plan, and to guide further development of the plan.

4) Hold discussions with local communities, Massachusetts Department of Transportation [MassDOT], MassTrails, and Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation [MassDCR] to find funding for the initial design studies that will make the project eligible for public funding.

What You Can Do?
A bold regional trail plan needs advocates with varied interests and capabilities to push the project to completion. Your help and your skills can give a key boost to getting a trail implemented.

1) Support the Middlesex Canal Association and the Friends of Bedford Depot Park. These two organizations provide invaluable information about the historic transportation rights-of-way for the proposed path.

2) Let your public officials know that you want regional trails and the preservation and protection of historical transportation rights-of-way.

3) Show up at your town committees and public meetings where the trail proposals are being considered.

4) Volunteer your time to FORTT. At this time, we particularly need skills in map making, writing, and presentation development, as well as enthusiasm for hiking and biking.

Directions to Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitors’ Center
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 in the direction of North Billerica. At about ¾ mile, bear left at the fork. After another ¾ mile, at the traffic light, cross straight over Route 3A (Boston Road). Go about ¼ mile to a 3 way-fork; take the middle road (Talbot Avenue) which will put St Andrew’s Church on your left. Go ¼ mile to a stop sign and bear right onto Old Elm Street. Go about ¼ mile to the falls, where Old Elm Street becomes Faulkner Street; the Museum is on your left and you can park across the street on your right, just beyond the falls. Watch out crossing the street!

From I-495
Take Exit 37, North Billerica, south roughly 2 plus miles to the stop sign at Mt. Pleasant Street, turn right, then bear right at the Y, go 700’ and turn left into the parking lot. The Museum is across the street (Faulkner Street).

By Train:
The Lowell Commuter line runs between Lowell and Boston’s North Station. From the station side of the tracks at North Billerica, the Museum is a 3-minute walk down Station Street and Faulkner Street on the right side.

The new museum at 2 Old Elm is moving along. Here's the ground floor w/stairs to the 2nd floor. (Feb 2021)

Riverfest VR (Virtual Reality) Project

Bike Tour South, 11:15am, Sunday, March 29, 2026
Meet at the Lowell Train Station.
Leaders, Dick Bauer and Bill Kuttner
The 11:15 time will change with the MBTA Lowell Line schedule.
Note: The MBTA will not run trains at North Station on Jan 31, Feb 1, Feb 28, Mar 1, Mar 7, Mar 8, Mar 21, Mar 22, Mar 28, Mar 29, Apr 11 & Apr 12.

Fall Meeting: 1:30pm, Sunday, October 26, 2025
Speaker and location TBA.

Fall Walk: 1:30pm, Sunday, October 19, 2025
Maple Meadow Aqueduct. Meet at kiosk, 35 Towpath Drive, Wilmington, MA 01887.

23rd Fall Bike Tour: 9:00am, Sunday, October 5, 2025
Meet at the Middlesex Canal plaque right at the entrance to the Sullivan Square T Station, 1 Cambridge Street, Charlestown, MA 02129. Leaders: Dick Bauer and Bill Kuttner.

Historic Bicycle Tour of Middlesex Canal

This coming Sunday, October 5, 2025, the Middlesex Canal Association and the Middlesex Canal Commission will sponsor the 23rd annual historic bicycle tour of the Middlesex Canal.

Canal lock 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 Merrimack River in what is now Lowell with the Charles River near 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 start at the Canal marker on the front of the Sullivan Square MBTA station just to the right of the main entrance. We will leave promptly at 9:00am. From there we will ride about 38 miles to Lowell, in time to catch the 5:22pm train back to Boston. We will make a lunch stop in Woburn, so we recommend that you bring a lunch.

Along the canal Most of the route is pretty flat and level and we will travel about 10 miles per hour. Along the way we will stop at a number of remnants and restored sections of the Canal, as well the Historic Mill Village and Canal Museum on the Millpond in North Billerica, the Mansion of Loammi Baldwin, the chief engineer of the Canal (who discovered the Baldwin apple while building the Canal), several of the remaining aqueducts (which carried the Canal over rivers and brooks), and will get to walk along the bed of the Canal and see traces of the ropes that connected the horses to the canal boats.

