Mill Brook is a watercourse, about long, in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, United States. It is sourced from Flints Pond in

Lincoln, Massachusetts Lincoln is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The population was 7,014 according to the 2020 United States Census, including residents of Hanscom Air Force Base that live within town limits. The town, located in the MetroWest region o ...

, and empties into the

Concord River The Concord River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed October 3, 2011 tributary of the Merrimack River in eastern Massachusetts in the United States. The river drains ...

, to the southwest of

Old North Bridge Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

.''Concord's Mill Brook: Flowing Through Time''
– Richard T. T. Forman (1997), p. 1 Around of land between Crosby's Corner and

Meriam's Corner Meriam's Corner is a historic American Revolutionary War site associated with the revolution's first battle, the 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord. It is located, on the former Battle Road, at the junction of today's Lexington Road and Ol ...

drain into the brook.

History

In 1635, English settlers established a village beside lower Mill Brook, with a dam, pond and mill being built the following year at the

Milldam A mill dam (International English) or milldam (US) is a dam constructed on a waterway to create a mill pond. Water passing through a dam's spillway is used to turn a water wheel and provide energy to the many varieties of watermill. By raising th ...

. A road (part of

's Main Street today) was built across the dam in 1742.''Concord's Mill Brook: Flowing Through Time''
– Richard T. T. Forman (1997), p. 6 Before 1739, a diversion of water between Elm Brook and Mill Brook occurred. The Milldam pond was drained in 1828, with the dam and mill buildings demolished. Main Street was widened shortly thereafter and covered in crushed stone by the early 1880s. On the afternoon of April 19, 1775, during the first hours of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, it was on a bridge over Elm Brook, a tributary of Mill Brook, at Meriam's Corner that British regulars were fired upon for the first time by colonial militia during their retreat from Concord to Boston. The bridge is now part of Lexington Road. The

Middlesex Central Railroad The Lexington and West Cambridge Railroad was a railroad company chartered in 1845 and opened in 1846 that operated in eastern Massachusetts. It and its successors provided passenger service until 1977 and freight service until 1980 or early 1981. ...

built a station and laid railroad tracks beside the brook in 1871 and 1872.

Route 2 The following highways are numbered 2. For roads numbered A2, see list of A2 roads. For roads numbered B2, see list of B2 roads. For roads numbered M2, see list of M2 roads. For roads numbered N2, see list of N2 roads. International * AH2, As ...

was constructed across the highest

headwaters The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source. Definition The ...

, separating the brook from the lower section. Between 1964 and 1990, the

State of Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

stocked the brook with

brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...

. Mill Brook Way was established on the old railroad bed in 1975. In 1977, Richard T. T. Forman described the brook as "one of the most degraded streams in Concord", with channelization,

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

drainage and the scarcity of fish all being contributing factors.''Concord's Mill Brook: Flowing Through Time''
– Richard T. T. Forman (1997), p. 2

In literature

Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural su ...

mentioned Mill Brook in ''Journal'' (1855): Poet

William Ellery Channing William Ellery Channing (April 7, 1780 – October 2, 1842) was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton (1786–1853), one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. Channi ...

wrote ''The Mill Brook'':''Concord's Mill Brook: Flowing Through Time''
– Richard T. T. Forman (1997), p. 3

References

{{reflist Lincoln, Massachusetts Concord, Massachusetts Rivers of Middlesex County, Massachusetts Minute Man National Historical Park