Up the Assabet Without a Paddle

If the question is, "If it's possible to kayak down the Assabet River through the middle of Maynard, i.e., Ben Smith Dam to Waltham Street Bridge, a bit over one mile, is it possible to walk up the same stretch of river?" then the answer is "Yes, but..."

David Mark, Assabet River, 7/26/15
Beginning a half-mile river walk

To test this, I stepped into the river by the footbridge behind Gruber Bros. Furniture and walked upstream half a mile to the Mill Street Bridge. Elapsed time was one hour. I had intended to continue to the Ben Smith Dam (another quarter mile), but was exhausted, hence the decision to step out early.

The water was clear, with little in the way of surface-growing algae and duckweed that have plagued the river in past years. There were no off-putting odors. What with the steep, rocky riverbanks, there was little in the way of shoreline water plants, such as cattails.   

There is a beaver lodge on the north bank of this section of the river. Dimensions are about twelve feet across and six feet tall, topped and surrounded with lushly growing plants.  Low water on the day of my walk meant that the two entrances were not under water. I startled a young beaver that was munching plants on the riverbank. It did the tail slap and swam past me underwater, eight feet from where I was standing. Other nature sightings included a great blue heron, fish, frogs, crayfish, mussels... Not-so-nature sightings included bottles and pottery shards, a propane tank and an engine block. No automobile tires. 

Safety, you ask? I was wearing water shoes - a rubber-sole, shoe/sandal hybrid - and using two ski poles for balance. Every step, I had both poles in contact with the river bottom. The poles also helped me check depth as I moved forward. This was useful, as while depth at the downstream gauge was only 1.5 feet, there were several passages two to three feet deep and one section I skirted that was more than four feet deep. Much of the bottom was loose rocks from baseball to softball size and larger. Other stretches were a mix of sand and gravel, some bare and others covered by aquatic plants. There was very little of silt/mud bottom because small particles are trapped behind the upstream dam.

How bad was it? Photo of tires, underneath the Walnut Street Bridge (1974)
Ralph Sheridan, courtesy Maynard Historical Society 

Guidelines for whitewater rafting, canoeing and kayaking strongly caution against trying to stand up in fast-moving water. The risk is that a person can get a foot entrapped in rocks or sunken tree branches, be pushed over by the moving water, and be unable to self-rescue. My adventure in the Assabet was at a time the water level and flow at the U.S. Geological Service gauge was at the lowest it has been all summer: 1.5 feet deep and 36 cubic feet per second (cfs). No part of the river would have qualified as Class I rapids. Fast-moving water was no more than half a foot deep. Deeper at the gauge would also mean faster - six inches more would mean flow at 100 cfs. At 2.75 feet (the lowest considered boatable through town) the flow rate would be 300 cfs, with sections of Class II rapids.

Approaching Mill Street Bridge. Note large rocks and
tree trunk downstream of the middle channel (July 2015)

The river's flow through town is actively managed, and has been mismanaged in the past. Old record show that at times during summer months the volume of water would decrease precipitously for a few days, getting to as low as two cfs - a trickle - and then revert to what it had been before. What was happening was that all water was being diverted to top up the mill pond at the expense of the river. Currently, restrictions are in place so that whenever river volume drops below 39 cfs, no water can be channeled to the pond.  

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and towns in the Assabet River watershed aspire to getting the river to Class B, defined as clean enough for swimming. Right now most of the river's status is Class C, which allows for fishing and fish consumption, diverse aquatic life, maintenance of biological integrity, use for agriculture irrigation and secondary recreation, the last defined as wading, boating, and other uses involving human body contact with water where such activities take place in an infrequent, unorganized, or incidental manner.

Engine block on rocky shore. Begs the
question: "How did that get there?"

When I first had the idea for this adventure, friends suggested I inform the police of my intentions, the concern being that a homeowner along the river, or a passer-by on a bridge might call 911 to report a person in the river. I took their advice. I also discussed my plan with the Conservation Commission. I did have a conversation with one waterfront owner, but he was more interested in telling me of his efforts to remove trash from the river than what I was up to.

Ten hot, dry days after my river walk, flow had dropped to under 30 cfs. Then, the afternoon of August 4th, severe thunderstorms with wind, rain and hail, swept in from the west. Rainfall was over an inch in less than half an hour. In the same time period the river rose more than half a foot and flow tripled.