The ride will be led by Dick Bauer and Bill Kuttner of the Middlesex Canal Commission. Helmets required. Steady rain cancels. For more information, contact Dick at dick.bauer@alum.mit.edu (857-540-6293), or Bill at bkuttner@alum.mit.edu (617-945-3987).

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

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

Bike Tour South: 11:15am, Saturday, April 19, 2025
Meet at the Lowell Train Station. Leaders: Dick Bauer and Bill Kuttner. The 11:15am time will change with the MBTA Lowell Line Schedule

The Middlesex Canal Association Presents:
Spring Bicycle Tour of Historic Middlesex Canal

On Saturday, April 19, 2025, the Middlesex Canal Association will present its 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.

Canal image The ride will depart from the Lowell Train Station at 11:15am. You can take your bicycle on the 10:20 AM train from North Station which arrives in Lowell at 11:07. You can get a regular ticket or get a $10 ticket for unlimited rides for the whole weekend (including the Monday holiday). Riders can also just meet at Lowell Station. Early birds can also take the 8:20 train which arrives in Lowell at 9:07 and have breakfast at the historic Owl Diner before the ride.

The route visits the Pawtucket and other Lowell canals, river walk, Francis Gate, and then Middlesex Canal remnants in Chelmsford. Quick visit to Canal Museum, then on to Boston. Long day, but sunset is late. Riders can also leave the route and take the train back to either Lowell or Boston from several stations along the way. We will stop along the way for a picnic lunch, so bring something to eat.

Along the canal The route is pretty flat and level, so the ride will be easy to moderate for most cyclists. Along the way we will stop 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 will be led by Dick Bauer (857-540-6293, dick.bauer@alum.mit.edu) and Bill Kuttner (617-241-9383, bkuttner@alum.mit.edu) of the Middlesex Canal Commission. Helmets required. Steady rain cancels.

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

Winter Meeting: The (delayed) MCA Winter Meeting will be held on Sunday, April 6, 2025 at 1:00pm in The Reardon Room of the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitor’s Center at 71 Faulkner Street, North Billerica, MA 01862. The talk will examine the importance of alewife and blueback herring, including life history, food web dynamics, and fisheries. In addition, the speaker will focus on restoration strategies and lessons learned over the past 30 years. Ben Gahagan, the speaker, is a biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. He has twenty years of experience and is an expert in the biology and ecology of the river herring and American shad. The talk will be preceded by a five-minute MCA business meeting. The free museum will be open from noon until 4:00pm.

Middlesex Canal Commission Annual Meeting: 3:15pm, Thursday, March 20, 2025
A Meeting (Annual Meeting) of the Middlesex Canal Commission is called for Thursday, March 20, 2025 at 3:15pm at the Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitor Center, 71 Faulkner Street, North Billerica, Massachusetts. (Registration and Refreshments precede the meeting, starting at 2:15pm.)

Billerica North - Middlesex Canal

MIDDLESEX CANAL WALK

Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, 1:30pm, meet at the Middlesex Canal Visitor Center/Museum, located at the Billerica Falls of the Concord River, 71 Faulkner
Street, Billerica MA 01862. The visitor center opens at noon. Web site, www.middlesexcanal.org.

The walk covers remnants of the historic Middlesex Canal from North Billerica to Chelmsford. Sites will include the large stone with iron rings that anchored the west end of the floating towpath, which enabled canal boats to cross the summit pond at the Concord River. We will view a guard lock in the Talbot Millyard, which controlled the level of water in the canal north to the Merrimack, and the turning basin, which enabled 75' long canal boats to turn into the Red Lock. We will follow the canal to the canal plaque near 121 Riverneck Road, Chelmsford, if the beavers haven't flooded the towpath. A round trip of five miles.

Henry Thoreau traveled on this part of the canal September 1, 1839, and wrote of it,

“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 his prediction after a lapse of 185 years.

Directions. Rte. 3 to exit 78, Treble Cove Road, then follow the Middlesex Canal signs. After crossing the Billerica Falls bridge over the Concord River, the parking lot is 90' on the right. Treble Cove Road, exit 78, 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 museum is across the street. North Billerica, exit 91, is between Rte. 3 and I-93.

