The Blackstone Valley or Blackstone River Valley is a region of
and
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
. It was a major factor in the American Industrial Revolution. It makes up part of the
Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor and
National Historical Park
National Historic Site (NHS) is a designation for an officially recognized area of national historic significance in the United States. An NHS usually contains a single historical feature directly associated with its subject. The National Historic ...
.
History
National Heritage Corridor
The
John H. Chafee
John Lester Hubbard Chafee ( ; October 22, 1922 – October 24, 1999) was an American politician and officer in the United States Marine Corps. A member of the Republican Party (United States), he served as the 66th Governor of Rhode Island, as ...
Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor follows the Blackstone Valley from Worcester to
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...
. The corridor follows the course of the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
in America from its origin at the
Slater Mill
The Slater Mill is a historic water-powered textile mill complex on the banks of the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, modeled after cotton spinning mills first established in England. It is the first water-powered cotton spinning mil ...
in
Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 75,604 at the 2020 census, making the city the fourth-largest in the state. Pawtucket borders Providence and East Providence to the south, Central Fal ...
as it first spread north along the valley to
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...
, and then to the rest of the nation.
The region was designated a National Heritage Corridor by Congress in November 1986, composing 25 towns and cities throughout
and
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
.
National Historical Park
In 2011, a report recommended the region for National Park status. In 2014, the
Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park
Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park is a National Park Service unit in the states of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The park was created for the purpose of preserving, protecting, and interpreting the industrial heritage of the Blac ...
was established.
Geography
Blackstone River
![Blackstone-Riv1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Blackstone-Riv1.jpg)
The river is named after William Blackstone (original spelling
William Blaxton
Reverend William Blaxton (also spelled William Blackstone) (1595 – 26 May 1675) was an early English settler in New England and the first European settler of Boston and Rhode Island.
Biography
William Blaxton was born in Horncastle, Lincoln ...
) who arrived in
Weymouth, Massachusetts ("To Work Is to Conquer")
, image_map = Norfolk County Massachusetts incorporated and unincorporated areas Weymouth highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250px
, map_caption = Location in Norfolk County in Massa ...
in 1623, and became the first European settler of present-day Boston in 1625. He relocated again, to Rhode Island in 1635 and built his home on the river, in what would become
Cumberland. With the
Providence River
The Providence River is a tidal river in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It flows approximately 8 miles (13 km). There are no dams along the river's length, although the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier is located south of downtown to protect t ...
, the Blackstone was the northeastern border of Dutch claims for
New Netherland
New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva P ...
from
Adriaen Block
Adriaen (Arjan) Block (c. 1567 – buried April 27, 1627) was a Dutch private trader, privateer, and ship's captain who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley areas between present-day New Jersey and Massachusetts during four v ...
's charting of
Narragansett Bay
Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Sm ...
in 1614 through the
Hartford Treaty of 1650.
The original Native American name for the river was the "Kittacuck", which meant "the great tidal river". The "Kittacuck", or Blackstone, was plentiful with
salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...
and
lamprey
Lampreys (sometimes inaccurately called lamprey eels) are an ancient extant lineage of jawless fish of the order Petromyzontiformes , placed in the superclass Cyclostomata. The adult lamprey may be characterized by a toothed, funnel-like s ...
in pre-colonial and colonial times.
In 1790,
Samuel Slater
Samuel Slater (June 9, 1768 – April 21, 1835) was an early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" (a phrase coined by Andrew Jackson) and the "Father of the American Factory System". In the ...
opened the first successful water powered
cotton mill
A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system.
Although some were driven b ...
in America,
Slater Mill
The Slater Mill is a historic water-powered textile mill complex on the banks of the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, modeled after cotton spinning mills first established in England. It is the first water-powered cotton spinning mil ...
, at
Pawtucket Falls. This mill was powered by the waters of the Blackstone River. Many other mills appeared along the Blackstone River over time making it an important part of American industry. The industrialization also led to the river being identified by the end of the 20th century as the primary source of Narragansett Bay pollution.
Blackstone Canal
![Moshassuck River Providence](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Moshassuck_River_Providence.jpg)
The initiative for the canal came from Providence, where a merchant community wished to profit from trade with the farming country of the Blackstone Valley and Worcester County. The people of Worcester and the Blackstone Valley, eager for transport that would enable them to get better prices for their produce, welcomed the plan. However, since the trade of central Massachusetts was at that time going overland through the port of Boston, Massachusetts commercial interests succeeded in stalling the project for several years. Finally, in 1823, the Blackstone Canal Company was organized through an act of the Massachusetts legislature, with a Rhode Island company soon following.
[Muir, Diana, Reflections in Bullough's Pond, University Press of New England, p.112] The canal's construction may have been motivated by competition among rival industrialists to curtail "
water rights
Water right in water law refers to the right of a user to use water from a water source, e.g., a river, stream, pond or source of groundwater. In areas with plentiful water and few users, such systems are generally not complicated or contentiou ...
".
