Neponset River Ice

The Neponset River, which begins in Foxboro and runs out to the Atlantic by way of the Milton and Dorchester salt marshes, is home to a number of American “firsts,” although mostly of an industrial nature.

In 1634, these waters ground the first mill-ground corn in New England at a gristmill established by Israel Stoughton. The country’s first powder mill was constructed on these banks in 1675 (it exploded 70 years later). In 1706, the first paper mill in America was erected on the Neponset; in 1765, America’s first chocolate mill (I’m not making this up!); and in 1826, the first American railroad began operation by moving granite from Quincy quarries to Gulliver’s Landing in the Neponset River. Not bad for one little river.

Once teaming with fish, by the late 1880s even the Alewives had disappeared. In recent decades, environmentally conscious groups like the Neponset River Watershed Association have made great strides toward removing obsolete dams and cleaning the water in preparation for a return of the fish runs that have taken place here for millennia. Find out more at neponset.org.