The Salem Beverly Waterway Canal, sometimes called the Grand Wenham Canal, is an aqueduct canal in Topsfield and

Wenham, Massachusetts Wenham () is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts. The population was 4,979 at the time of the 2020 census. The town of Wenham, originally settled in 1635 and incorporated in 1643, has retained much of its historic character and rural scenery ...

. It was never used to transport anything but water and recreational canoeists. The canal was built in 1917 to provide water for

Beverly, Massachusetts Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, and a suburb of Boston. The population was 42,670 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. A resort, residential, and manufacturing community on the Massachusetts North Shore, Beverly incl ...

and

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...

, and is owned with its adjacent land by the Salem-Beverly Water Commission. It was dredged and widened in 1974, with gravel roads built on each side of the canal. The canal carries water from the

Ipswich River Ipswich River is a small river in northeastern Massachusetts, United States. It held significant importance in early colonial migrations inland from the ocean port of Ipswich. The river provided safe harborage at offshore Plum Island Sound to ea ...

, Topsfield, through the Wenham Swamp to Wenham. From there, a pipeline also constructed in 1917 carries it to

Wenham Lake Wenham Lake is a 224-acre body of water located in Wenham and Beverly towns, Essex County, Massachusetts.The lake receives water from the water table and also from a system of streams. In the 19th century, the lake was an important source of i ...

History

In 1911 the State Board of Health was directed by the

General Court of Massachusetts The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ...

to investigate the feasibility of diverting water from the

to augment the dwindling water supply of the Salem-Beverly region. The resulting House Document No. 1652, January, 1912, caused the legislature in Chapter 85 of the Resolves of 1912 to appoint a three-man commission to study water-supply issues in most of the towns and cities of northeastern Massachusetts. In House Document No. 2200, the commission took a strong stand in favor of diversion. The prevailing sentiment was that water needed so badly for drinking should not be wasted in Ipswich Bay. Ipswich by then had long ceased to be a commercial port, in favor of Newburyport and Boston. Environmental issues concerning the fate of the wetlands were far in the future. Chapter 700 of the Acts of 1913 created the Salem and Beverly Water Supply Board and gave it the right to divert Ipswich River flows over 20 million gallons per day, up to 2500 million gallons per year, in December through May, at a certain location in Topsfield (approximately the mouth of the canal). In 1917 a canal was excavated from the Ipswich River through Wenham Swamp to a pumping station in Wenham, where it was pumped up to nearby

, a reservoir. The board declined construction of artificial impoundments on the river or canal as unfeasible. In fact, in times of high water, three channels in the bank of the modern canal allow water to flow freely into or out of the swamp, which is part of the Ipswich River wetlands.

References

{{coord, 42.613875, -70.91692, region:US, format=dms, display=title Canals in Massachusetts Transportation buildings and structures in Essex County, Massachusetts Bodies of water of Essex County, Massachusetts Wenham, Massachusetts Canals opened in 1917