10,000 BCE Native
Americans net alewives each spring.
1,000 BCE Indigenous
peoples of the Nipmac, Massachusett and Wompanoag's form into tribes.
1600s New
federation of Indian tribes calls themselves Massachusetts.
1616 Nanepashemet
(the new moon), sachem of the Massachusetts federation, abandons his coastal
lodges and goes up the Mystic River due to inter-tribal warfare.
1630 First
European, Matthew Craddock, settles in Medford.
1631 Gov.
John Winthrop builds and launches the ship Blessing of the Bay.
1637 Craddock
bridge built. Until 1787, it was
the main overland route from the north to Boston.
1640 European
settlers in Charlestown move to 'Mystic Side', now Malden.
Penny
ferry operates from Malden to Boston.
1873
Clay from the Mystic
riverbanks is used for brick manufacture.
1715 The
start of rum-making in Medford uses spring water from the Mystic.
1775 Paul
Revere rides along the Mystic during his famous Midnight Ride.
1793 John
Hancock approves a canal to be
built from "the waters of the Merrimack River to the waters of Medford
River".
1803 Middlesex
Canal completed connecting Merrimack River to Boston Harbor. On Boston Avenue, a wooden aqueduct
over the Mystic and Gilson Locks are engineering marvels of the day.
1804 John
Langdon Sullivan converts a canal towboat into a steamboat on the Mystic Lakes.
1812 Shipyards
located near Riverside Avenue are at peak period of operation. "Medford-built" becomes
synonymous with high quality shipbuilding. 568 ships were built here including extraordinary clipper
ships. The 200-300 ton clippers,
lighter and faster than most ships, gain acceptance in the shallow waters of
the Pacific Northwest.
1829 Peak
operation of the Middlesex Canal.
1844 Medford
resident Lydia Maria Child writes Over the River and Through the Wood
("the River", of course, is the Mystic).
(continued on reverseÉ)
1845 Twenty-five
per cent of all Massachusetts shipbuilders are employed in Medford.
Revia Street Tidal Mill Dam
constructed
1859 Middlesex
Canal closes as railroads and steamships gain popularity.
1860
Woods Mill tidal mill constructed
downstream from current High St Bridge
1865 Mystic
Pond dammed creating two bodies of water, the Upper and Lower Mystic Lakes
SomervilleÕs
first public water supply, the Mystic Water Works on Alewife Parkway,is built.
1868 Gypsy
Moths escape while Prof. Trouvelot experimented with silk manufacture in
Medford. Tree devastation follows
(see 1889).
1870 The
Mystic Lakes Water system is developed by Charlestown and added to the Boston
system when Charlestown is annexed.
1873 Joshua
Foster Boatyard's "Pilgrim" is the last ship launched from the
Medford boatyards.
1875 The
last shipyard closes.
1878 The
Mystic Lakes water supply is conveyed to a pump station located near Alewife
Brook and the Mystic Valley Parkways and is pumped to a covered reservoir at
Tufts University which still exists (under the green, no longer in use).
1880 Current
Craddock Bridge constructed in Medford Square.
1889 First
large Gypsy Moth devastation of trees, treatment includes spraying with oil and
cutting. (see 1868)
1892 Charles
Eliot, Landscape Architect, proposes acquiring land along the Mystic River for
a reservation.
1893 Metropolitan Park Commission forms, creating Mystic River Reservation and several other parks around metro Boston.
1894 Millers River Tidal Mill constructed
1894 The Massachusetts legislature passes the Boulevard Act, leading to the building of parkways in the state. The Mystic Valley Parkway is built shortly thereafter.
1895 Metropolitan
Park Commission acquires continuous strip of land in Medford and
Winchester. Work on the Mystic
Valley Parkway paved road begins.
1898 Land
along the Mystic River acquired by Metropolitan Park Commission for public
use. The banks of the Mystic today
are almost entirely publicly owned.
1900 Shore
Drive in Somerville built, land on the Mystic deeded to Metropolitan Park
Commission
1905 Last
rum distillery closes. One of
three, the distillery uses spring water from the Mystic watershed as its
"special ingredient".
1908 Alewife
Brook in Cambridge is reloacted to its current position. Little River is culverted.
1908 The
Craddock dam is constructed and the Mystic River is no longer a tidal
river. With the end of the tides
upriver, the riverbanks take on their current appearance, as marshland
disappears, and trees and bushes take root.
1926 Mystic
Iron Works in Everett opens, the only blast furnace in New England at the time.
1927 Current
Winthrop Street Bridge in Medford is constructed.
1929 Alewife
Brook Parkway built and Brook is straightened, esp. upstream of Broadway Ave in
Arlington.
1933-34 State
Highway Route 2 constructed
1930s Steel
Boat built for Indian concern (research this).
1936 'New'
Wellington Bridge is constructed.
1874 Weir Bridge (High Street) constructed
1958-64 Interstate
Route 93 constructed. The bends in the Mystic are 'straightened' along Mystic Ave.
1960s Gravelly
Creek buried from Valley Street to the river. This creek often flooded nearby Webster and Tufts Streets.
1966 Amelia
Earhart dam is constructed in Somerville, replacing the Craddock dam's
function.
1970 Mystic
River Watershed Association forms.
1984 Mass.
Water Resource Authority created to provide water and sewer services to 61
Boston-area communities. It
oversees the combined sewer overflows (CSOs) that dump sewerage a few times a
year into the Alewife Brook and Mystic River during heavy rain.
1995 Friends
of the Mystic River forms.
2010? Swimming
and fishing ok'd for the Mystic River.
Two thousand new native plants adorn the banks.