The Mystic Lakes, consisting of Upper Mystic Lake and Lower Mystic Lake, are closely linked bodies of water in the northwestern suburbs of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. The lakes lie at an elevation of 1 meter above sea level, within the towns of

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

Arlington Arlington most often refers to: *Arlington, Virginia **Arlington National Cemetery, a United States military cemetery *Arlington, Texas Arlington may also refer to: Places Australia *Arlington light rail station, on the Inner West Light Rail in S ...

, and

Medford, Massachusetts Medford is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 United States census, Medford's population was 59,659. It is home to Tufts University, which has its campus on both sides of the Medford and Somervill ...

. Upper Mystic Lake is fed by the

Aberjona River The Aberjona River is a ,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 heavily urbanized river in the northwestern suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. The name is from t ...

, and drains south, over the Mystic Dam, into Lower Mystic Lake, which in turn empties into the

Mystic River The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts. In the Massachusett language, means "large estuary", alluding to the tidal ...

and then

Boston Harbor Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, located adjacent to Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the Northeastern United States. History 17th century Since its dis ...

Description

Lower Mystic Lake is a

meromictic lake A meromictic lake is a lake which has layers of water that do not intermix. In ordinary, holomictic lakes, at least once each year, there is a physical mixing of the surface and the deep waters. The term ''meromictic'' was coined by the Austria ...

, which means that the lake has a deep layer of water that rarely, if ever, mixes with its top waters. As a consequence, the sediments at the bottom of Lower Mystic Lake accumulate in annual layers (or

varves A varve is an annual layer of sediment or sedimentary rock. The word 'varve' derives from the Swedish word ''varv'' whose meanings and connotations include 'revolution', 'in layers', and 'circle'. Of the many rhythmites in the geological record ...

) that have been nearly undisturbed for a thousand years. Such varves in meromictic lakes preserve a historical record somewhat like tree rings do. In the case of Lower Mystic Lake, the varves have been used by Mark Besonen and his collaborators to study the historical incidence of hurricanes. Although the Mystic Lakes are popular for swimming, sailing, and fishing, the Upper Mystic Lake suffers from contamination by

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol As and atomic number 33. It is a metalloid and one of the pnictogens, and therefore shares many properties with its group 15 neighbors phosphorus and antimony. Arsenic is not ...

and other heavy metals from the

. The eastern shore of the lakes is part of the

Mystic River Reservation Mystic River State Reservation is a publicly owned nature preserve with recreational features located along the Mystic River in the towns of Winchester, Arlington, Medford, Somerville, Everett, and Chelsea in eastern Massachusetts ...

managed by the Massachusetts

Department of Conservation and Recreation The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is a state agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, situated in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. It is best known for its parks and parkways. Th ...

. The lakes were previously part of the drinking water supply for Charlestown and later Boston (see

Massachusetts Water Resources Authority The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) is a public authority in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that provides wholesale drinking water and sewage services to 3.1 million people in sixty-one municipalities and more than 5,500 large ...

History

In the 1600s, the

Squaw Sachem of Mistick Squaw Sachem of Mistick (-1650 or 1667) a. k. a. "Massachusetts Queene" was a prominent leader of a Massachusett tribe who deeded large tracts of land in eastern Massachusetts to early colonial settlers. Squaw Sachem was the widow of Nanepashemet, ...

, who deeded much of the land in Greater Boston to settlers, resided near the Mystics Lakes. Her

Naumkeag Naumkeag is the former country estate of noted New York City lawyer Joseph Hodges Choate and Caroline Dutcher Sterling Choate, located at 5 Prospect Hill Road, Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The estate's centerpiece is a 44-room, Shingle Styl ...

band likely established fishing weirs at the outlet of the lake and the downstream Mystic river, and had grown corn on the lake's eastern shores. An indigenous burial site from the 1600s, possibly of sachems

Nanepashemet Nanepashemet (died 1619) was a sachem and ''bashabe'' or great leader of the Pawtucket tribe, Pawtucket Confederation of Abenaki peoples in present-day New England before the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, Pilgrims. He was a leader of Native peopl ...

or Montowompate, was discovered in 1862 just east of the Mystic lakes and was memorialized as Sagamore Park. From 1803 to 1851, the

Middlesex Canal The Middlesex Canal was a 27-mile (44-kilometer) barge canal connecting the Merrimack River with the port of Boston. When operational it was 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, and 3 feet (0.9 m) deep, with 20 locks, each 80 feet (24 m) long and between 10 ...

, a progenitor to the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east–west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigability, navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, ...

, operated on the eastern shore of the Mystic Lakes, connecting Lowell to Charlestown.

References

{{authority control Arlington, Massachusetts Winchester, Massachusetts Medford, Massachusetts Meromictic lakes Mystic River Lakes of Middlesex County, Massachusetts Lakes of Massachusetts Former reservoirs in Massachusetts