Marion Stoddart - The Work of 1000

12,000-10,000 BCE
Indians come to the Nashua River Valley.

1400
Nashua Indian people of the Pennacook Confederacy settle along Nashua River.

1600s
First colonists settle in New England. They bring with them a different philosophy toward nature than the Indians. They believe that forests are full of evil spirits.
Colonists begin to claim Indian hunting and fishing land as their own.

1616-17
One of several smallpox epidemics that invade Indian settlements.

1628
Massachusetts Bay Colony is founded.

1653
First English habitation in the watershed takes place in Lancaster.

1654
First industry to derive power from the Nashua River is a grist mill built by John Prescott and his son Jonas, both of Lancaster.

1655
Groton’s first English settlement is established. It’s called the Petapawag Plantation, also know as the “Land of Nod”. Nod’s “Stony Fordway” becomes the first overland passageway between Boston and north central Massachusetts (now Rt. 119).

1675-76
King Philip’s War occurs. Metacom, a chieftan of the Wampanoag Confederacy, is known to the English as "King Philip". Hoping to regain lands settled by European settlers, several Native tribes attack colonial settlements. Most colonialists abandon lands west of the Nashua and return to the larger cities of the East. The war lasts for two years, with victories and defeats on both sides. The colonialists and their Native allies eventually overpower Philp and his allies, and the war ends with Philip's death in 1676.

Mid-1700s
Ephraim and Amos Kimball (soon followed by other colonists) construct the first dam on the North Branch in an area of Lunenburg that will later become Fitchburg. The dam forms a mill pond and provides year-round water power to the Kimball’s saw and grist mills.

1776
Declaration of Independence is signed.

1805
Elijah Burbank begins operating the first paper-making mill on the North Nashua in Fitchburg.

1809
David Poignand and Samuel Plant come to Factory Village (now Clinton) and start the first cotton mill in the country.

1830
Indian Removal Act is enacted, forcing Native Americans in the Southeastern United States to move to the West.

1835
The Bigelow Brothers erect Lancaster Mills in Clinton, which is to become the area’s largest mill site.

1840s-1870s
Massachusetts privatizes some Native community lands

1839
Henry David and John Thoreau take a trip on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, including a portion of the Nashua River during September of 1839.

1850
The great flood sweeps away most homes, factories, and bridges in Fitchburg and other areas along the Nashua. Rebuilding is slow.

Mid-1800s
Industrial Revolution brings more manufacturing – primarily paper, textiles, and shoe products – to the Nashua River.
Mill cities such as Gardner, Fitchburg, Leominster, and Nashua arise around these centers of production.
Wave of immigrants comes from Europe to work in the new factories.
Swimming and fishing still occur on the river.

1895
The South Nashua – thus far still pure waters – is dammed and the Wachusett Reservoir is formed in Clinton, Sterling, Boylston, and West Boylston. The reservoir is managed by the State M.D.C. and supplies drinking water to the metropolitan Boston area.

Late 1800s
At 21 different openings the river receives discharge from Fitchburg’s 20 miles of sewers, in addition to the waste of several plant and textile mills and the garbage and sewage disposed of by the public.
Some factories cannot even use the water in their boilers.

Early 1900s
Fitchburg is a developed city.

1910
Manufacture of Bakelite begins plastic age.

1935
Fort Devens Commander Colonel Converse R. Lewis attempts to organize a river clean-up program. Dr. Endicott Peabody, the headmaster of the Groton School, contacts President Roosevelt and secures funds for the project. However, the pollution is growing at a rate too difficult to control through the available technology and funds.

1936
Army Corps of Engineers install floodwalls in Fitchburg during massive floods.

1960s
Sewage worms are the chief form of aquatic life.
Nashua River is declared ecologically dead.
Serious drought in Massachusetts and New England causes water level to be at its lowest. Absence of oxygen in river leads to massive fish kills and intense stench.
River is full of sludge and birds and small animals can walk right across it.
River is always a different color, based on what color dye is being used each day.

1962
Marion Stoddart forms the Nashua River Clean-Up Committee, which captures the attention of politicians and makes them aware of the necessity to restore polluted rivers.
City of Leominster gets permission from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to dump 150 million gallons of raw sewage per day into the Nashua.

