Chapter 2: History
There are several different phases of land use on the Hoosic:
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Native Americans
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Agriculture/Mills
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Industry
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Clean-Up
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Tourism/Recreation
Native Americans: The Mahicans
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The Mahicans spoke the Algonquian language
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Manipulated by Dutch settlers
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Adversaries of the Mohawk, Iroquois
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1672: Mahican total surrender
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1756: New England and NY Native Americans dispersed in either the north or the south
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Use of the Hoosic: via canoe or footpath
The trajectory of the Mahicans: "200-year [16002-1700s] fall from dominance to subservience to dispersal" - Lauren Stevens, Dispatches from the Hoosic River
Eph Pond at sunset
Looking out over the AT bridge
Agriculture/Mills
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Rivers are the best for agriculture: fertile soil, waterpower, and an easy dumping grounds
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Early mills: grind flour, saw wood, create cloth
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Later 19th century mills: textiles, gunpowder, shoes, paper, charcoal, brick, pottery
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By mid 1800s, there were more millers than farmers
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By 1920s: most textile manufacturing moved south, closer to cotton suppliers and cheaper labor
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Moved on to industry
Williamstown residents collecting trash at an April 2018 litter pickup event
Industry
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1925: Robert Sprague invented tone-control for the radio and what was soon to become a capacitor
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1929: Founded Sprague Electric Company in North Adams, the largest manufacturer of capacitors in the country
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1966: Sprague was the largest employer in the area and employed 20% of the local population
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1985: Sprague went out of business
Clean Up
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Industries and residents both caused a lot of serious pollution
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Interestingly, it wasn't the people living in North Adams and Williamstown that drove the clean up to happen - it was federal regulations
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1972: Clean Water Act changed everything
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1973: Hoosac Water Quality District Founded
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A wastewater treatment plant collecting sewage from Clarksburg, North Adams, and Williamstown
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Tourism
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As the river has been cleaned up, there has been an effort to incorporate the river more into the daily lives of residents but also use it as a way to attract more people to the area
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Judy Grinnell, the founder of Hoosic River Revival, a local nonprofit, says she wants to turn the river "from an eyesore into an asset"
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Fishing brings in a lot of tourists
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Eric Kerns, a local developer, noticed this and partnered with others, including a band member of Wilco, to rebuild the old redwood motel, calling it TOURISTS
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Easy river access, emphasis on fishing → wants to turn it into a resort
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Currently building a bike path
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Really important to note though, who is this tourism for? It is always advertised as helping the local economy, as it has tanked since Sprague, but is that really working?
Barriers to Entry
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In order for tourism, or general recreation on the river, to become more prominent, there are a couple barriers to entry - both literal and figurative
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Flood chutes
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Flooding has always been a problem on the Hoosic, and we’ve used land that is subject to flooding just as we use any other land
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PCBs
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More on PCBs on the next stop
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HooRWA member rafting trip April 2018
