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Assabet River
The Assabet River is a small, 34.4-mile (55.4 km) long river located about 20 miles (30 km) west of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The Assabet rises from a swampy area known as the Assabet Reservoir in Westborough, Massachusetts, and flows northeast before merging with the Sudbury River at Egg Rock in Concord, Massachusetts, to become the Concord River. The Organization for the Assabet, Sudbury and Concord Rivers (OARS), headquartered in West Concord, Massachusetts, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation, protection, and enhancement of the natural and recreational features of these three rivers and their watershed. As the Concord River is a tributary of the Merrimack River, it and the Assabet and Sudbury rivers are part of the larger Merrimack River watershed.
The indigenous people of this region first named the Assabet River, though the original meaning of the word "Assabet" is uncertain. Assabet is said to come from the Algonquian word for "the place where materials for making fish nets comes from". Other cited Algonquian meanings include "at the miry place", "it is miry", or "the reedy place".
It is also possible to decode the name Assabet in the Eastern Algonquian Loup language spoken by the Nipmuc people who lived and fished on the river prior to European settlement. The word assa-pe-t segments into: assa, "turn back"; pe, a short form of nippe, "water", used in compounds; and a locative suffix, -t, a shorter form of -et after the vowel, so its name in Loup means "at the place where the river turns back". During floods the Assabet River reaches peak height sooner than the Sudbury River, so that at the junction of the two rivers the Sudbury's direction of flow can temporarily reverse.[citation needed]
A Eurocentric interpretation is that the river's name is a corrupted spelling of Elizabeth, or an attempted transliteration of the Nipmuc name. Various historic maps and documents denote the river's name as Asibath, Assabeth, Asabett, Assabet, Elizbeth, Elzibeth, Elizabet, Elizabeth, Elsabeth, Elsibeth, and Isabaeth. The uniform spelling "Assabet" was not adopted until at least 1850. Historic maps up until 1835 mostly label the river the Elizabeth or some variation thereof, but by 1856 maps consistently call it the Assabet. The name's history is further complicated by the fact that the tributary Elizabeth Brook in present-day Stow flows into the Assabet River.
Indigenous people lived in what became central Massachusetts for thousands of years prior to European settlement. Indigenous oral histories, archaeological evidence, and European settler documents attest to historic settlements of the Nipmuc near and along the Assabet River. Nipmuc settlements on the Assabet intersected with the territories of three other related Algonquian-speaking peoples: the Massachusett, Pennacook, and Wampanoag.
The Assabet River rises from a 310-acre (130 ha) swampy area in Westborough known as the Assabet Reservoir. Streams located in the towns of Shrewsbury and Grafton feed the reservoir. From Westborough the river flows northeast 34.4 miles (55.4 km), starting at an elevation of 320 feet (98 m) and descending through the towns of Northborough, Marlborough, Berlin, Hudson, Stow, Maynard, Acton, and finally Concord, where it merges with the Sudbury River at Egg Rock (42°27′55″N 71°21′30″W / 42.4653°N 71.3584°W) at an elevation of 100 feet (30 m) to form the Concord River.
The Assabet's watershed covers 177 square miles (460 km2). The Assabet marshes in Stow measure about 900 acres (360 ha), and the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge and environs in Stow, Maynard, Sudbury, and Marlborough encompass 2,600 acres (1,100 ha).
According to U.S. Geological Survey records the average flow at the gauge in Maynard is 200 cubic feet (5.7 m3) per second. February, March, and April flows average greater than 300 cubic feet (8.5 m3) per second. July, August, and September flows average less than 100 cubic feet (2.8 m3) per second, with some weekly flows averaging less than 40 cubic feet (1.1 m3) per second. Five municipal wastewater treatment plants discharge cleaned water into the Assabet River (three upstream of the Maynard gauge). In summer months this cumulative contribution of more than 10,000,000 US gallons (38,000,000 L) per day (roughly 10 cubic feet (0.28 m3) per second) can be more than half of the river's total volume.