1963
Groton Hunt that the Dumaine family partook in is disbanded.

1965
Paper companies along the Nashua River join together to build a treatment plant.

1966
Federal Water Pollution Control Act passed.
A federal agency describes the Nashua as “one of the most polluted rivers in the United States”.
The Nashua is awarded a “U” status. This means it is unfit even for the transportation of raw sewage.
A Pepperell resident is informed by the Federal Housing Authority that his land on the river had zero value because of the condition of the river.
Senator Ted Kennedy brings Secretary of the Interior, Stewart Udall, to New England to meet with Marion and hundreds of supporters, including Governor John A. Volpe and Lieutenant Governor Elliot Richardson.
Marion asks for a swimmable river.
Marion coordinates a successful citizen campaign that leads to the passing of the Massachusetts Clean Water Act.

1969
Nashua River Cleanup Committee launches a petition drive in the Nashua River watershed for 10,000 signatures to present to Richard Nixon, U.S. Congressmen, and Massachusetts and New Hampshire legislature. The petitions ask that federal and state funds to build waste water treatment facilities be guaranteed to communities which are meeting requirements.
Clean-Up Committee forms the Nashua River Watershed Association, which includes 31 communities.
Cuyahoga River, in Ohio, has major river fire, which helps spur national efforts to clean rivers.

1970
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) forms.
The Federal Clean Water Act states that all U.S. waters be fishable and swimmable by 1983.
Preliminary plans for the Nashua River Greenway are developed.

1971
Marion, along with the Massachusetts Opportunity Council, writes a grant to receive money from the U.S. Department of Labor. The project is to identify high school dropouts from disadvantaged homes in the watershed communities and hire them to do environmental work along the Nashua River. 400-500 kids are involved.
Petapawag Canoe Launch is one result of this project.

1972
Amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act are enacted, which make available funds for pollution abatement and construction of wastewater treatment facilities. The EPA begins to provide a federal share of 75% of the costs of wastewater treatment plants, while the state pays 15% and the local communities have to fund 10%.
New law is referred to as the Federal Water Quality Act.
West and east Fitchburg treatment plants are on line.
Wastewater treatment facility is constructed at the Pepperell Paper Company.

1976
Nashua River Watershed Association sponsors the first annual Nashua River Spring Runoff Canoe Race

1977
Rainbow trout is spotted in the Nashua River.

1979
Bass, pickerel, perch, trout, bald eagles, osprey, and great blue heron return to the Nashua River.

1997
Nashoba Paddler opens and receives the Nashua River Watershed Association’s Greenway Award for “helping people to fall in love with the river and become educated stewards for the Nashua watershed.”

Late 1990s
Nashoba Paddler begins putting children on the water through River Camp and River Classroom

2001
Lisa Wong comes to Fitchburg to help revitalize downtown Fitchburg, as part of the Economic Development Office.

Other events in the history of the Nashua River:

• Frederick C. Dumaine, Sr’s death and memorial
• Sabine family gave their land to Groton Conservation Trust
• Groton School provides easement for public to use to walk along the river to Searns Farm
• Acquisition of Searns Farm and protection of 330 acres of farmland and ¾ miles along the river
• Mr. Dumaine’s children establish Groton Woods
• Public hearing at Fitchburg State College – Bill McCarthy, attorney from the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, attended.
• Bill McCarthy put together program for all companies in the commonwealth to help them comply with the laws
• Don Crocker (in charge of largest paper company on river) and Billy Flynn (mayor of Fitchburg) wrote letter to all the businesses in the region, asking them to join the Nashua River Watershed Association
• Don Crocker made first gift to the Nashua River Watershed Association
• One company threatened to withdraw from their contractual agreement with the city to build a waste water treatment facility. A citizens complaint was filed against that company
• City council in Fitchburg voted on their share of the money to help construct wastewater treatment facilities
• of Fitchburg
• Riverfront Park in Fitchburg
• Steam Line Trail in Fitchburg
• Putnam Place in Fitchburg
• Massachusetts Innovation Center in Fitchburg
• Arden Mills in Fitchburg