Construction began in 1825 and cost $750,000 (twice its initial estimate). The canal opened on October 7, 1828 when the
packet boat
Packet boats were medium-sized boats designed for domestic mail, passenger, and freight transportation in European countries and in North American rivers and canals, some of them steam driven. They were used extensively during the 18th and 19th ...
''Lady Carrington'' arrived in Worcester, the first vessel to make the trip. The canal brought immediate prosperity to Worcester and the Valley; farmers' profits increased and mills were built, especially in Worcester.
Using water to transport goods was a great improvement over the rough roads of the era. At the time of its construction, it represented the best available transportation technology.
It was a two-day trip for the canal boats from Worcester to Providence and another two-day trip to return to Worcester. The overnight stopping point was in
Uxbridge
Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxb ...
. Boston merchants moved to recapture the trade moving down the canal to Providence, opening a rail line to Worcester in 1835. (Boston merchants opened three railroads in 1835, one to Lowell, one to Worcester, and one to Providence, RI. These were very new technology.) In 1847 the parallel
Providence and Worcester Railroad
The Providence and Worcester Railroad is a Class II railroad operating of tracks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as New York via trackage rights. The company was founded in 1844 to build a railroad between Providence, ...
began operation, and the canal closed in 1848.
The canal is listed in the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
![Purgatory_chasm_view_2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Purgatory_chasm_view_2.jpg)
Recreation
The Blackstone Valley offers multiple recreation areas for visitors to take advantage of the sights. These sites are:
*
Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park
The Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park is a part of the state park system of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). This park "recalls the role of canals in tra ...
in
Northbridge and
Uxbridge
Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxb ...
.
*
Douglas State Forest in
Douglas
Douglas may refer to:
People
* Douglas (given name)
* Douglas (surname)
Animals
* Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking
*Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civi ...
.
*
Lincoln Woods State Park
Lincoln Woods State Park is a public recreation area covering around Olney Pond northwest of Pawtucket in the town of Lincoln, Rhode Island. The state park is known for its giant glacial boulders and the stony nature of its terrain which prev ...
in
Lincoln
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincol ...
.
*
Purgatory Chasm State Reservation
Purgatory Chasm State Reservation is a protected area, protected state park in Sutton, Massachusetts, Sutton, Massachusetts. Located within Blackstone Valley, the reservation is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recrea ...
in
Sutton
Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to:
Places
United Kingdom
England
In alphabetical order by county:
* Sutton, Bedfordshire
* Sutton, Berkshire, a location
* Sutton-in-the-Isle, Ely, Cambridgeshire
* ...
.
*
Upton State Forest in
Upton.
Transportation
Multiple modes of transportation are available that serve the Blackstone Valley.
Roads
Two major roads travel through the region.
Route 122 in Massachusetts is known as the Blackstone Canal Heritage Highway. The road travels through many of the region's
mill villages
A mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories, usually cotton mills or factories producing textiles. Europe
Italy
* ''Crespi d'Adda'', UNESCO World Her ...
. The other major road is
Route 146 in Massachusetts and
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
. Upgrades on the Massachusetts side have seen major economic benefits throughout the towns.
Rail
![Union_Station,_Worcester_MA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Union_Station%2C_Worcester_MA.jpg)
Two
MBTA Commuter Rail lines, the
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
and
Providence
Providence often refers to:
* Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion
* Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity
* Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...
Lines have stations located within the Blackstone Valley. Both lines provide direct service to Boston's
South Station
South Station, officially The Governor Michael S. Dukakis Transportation Center at South Station, is the largest railroad station and intercity bus terminal in Greater Boston and New England's second-largest transportation center after Logan In ...
.
Providence station
Providence station is a railroad station in Providence, Rhode Island, served by Amtrak and MBTA Commuter Rail. The station has four tracks and two island platforms for passenger service, with a fifth track passing through for Providence and Worc ...
is also served by
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...
trains on the
Northeast Corridor, providing service to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and beyond.
Demographics
At the
2010 United States Census
The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servin ...
, the population of the Blackstone Valley was 848,725.
See also
*
Greater Worcester Land Trust and list of other conservation organizations operating in the Blackstone River Valley
References
External links
Highway of Commerce: The Blackstone Canal Worcester Historical Museum
The Worcester Historical Museum, located in downtown Worcester, Massachusetts, was founded in 1875 as the Worcester Society of Antiquity. This museum is the only institution in the area devoted entirely to local history and artifacts. The scope of ...
, 2005
Historic American Buildings Survey*Documents
1998 Map(PDF file)
''An Historical Assessment of Anadromous Fish in the Blackstone River''by Buckley and Nixon, U. Rhode Island, 2001
''Blackstone River Watershed: Five Year Watershed Action Plan'' Blackstone River Watershed Team, 2000
{{Rhode Island
Geography of Worcester, Massachusetts
History of Massachusetts
History of Rhode Island
Landforms of Providence County, Rhode Island
Regions of Massachusetts
Regions of Rhode Island
River valleys of the United States
Valleys of Massachusetts
Valleys of Rhode Island