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Samuel de Champlain discovers the Charles
On the first of his voyaes south from the Frech colony (on the site of modern Annopolis, Nov Scotia), Champlain becomes the first European to discover boston Harbor (which he names "Baye des Isles") and the Charles River (which he doen't name). -
John Smith publishes map of New England
In this map, widely used by early colonists of the region, Smith uses many native American place names, naming the rver "Massachsetts," after the dominant Algonquian tribe. Shortly thereafter, however, either Smith or Charles I changes many of the names to English ways, naming the river "Charles." -
First mill built
Thomas Mayhew built the first mill along the shore of Watertown. It ground wheat, rye, and corn for the early colonists. -
Mother Brook
Mother Brook, the first canal in America, is dug, diveting water from the Charles to the Neponsit River. In 1831, a lawsuit brought by Newton forced the town of Dedham to reduce the flow by two thirds.The Canal still exists today and is used to prevent flooding of the Charles River Basin. -
Mission of John Eliot begins
In this year, Puritan missionary John Eliot met and converted the English-speaking Waban in the Nahanton section of Newton. Soon, Waban's village was converted, and Governor Winthrop made him a justice of the peace. However, out of alleged concern for the native Americans (the fear that they were being corrupted by less pious colonists), the Mass Bay Colony moved them 18 miles upstream, to Natick, in 1651. With the outbreak of King Philip's War, in 1675, they were moved again, to Deer Island. -
Long Ditch dug
This was the first effort at flood control along the Charles. Forming a roughly straight line between two points of the circuitous Dedham section of the River, Long Ditch prevented nearby meadows from being flooded and reduced damage to bridges within the loop. Remarkably, it still diverts water today. -
Moody Street Dam
Created to power Waltham cotton mills, the Moody Street Dam also made a 200-acre mill pond and, further up stream, what became known as the Lakes District of the river. -
Watertown Arsenal
This weapons manufactury and depot played a key role in the Civil War and both World Wars. It was closed in 1995, desgnated a Superfund site because almost two centuries of industrial polution, and finally redeveloped as a mall, housing, and part of Harvard business School. -
Boston & Roxbury Mill Dam
Three hundred feet wide and a mile and a half long, the main dam in this project ran along route of modern Beacon Street, from the Public Gardens to Kenmore Square, enclosing the Back Bay, which was subdivided into two separate basins by a second dam. Created to harness the tides to power industry, it failed to live up to expectations, and the stagnant pools it created soon became much more polluted and noxious than the bay had previously been. -
Filling of Back Bay begins
The main work of this project took place from 1854-64, when trains brought gravel from Needham 25 times a day. The landfilling continued until 1890, when Kenmore square was created, the Back Bay was no longer a body of water, and the lower Charles was much narrower than it had been at mid-century. -
Lower half of river deamed too polluted to clean up
According to CRWA, in this year a government report counted 43 mills in the estuarine portion of the river and determines that the portion downstream from Natick was hopelessly polluted. -
Old Charles River Dam
This dam, begun in 1908 and completed two years later, transformed the lower reaches of the Charles from a tidal river to a broad, unvarying body of fresh water. -
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Community Boating founded
This is the oldest organization of its kind in the US. -
Bernard DeVoto publishes "Hell's Half Acre, Mass."
home.comcast.net/~mdevoto/HELLSHAF.htm</a> -
CRWA founded
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The Standells release "Dirty Water"
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Natural Valley Storage Project
In this year, Congress authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to purchase and protect wetlands along the upper and middle portions of the Charles. At times of flood, these wetlands act like sponges, soaking up excess water land preventing the lower, more deeloped reaches from flooding. To date, the Corps has purchased 17 more than 8,000 acres, at a price of 9 million dollars. -
New Charles River Dam
The six pumps of this new dam, designed and constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers, provides added flood control and effectively extens the freshwater Charles River Basin an additional half mile. -
Charles River Restoration Project begun
A project that has resulted in a riverside walking and biking trails that extend the original Charles River Reservation paths from Watertow Square all the way to West Roxbury, it is described by CRWA director Robert Zimmerman as "probably the most significant thing that's been done for the river since 1950" (Clarke 94). A land survey performed at the outset identified 92 encroachements on publicly owned river banks. -
Charles River Conservancy founded
this nonprofit is dedicated to preserving and improving parklands around the river. -
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