Rice Pond, Brookfield, MA
Rice Pond is just "down the road (Rice Corner Road)" from where my parents lived out their final years in Brookfield, MA. Back in the 1980s when I was living in Worcester I drove past this scene almost on a weekly basis on my way to visit with them. It was always such a bucolic scene, and one day I made the effort to stop and capture this image. I think it was as much the red house as it was the pond itself.
The pond, I read, is actually an impound resevoir, which lends credence to the assumption that it was once a mill pond. Whether or not there was ever a water-powered mill there, I've not found any confirmation. Nonetheless, since I've been gone from there, others have been busy digging up the early history of the area. Never did I imagine or even think about the early inhabitants that lived there before the Europeans arrived. Here's some of what's been found...
"This general portion of the Quaboag River corridor contains a high density of previously recorded prehistoric sites. At least seven archaeological sites have been identified in the area between the Quaboag River, the southwestern shore of Quaboag Pond, and Lake Road in Brookfield. Another seven sites are located on the north side of the river around the pond’s northwestern shoreline. One of the identified sites in the Quaboag Pond area appears to document a relatively rare Adenatype occupation that may date to the Woodland Period approximately 3000 to 1600 years ago." From the BROOKFIELD RECONNAISSANCE REPORT at www.cmrpc.org.
Image is a digitization of a the original transparency from the mid-1980s. Best viewed full-screen.
Rice Pond, Brookfield, MA
Rice Pond is just "down the road (Rice Corner Road)" from where my parents lived out their final years in Brookfield, MA. Back in the 1980s when I was living in Worcester I drove past this scene almost on a weekly basis on my way to visit with them. It was always such a bucolic scene, and one day I made the effort to stop and capture this image. I think it was as much the red house as it was the pond itself.
The pond, I read, is actually an impound resevoir, which lends credence to the assumption that it was once a mill pond. Whether or not there was ever a water-powered mill there, I've not found any confirmation. Nonetheless, since I've been gone from there, others have been busy digging up the early history of the area. Never did I imagine or even think about the early inhabitants that lived there before the Europeans arrived. Here's some of what's been found...
"This general portion of the Quaboag River corridor contains a high density of previously recorded prehistoric sites. At least seven archaeological sites have been identified in the area between the Quaboag River, the southwestern shore of Quaboag Pond, and Lake Road in Brookfield. Another seven sites are located on the north side of the river around the pond’s northwestern shoreline. One of the identified sites in the Quaboag Pond area appears to document a relatively rare Adenatype occupation that may date to the Woodland Period approximately 3000 to 1600 years ago." From the BROOKFIELD RECONNAISSANCE REPORT at www.cmrpc.org.
Image is a digitization of a the original transparency from the mid-1980s. Best viewed full-screen.