Stony Brook is a stream largely running through
Lincoln and
Weston
Weston may refer to:
Places Australia
* Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra
* Weston, New South Wales
* Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra
* Weston Park, Canberra, a park
Canada
* Weston, Nova Scotia
* W ...
,
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 ...
, then forming the Weston/
Waltham boundary, and emptying into the
Charles River across from the Waltham/
Newton boundary. It has two tributaries, Cherry Brook and Hobbs Brook, and its watershed includes about half of Lincoln and Weston as well as parts of
Lexington and Waltham. Since 1887, it has been the
water supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Th ...
for
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
, along with the Hobbs Brook Reservoir.
History
As early as 1662, water flowing into the Charles River helped spark business enterprise. Various
water mill
A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...
s have been erected at the mouth of Stony Brook. A corn mill was built in January of 1679-80. A paper mill was built in about 1780 that was later purchased by the Boston Manufacturing Company in 1798 and converted into a cotton mill. In about 1802, another mill was built on Stony Brook to manufacture wrapping paper
In the late 19th century,
Eben Norton Horsford identified the mouth of Stony Brook as the location of a supposed
Norse city,
Norumbega, and commissioned the
Norumbega Tower, which carries a long inscription describing the supposed city.
There are three large ponds, all artificial, in the Stony Brook watershed: the Cambridge Reservoir (Hobbs Pond), the Stony Brook Reservoir (Turtle Pond), and Flint's Pond (also known as Sandy Pond).
In 1887, on the site of Turtle Pond, the city of Cambridge completed construction of the Stony Brook Reservoir Dam, where Stony Brook joins the Charles, as part of its water supply. Stony Brook Reservoir has a drainage area of and an available storage capacity of (1087 acre-feet). In 1910, Hobbs Pond was dammed to become the Cambridge Reservoir. Its drainage area is and its storage capacity is (7178 acre-feet).
[Division of Sanitary Engineering, "Advice to Cities, Towns and Others relative to Water supply, Drainage and Sewerage", in State Department of Health of Massachusetts, "Second Annual Report", Public Document No. 34 (1917]
p. 384
/ref> Flint's Pond (also known as Sandy Pond) was dammed to become the reservoir for the town of Lincoln; the DeCordova Museum is on its southeast bank.
External links
Map of Stony Brook watershed
See also
* Hobbs Brook Basin Gate House
* Stony Brook (Merrimack River)
References
{{authority control
Reservoirs in Massachusetts
Rivers of Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Weston, Massachusetts
Lakes of Middlesex County, Massachusetts