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

Southern terminus of the Middlesex Canal (Sullivan Square, Charlestown)
[Canal Street is now Rutherford Street]

1794. - Chap. 0067
[January Session, ch. 43]
AN ACT IN ADDITION TO AN ACT ENTITLED "AN ACT FOR INCORPORATING JAMES SULLIVAN & OTHERS BY THE NAME & STILE OF THE PROPRIETORS OF THE MIDDLESEX CANAL."

Be it enacted by the Senate & House of Representatives in General Court assembled & by the authority of the same, That the property of the said Proprietors in the said Canal, & in any other Canal connected therewith, which they shall effect, pursuant to any authority of the Government, & all real estate of which the said Corporation shall be seized shall be divided into eight hundred shares & that each share therein shall give the person holding the same one vote in the proceedings of the said corporation, provided that no one proprietor shall have a right to more than twenty five votes on any occasion; And that the shares in the same Canal, including the towing paths & wharves thereon, shall be so far considered as personal estate, that the same may be transferred according to such rules & regulations as the said Corporation shall establish; And that the proprietors shall be subjected to taxes therefor in the towns & parishes where they shall severally reside as for personal estate.

And be it further enacted, that the said Corporation shall have power to receive & hold real estate as appendant to the same Canal & for the purpose of facilitating the business of the same, to the value of thirty thousand pounds, over & above the value of the Canal itself simply considered; And that the Corporation shall be liable to pay taxes therefor in the Town & Parish where the same may be; And such taxes may be assessed on the corporation or on its tenants at the discretion of the Town where the tax shall be made.

And whereas the said Corporation hath petitioned the Legislature for an extension of their powers for the purpose of making other Canals to be connected, & to communicate with the said Middlesex Canal: The object of which petition being to render the waters of Concord River boatable as far up as the same can be usefully improved for that purpose & to improve the banks of Medford river, so as to render the Canal more easy & useful, as well as to open a Canal round the shallows in the town of Dunstable on the banks of Merrimack river; And also to extend said Canal to the waters of Charles River or the town of Boston.

Be it therefore farther enacted that the said proprietors of the Middlesex Canal shall be empowered to render the waters of Concord river boatable as far as Sudbury Causeway & as much farther as the same can be usefully improved for that end; & to open any Canal at any place in the said County of Middlesex that may be necessary to connect the said Concord river with the said Middlesex Canal for that purpose, and also to extend said Canal from Medford to the waters of the town of Boston or Charles river in such way as to said proprietors may seem most advantageous & with all the privileges, & under the same restrictions & regulations as are granted & provided in said Act; And that the said proprietors shall be liable to have damages recovered against them by any individual who shall be injured or damnified in his property in such new Canal by the same mode of process, & in the same manner as is in the same act provided: And that for the use of any such new Canal or boatable waters the said proprietors may receive the same rate of toll which is by the same act established for the said Middlesex Canal.

"Whereas it is provided in an Act entitled an Act for incorporating James Sullivan & others by the name & stile of the proprietors of the Middlesex Canal "That no part of the waters of Shawshine river shall be diverted from their natural course for the purpose aforesaid" It is hereby declared to be the true intent & meaning of the foregoing restrictive clause that the ponds & those streams which continue a visible current thro' the year & usually empty into Shawshine River are to be considered as part of the waters of the said River.

Middlesex Canal Association Dedicated to the Preservation and Restoration of the Historic Middlesex Canal
Canal Links	Towpath Topics (complete archive)	Museum & Visitor Center	Join the MCA	Commission	FORTT	Calendar

Riverfest VR (Virtual Reality) Project

Saturday, February 14, 2026, 1:00pm – Winter Meeting - Middlesex Canal Association

Historic Bicycle Tour of Middlesex Canal

Concord River — The Life of a River Herring
A talk Sunday, April 6, 2025, 1:00pm, at the Middlesex Canal Museum, 71 Faulkner St, Billerica 01862

Riverfest VR (Virtual Reality) Project

Saturday, February 14, 2026, 1:00pm – Winter Meeting - Middlesex Canal Association

Historic Bicycle Tour of Middlesex Canal

Concord River — The Life of a River Herring A talk Sunday, April 6, 2025, 1:00pm, at the Middlesex Canal Museum, 71 Faulkner St, Billerica 01862

Concord River — The Life of a River Herring
A talk Sunday, April 6, 2025, 1:00pm, at the Middlesex Canal Museum, 71 Faulkner St, Billerica 01862