The Weymouth Back River, sometimes called Back River, is a short, primarily

tidal river A tidal river is a river whose flow and level are influenced by tides. A section of a larger river affected by the tides is a tidal reach, but it may sometimes be considered a tidal river if it has been given a separate name. Generally, tidal ri ...

in Hingham and

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 ...

, about south of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. It arises from a number of tributaries in ponds and swamps, most notably Whitmans Pond, flows northward, and empties into

Hingham Bay Hingham Bay is the easternmost of the three small bays of outer Boston Harbor, part of Massachusetts Bay and forming the western shoreline of the town of Hull and the northern shoreline of Hingham in the United States state of Massachusetts. It ...

(just south of Grape Island and Slate Island).

History

The river formed as the last

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...

retreated from

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

about 12,000 years ago, when glacial melting increased the sea level and low – lying coastal areas were flooded. Its river herring runs were an important source of food to both native and European inhabitants, and it served as the Hingham-Weymouth boundary as early as 1635. Various industries have used the river, including a steel mill, wool factory, and fertilizer factory. During the 20th century, the Army Corps of Engineers conducted two projects on the river, completed in 1912 and 1943. The first created a large channel (12 feet deep, wide) from the river mouth to a former fertilizer company wharf, about one mile (1.6 km) upstream. The second deepened the channel to .

Watershed

Mill River, which drains Weymouth Great Pond (elevation ), and Old Swamp River, both enter Whitmans Pond (elevation ), the latter is the source of Weymouth Back River. After Weymouth Back River becomes a tidal river it receives Fresh River from the right as one heads downstream.

Ecology

The river is part of the Weymouth Back River Area of Critical Environmental Concern (about 950 acres), of which some are tidal waters. It is home to about 150 species of birds in its

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is domin ...

es and is bounded by wooded wildlife preserves. A sizeable herring run was an important food source for Weymouth's citizens as documented in town records as early as 1648. At Iron Hill Park off Iron Hill Street, Whitman's Pond was dammed to turn the machines which processed the natural bog iron for the Weymouth Iron Works. Later, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts installed a herring ladder to allow the herring to bypass the dam on their spawning runs. Historically the herring ran to Whitman's Pond, and beyond up Mill River and Swamp River, to Great Pond. River herring commonly refers to two species,

Blueback herring The blueback herring, blueback shad, or summer shad (''Alosa aestivalis'') is an anadromous species of herring from the east coast of North America, with a range from Nova Scotia to Florida. Blueback herring form schools and are believed to mi ...

(''Alosa aestivalis'') and alewife (''(Alosa pseudoharengus)''). Today, 1/2 million river herring and

Rainbow smelt The rainbow smelt (''Osmerus mordax'') is a North American species of fish of the family Osmeridae. Walleye, trout, and other larger fish prey on these smelt. The rainbow smelt prefer juvenile ciscoes, zooplankton such as calanoid copepods ('' L ...

(''Osmerus mordax'') run up the river each year to spawn (although they are not able to ascend the fish ladders and only utilize the tidal portions of the river). Several nesting platforms were constructed and are in use by the

Osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

, or fish hawk, (''Pandion haliaetus''), which has white under parts and a wingspread of 5 to 6 ft (152 to 183 cm). It feeds almost exclusively on live fish including flounder, herring and perch, and is usually seen hovering over the water, into which it plunges feet first to grasp its prey.

Recreation

The Weymouth back River offers an outstanding canoe and kayak paddling resource within the Greater Boston Metropolitan Area. Harbormasters from Hingham and Weymouth established the river as a no-wake zone, with no water-skiing and no personal watercraft allowed south of the Route 3A Bridge. A number of parks and reservations line the river's shores, including

Abigail Adams Park Weymouth Back River Reservation is a protected coastal reservation in Hingham and Weymouth, Massachusetts. It contains parks on the west and east sides of the northern end of Weymouth Back River. On the west side in Weymouth, Abigail Adams Park ...

Stodder's Neck Weymouth Back River Reservation is a protected coastal reservation in Hingham and Weymouth, Massachusetts. It contains parks on the west and east sides of the northern end of Weymouth Back River. On the west side in Weymouth, Abigail Adams Park ...

Great Esker Park Great Esker Park is located in Weymouth, Massachusetts. The park mostly consists of a geological formation known as an esker (a winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel) formed by a glacier 12,000 years ago. It is located along the Weymouth ...

(Weymouth), and Bare Cove Park (Hingham). Bicycling and hiking is popular along both sides of the Back River on the Back River Trail which connects multiple sites of environmental and historical interest.

References

External links