The Blackstone Valley or Blackstone River Valley is a region of

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 ...

and

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but i ...

. It was a major factor in the American Industrial Revolution. It makes up part of the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor and

National Historical Park National Historic Site (NHS) is a designation for an officially recognized area of national historic significance in the United States. An NHS usually contains a single historical feature directly associated with its subject. The National Historic ...

History

National Heritage Corridor

The John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor follows the Blackstone Valley from Worcester to

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

. The corridor follows the course of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

in America from its origin at the Slater Mill in

Pawtucket, Rhode Island Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 75,604 at the 2020 census, making the city the fourth-largest in the state. Pawtucket borders Providence and East Providence to the south, Central Fa ...

as it first spread north along the valley to

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 census, making it the second- most populous city in New England after ...

, and then to the rest of the nation. The region was designated a National Heritage Corridor by Congress in November 1986, composing 25 towns and cities throughout

and

National Historical Park

In 2011, a report recommended the region for National Park status. In 2014, the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park was established.

Geography

Blackstone River

The river is named after William Blackstone (original spelling William Blaxton) who arrived in

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 ...

in 1623, and became the first European settler of present-day Boston in 1625. He relocated again, to Rhode Island in 1635 and built his home on the river, in what would become Cumberland. With the

Providence River The Providence River is a tidal river in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It flows approximately 8 miles (13 km). There are no dams along the river's length, although the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier is located south of downtown to protect t ...

, the Blackstone was the northeastern border of Dutch claims for

New Netherland New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva ...

from

Adriaen Block Adriaen (Arjan) Block (c. 1567 – buried April 27, 1627) was a Dutch private trader, privateer, and ship's captain who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley areas between present-day New Jersey and Massachusetts during four v ...

's charting of

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. ...

in 1614 through the Hartford Treaty of 1650. The original Native American name for the river was the "Kittacuck", which meant "the great tidal river". The "Kittacuck", or Blackstone, was plentiful with

salmon Salmon () is the common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of ...

and

lamprey Lampreys (sometimes inaccurately called lamprey eels) are an ancient extant lineage of jawless fish of the order Petromyzontiformes , placed in the superclass Cyclostomata. The adult lamprey may be characterized by a toothed, funnel-like s ...

in pre-colonial and colonial times. In 1790, Samuel Slater opened the first successful water powered

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning (textiles), spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Althou ...

in America, Slater Mill, at Pawtucket Falls. This mill was powered by the waters of the Blackstone River. Many other mills appeared along the Blackstone River over time making it an important part of American industry. The industrialization also led to the river being identified by the end of the 20th century as the primary source of Narragansett Bay pollution.

Blackstone Canal

The initiative for the canal came from Providence, where a merchant community wished to profit from trade with the farming country of the Blackstone Valley and Worcester County. The people of Worcester and the Blackstone Valley, eager for transport that would enable them to get better prices for their produce, welcomed the plan. However, since the trade of central Massachusetts was at that time going overland through the port of Boston, Massachusetts commercial interests succeeded in stalling the project for several years. Finally, in 1823, the Blackstone Canal Company was organized through an act of the Massachusetts legislature, with a Rhode Island company soon following.Muir, Diana, Reflections in Bullough's Pond, University Press of New England, p.112 The canal's construction may have been motivated by competition among rival industrialists to curtail "

water rights Water right in water law refers to the right of a user to use water from a water source, e.g., a river, stream, pond or source of groundwater. In areas with plentiful water and few users, such systems are generally not complicated or contentio ...

". Construction began in 1825 and cost $750,000 (twice its initial estimate). The canal opened on October 7, 1828 when the

packet boat Packet boats were medium-sized boats designed for domestic mail, passenger, and freight transportation in European countries and in North American rivers and canals, some of them steam driven. They were used extensively during the 18th and 19th ...

''Lady Carrington'' arrived in Worcester, the first vessel to make the trip. The canal brought immediate prosperity to Worcester and the Valley; farmers' profits increased and mills were built, especially in Worcester. Using water to transport goods was a great improvement over the rough roads of the era. At the time of its construction, it represented the best available transportation technology. It was a two-day trip for the canal boats from Worcester to Providence and another two-day trip to return to Worcester. The overnight stopping point was in

Uxbridge Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxb ...

. Boston merchants moved to recapture the trade moving down the canal to Providence, opening a rail line to Worcester in 1835. (Boston merchants opened three railroads in 1835, one to Lowell, one to Worcester, and one to Providence, RI. These were very new technology.) In 1847 the parallel

Providence and Worcester Railroad The Providence and Worcester Railroad is a Class II railroad operating of tracks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as New York via trackage rights. The company was founded in 1844 to build a railroad between Providence ...

began operation, and the canal closed in 1848. The canal is listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

Recreation

The Blackstone Valley offers multiple recreation areas for visitors to take advantage of the sights. These sites are: * Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park in Northbridge and

. * Douglas State Forest in Douglas. * Lincoln Woods State Park in Lincoln. * Purgatory Chasm State Reservation in Sutton. *

Upton State Forest Upton State Forest is a publicly owned forest with recreational features primarily located in the town of Upton, Massachusetts, with smaller sections in the towns of Hopkinton and Westborough. The state forest encompasses nearly of publicly a ...

Upton Upton may refer to: Places United Kingdom England * Upton, Slough, Berkshire (in Buckinghamshire until 1974) * Upton, Buckinghamshire, a hamlet near Aylesbury * Upton, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough * Upton, Huntingdonshire, a location in Cambridge ...

Transportation

Multiple modes of transportation are available that serve the Blackstone Valley.

Roads

Two major roads travel through the region. Route 122 in Massachusetts is known as the Blackstone Canal Heritage Highway. The road travels through many of the region's mill villages. The other major road is Route 146 in Massachusetts and

. Upgrades on the Massachusetts side have seen major economic benefits throughout the towns.

Rail

Two

MBTA Commuter Rail The MBTA Commuter Rail system serves as the commuter rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's transportation coverage of Greater Boston in the United States. Trains run over of track to 141 different stations, with 58 statio ...

lines, the Worcester and Providence Lines have stations located within the Blackstone Valley. Both lines provide direct service to Boston's

South Station South Station, officially The Governor Michael S. Dukakis Transportation Center at South Station, is the largest railroad station and intercity bus terminal in Greater Boston and New England's second-largest transportation center after Logan ...

. Providence station is also served by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

trains on the

Northeast Corridor The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston through Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Philadelphia, Wilmington, ...

, providing service to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

and beyond.

Demographics

At the 2010 United States Census, the population of the Blackstone Valley was 848,725.

References

External links

Highway of Commerce: The Blackstone Canal

Worcester Historical Museum The Worcester Historical Museum, located in downtown Worcester, Massachusetts, was founded in 1875 as the Worcester Society of Antiquity. This museum is the only institution in the area devoted entirely to local history and artifacts. The scope of ...

, 2005
Historic American Buildings Survey
*Documents
1998 Map
(PDF file)
''An Historical Assessment of Anadromous Fish in the Blackstone River''
by Buckley and Nixon, U. Rhode Island, 2001
''Blackstone River Watershed: Five Year Watershed Action Plan''
Blackstone River Watershed Team, 2000 {{Rhode Island Geography of Worcester, Massachusetts History of Massachusetts History of Rhode Island Landforms of Providence County, Rhode Island Regions of Massachusetts Regions of Rhode Island River valleys of the United States Valleys of Massachusetts Valleys of Rhode Island