Mystic Lakes (Boston)

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Mystic Lakes
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Aerial photograph of Mystic Lakes
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Mystic Lakes
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Mystic Lakes
Location Arlington, Medford, and Winchester, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°25′54″N71°8′54″W / 42.43167°N 71.14833°W / 42.43167; -71.14833 [1]
Type meromictic
Primary inflows Aberjona River
Primary outflows Mystic River
Basin  countriesUnited States
Map with Upper and Lower Mystic Lakes Mystic Lakes, Massachusetts (map).jpg
Map with Upper and Lower Mystic Lakes

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

Contents

The lakes lie at an elevation of 1 meter above sea level, within the towns of Winchester, Arlington, and Medford, Massachusetts. Upper Mystic Lake is fed by the Aberjona River, and drains south, over the Mystic Dam, into Lower Mystic Lake, which in turn empties into the Mystic River and then Boston Harbor.

Description

Lower Mystic Lake is a meromictic lake, 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) 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. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Although the Mystic Lakes are popular for swimming, sailing, and fishing, the Upper Mystic Lake suffers from contamination by arsenic and other heavy metals from the Aberjona River. [6] [7] [8]

The eastern shore of the lakes is part of the Mystic River Reservation managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.

The lakes were previously part of the drinking water supply for Charlestown and later Boston (see Massachusetts Water Resources Authority). [9]

History

In the 1600s, the Squaw Sachem of Mistick, who deeded much of the land in Greater Boston to settlers, resided near the Mystics Lakes. Her Naumkeag 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. [10] An indigenous burial site from the 1600s, possibly of sachems Nanepashemet or Montowompate, was discovered in 1862 just east of the Mystic lakes and was memorialized as Sagamore Park. [11]

From 1803 to 1851, the Middlesex Canal, a progenitor to the Erie Canal, operated on the eastern shore of the Mystic Lakes, connecting Lowell to Charlestown.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medford, Massachusetts</span> City in Massachusetts, United States

Medford is a city 6.7 miles (10.8 km) northwest of downtown Boston on the Mystic River in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, Medford's population was 59,659. It is home to Tufts University, which has its campus along the Medford and Somerville border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Somerville, Massachusetts</span> City in Massachusetts, United States

Somerville is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a total population of 81,045 people. With an area of 4.12 square miles (10.7 km2), the city has a density of 19,671/sq mi (7,595/km2), making it the most densely populated municipality in New England and the 19th most densely populated incorporated municipality in the country. Somerville was established as a town in 1842, when it was separated from Charlestown. In 2006, the city was named the best-run city in Massachusetts by The Boston Globe. In 1972, 2009, and 2015, the city received the All-America City Award. It is home to Tufts University, which has its campus along the Somerville and Medford border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arlington, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Arlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is six miles (10 km) northwest of Boston, and its population was 46,308 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlestown, Boston</span> Neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Charlestown is the oldest neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Also called Mishawum by the Massachusett, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from downtown Boston, and also adjoins the Mystic River and Boston Harbor waterways. Charlestown was laid out in 1629 by engineer Thomas Graves, one of its earliest settlers, during the reign of Charles I of England. It was originally a separate town and the first capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winchester, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Winchester is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, located 8.2 miles (13.2 km) north of downtown Boston as part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. It is also one of the wealthiest municipalities in Massachusetts. The population was 22,970 at the 2020 United States Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mystic River</span> River in Massachusetts, United States

The Mystic River is a 7.0-mile-long (11.3 km) river in Massachusetts. In the Massachusett language, missi-tuk means "large estuary," alluding to the tidal nature of the Mystic River. The resemblance to the English word mystic is a coincidence, which the colonists followed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meromictic lake</span> Permanently stratified lake with layers of water that do not intermix

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middlesex Canal</span> Barge canal in eastern Massachusetts, US

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 wide, and 3 feet deep, with 20 locks, each 80 feet long and between 10 and 11 feet wide. It also had eight aqueducts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Tufts</span>

Peter Tufts, Sr. was a prominent early citizen of Malden and Medford, Massachusetts, and ancestor of Charles Tufts who donated land for the Tufts University campus. The Peter Tufts House is still standing and is among the oldest all brick houses still standing in the United States.

The Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635 brushed Virginia and then passed over southeastern New England in August. Accounts of the storm are very limited, but it was likely the most intense hurricane to hit New England since European colonization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Register of Historic Places listings in Massachusetts</span>

This is a list of properties and districts in Massachusetts listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There are over 4,300 listings in the state, representing about 5% of all NRHP listings nationwide and the second-most of any U.S. state, behind only New York. Listings appear in all 14 Massachusetts counties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aberjona River</span> River in the United States

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mystic Valley Parkway</span> Historic road in Massachusetts

Mystic Valley Parkway is a parkway in Arlington, Medford, Somerville, and Winchester, Massachusetts, United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and forms part of Route 16.

Nanepashemet was a sachem and bashabe or great leader of the Pawtucket Confederation of Abenaki peoples in present-day New England before the landing of the Pilgrims. He was a leader of Native peoples over a large part of what is now coastal Northeastern Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mystic Dam</span> United States historic place

The Mystic Dam are a historic dam and gatehouse between Lower and Upper Mystic Lakes in the suburbs north of Boston, Massachusetts. The dam was built in 1864–65 by the Charlestown Water Commission as part of a water supply system. It was located at a narrow point between the Lower and Upper Mystic Lakes, with its west end in Arlington and its east end in Medford. The water system it was a part of eventually merged into the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), predecessor to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naumkeag people</span> Historic Native American tribe in Massachusetts, USA

Naumkeag is a historical tribe of Eastern Algonquian-speaking Native American people who lived in northeastern Massachusetts. They controlled territory from the Charles River to the Merrimack River at the time of the Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mystic River Reservation</span> Nature reserve in Massachusetts

The Mystic River 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. The reserve is part of the nearly 76-square-mile (200 km2) Mystic River watershed. It is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massachusetts Route 16</span> Highway in Massachusetts

Route 16 is a 59.8646-mile-long (96.3427 km) east–west state highway in Massachusetts. It begins in the west at an intersection with Route 12 and Route 193 in Webster, just north of the Connecticut state border. It runs in a generally southwest-northeast routing through a number of Boston's suburbs and runs to the west and then north of the city before ending in Revere at an intersection with Route 1A and Route 60.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wonohaquaham</span>

Wonohaquaham also known as Sagamore John was a Native American leader who was a Pawtucket Confederation Sachem when English began to settle in the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Squaw Sachem of Mistick</span>

Squaw Sachem of Mistick was a prominent leader of a Massachusett tribe who deeded large tracts of land in eastern Massachusetts to early colonial settlers.

References

  1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Mystic Lakes
  2. Besonen, Mark R.; Bradley, Raymond S.; Mudelsee, Manfred; Abbott, Mark B.; Francus, Pierre (2008). "A 1,000-year, annually-resolved record of hurricane activity from Boston, Massachusetts". Geophysical Research Letters. 35 (14): L14705. Bibcode:2008GeoRL..3514705B. doi:10.1029/2008GL033950.
  3. Anonymous (2005). "Mysteries in the Muck", UMass Magazine Online, Fall 2005 issue. Online version retrieved May 1, 2008.
  4. Besonen, Mark R., Abbott, Mark B., Francus, Pierre and Bradley, Raymond S. (2006). "A 1,000-Year High-Resolution Hurricane Activity Record for the Boston Area", Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies 2006 Convention, September 25–27, 2006, Lafayette, Louisiana.
  5. Besonen, Mark R. (2006). A 1,000 year high-resolution hurricane history for the Boston area based on the varved sedimentary record from the Lower Mystic Lake (Medford/Arlington, Massachusetts), University of Massachusetts Amherst doctoral dissertation.
  6. Senn, D. B.; Hemond, H. F. (2002). "Nitrate Controls on Iron and Arsenic in an Urban Lake". Science. 296 (5577): 2373–2376. Bibcode:2002Sci...296.2373S. doi:10.1126/science.1072402. PMID   12089437.
  7. Inhof, Christina J. (1998). "Research Brief 32: Understanding the Physical Processes Involved in Metal Transport in the Upper Mystic Lake", Release Date: 28 October 1998, Superfund Basic Research Program.
  8. Rauch, S.; Hermond, H. F.; Ravizza, G.; Morrison, G. M. (2003). "Chronology of platinum accumulation in an urban lake". Journal de Physique IV (Proceedings). 107 (1): 1123–1126. Bibcode:2003JPhy4.107.1123R. doi:10.1051/jp4:20030498.
  9. "Metropolitan Boston's Water System History". Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. July 2, 2013. Retrieved 2013-08-02.
  10. Massachusetts Historical Commission (1980). "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Reports: Medford" (PDF).
  11. Bradford, William; Winslow, Edward; Dexter, Henry Martyn (1865). Mourt's relation or journal of the plantation at Plymouth. Harvard University. Boston, J. K. Wiggin.