Assabet River
The Assabet River is a small, 34.4-mile (55.4 km) long river located about 20 miles (30 km) west of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The Assabet rises from a swampy area known as the Assabet Reservoir in Westborough, Massachusetts, and flows northeast before merging with the Sudbury River at Egg Rock in Concord, Massachusetts, to become the Concord River. The Organization for the Assabet, Sudbury and Concord Rivers (OARS), headquartered in West Concord, Massachusetts, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation, protection, and enhancement of the natural and recreational features of these three rivers and their watershed. As the Concord River is a tributary of the Merrimack River, it and the Assabet and Sudbury rivers are part of the larger Merrimack River watershed.
The indigenous people of this region first named the Assabet River, though the original meaning of the word "Assabet" is uncertain. Assabet is said to come from the Algonquian word for "the place where materials for making fish nets comes from". Other cited Algonquian meanings include "at the miry place", "it is miry", or "the reedy place".
It is also possible to decode the name Assabet in the Eastern Algonquian Loup language spoken by the Nipmuc people who lived and fished on the river prior to European settlement. The word assa-pe-t segments into: assa, "turn back"; pe, a short form of nippe, "water", used in compounds; and a locative suffix, -t, a shorter form of -et after the vowel, so its name in Loup means "at the place where the river turns back". During floods the Assabet River reaches peak height sooner than the Sudbury River, so that at the junction of the two rivers the Sudbury's direction of flow can temporarily reverse.[citation needed]
A Eurocentric interpretation is that the river's name is a corrupted spelling of Elizabeth, or an attempted transliteration of the Nipmuc name. Various historic maps and documents denote the river's name as Asibath, Assabeth, Asabett, Assabet, Elizbeth, Elzibeth, Elizabet, Elizabeth, Elsabeth, Elsibeth, and Isabaeth. The uniform spelling "Assabet" was not adopted until at least 1850. Historic maps up until 1835 mostly label the river the Elizabeth or some variation thereof, but by 1856 maps consistently call it the Assabet. The name's history is further complicated by the fact that the tributary Elizabeth Brook in present-day Stow flows into the Assabet River.
Indigenous people lived in what became central Massachusetts for thousands of years prior to European settlement. Indigenous oral histories, archaeological evidence, and European settler documents attest to historic settlements of the Nipmuc near and along the Assabet River. Nipmuc settlements on the Assabet intersected with the territories of three other related Algonquian-speaking peoples: the Massachusett, Pennacook, and Wampanoag.
The Assabet River rises from a 310-acre (130 ha) swampy area in Westborough known as the Assabet Reservoir. Streams located in the towns of Shrewsbury and Grafton feed the reservoir. From Westborough the river flows northeast 34.4 miles (55.4 km), starting at an elevation of 320 feet (98 m) and descending through the towns of Northborough, Marlborough, Berlin, Hudson, Stow, Maynard, Acton, and finally Concord, where it merges with the Sudbury River at Egg Rock (42°27′55″N 71°21′30″W / 42.4653°N 71.3584°W) at an elevation of 100 feet (30 m) to form the Concord River.
The Assabet's watershed covers 177 square miles (460 km2). The Assabet marshes in Stow measure about 900 acres (360 ha), and the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge and environs in Stow, Maynard, Sudbury, and Marlborough encompass 2,600 acres (1,100 ha).
According to U.S. Geological Survey records the average flow at the gauge in Maynard is 200 cubic feet (5.7 m3) per second. February, March, and April flows average greater than 300 cubic feet (8.5 m3) per second. July, August, and September flows average less than 100 cubic feet (2.8 m3) per second, with some weekly flows averaging less than 40 cubic feet (1.1 m3) per second. Five municipal wastewater treatment plants discharge cleaned water into the Assabet River (three upstream of the Maynard gauge). In summer months this cumulative contribution of more than 10,000,000 US gallons (38,000,000 L) per day (roughly 10 cubic feet (0.28 m3) per second) can be more than half of the river's total volume.
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