Extreme low water at the Ben Smith Dam (July 2010)

Sofferman has posted several videos on YouTube of kayaking the Assabet through the center of Maynard under various conditions. A seven minute clip posted as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYTeE53dTC0  is from February 2014, with the river still sporting lots of ice and snow.

Gruber Bros. Furniture

Gruber Bros. Furniture, Main Street, Maynard, MA (2015)

 The fire of 1934 changed everything. Julius and Benjamin Gruber had bought the business from Alfred T. Haynes in 1917, followed by buying the building in 1919, and were operating as Gruber Bros. Furniture on the first floor. Upstairs was Riverside Theatre (motion pictures), managed by Samuel Lerer. Elsewhere in the building were the Waino Williams Bakery, King & Huggins liquor merchants, and various offices of the Town of Maynard. The fire started in the back of the building around 4:30 AM on a Saturday morning and was not entirely extinguished until after noon. The re-build was to a smaller building, currently with Gruber Bros. Furniture as its sole occupant.

A pre-fire photo hangs in the front window along with a plaque from the Maynard Historical Commission. The original building, three stories tall, much modified through the years, was erected in 1868. A large meeting hall on the second floor served as host to Maynard’s first town meeting, in 1871.   

When Julius and Ben retired the business fell to Burton “Burt” Gruber, Julius’ son. A newspaper clipping from The Beacon, Nov 18, 1982, recounts a story about Burt selling $69 worth of office furniture on credit to a couple of guys starting up a new business in the mill. The business was Digital Equipment Corporation and one of the shoppers was Ken Olsen. When Burt retired operation of the business went to his nephew, Joel B. Cohen, son of Burt's sister Jeanette (Gruber) Cohen and Sidney Cohen. [Burt died in 2006, age 94 years.]

Joel B. Cohen, president & proprietor of Gruber Bros. Furniture, Maynard MA

The Gruber family was an active part of a small Jewish community in Maynard. Family records suggest that brothers Max and Eli Gruber came to the United States from Russia circa 1880, with both of them ending up in Maynard some time later. Ellis Island as the east coast immigration arrival site did not start operating until 1892, so a good guess is that the Grubers left port from Hamburg, Germany and landed in Boston (rather than New York, the major destination for Jewish immigration from 1890-1925). Max's oldest daughter was born in Europe, but the subsequent four children, including Julius and Benjamin, were born in the U.S. The oldest sister married Samuel Lerer, local store owner, movie theater operator, and a Selectman of the Town of Maynard.     

Warehouse behind Gruber Bros. Furniture, Maynard, MA
The murals were painted by members of CinderBlockHustle
in 2008, with the north wall repainted in 2012 with a
patriotic/military theme. [Click on photo to enlarge]

The Gruber family was instrumental in forming the Maynard Hebrew Society, which in 1921 bought a house on Nason Street and had it moved to Acton Street to be the home of Rodoff Shalom Synagogue. Prior to that the members had been served by a visiting rabbi, holding services in space rented in the meeting hall of the International Order of Odd Fellows, on Nason Street. Rodoff Shalom Synagogue existed through to 1980, when it merged into Congregation Beth Elohim, in Acton. In a temple newsletter, Adam Jacoby remembered, “In 1980 we built a new building and marched the Torah from Maynard to Acton under a chuppa [canopy] with shofars [horns made from rams' horns]. I was one of the shofrot during the walk.”

Gruber Bros. Furniture intends to close its doors later this year, thus bringing a closure to three generations and 98 years as a family business. As Joel Cohen put it, "When I was 16 years old my mother sent me over to the store to help with a furniture delivery. Now, 54 years and one hip replacement later, it's time for me to get off the truck and retire." The middle photo shows Cohen leaning on a stand-up desk that spans the width of the office. When asked the history of the desk he replied that it was in the office when his family bought the business in 1917. Future use of the building, which includes a mural-decorated warehouse building in back, is unknown.

Fifty of David Mark’s 2012-2014 columns were published in book "Hidden History of Maynard" available at The Paper Store, on-line, and as an e-book.

Public Access to Assabet River

Automated river depth and flow gauge,
Assabet River, Maynard, MA (2010 flood)

Addresses public access to the Assabet River in Maynard, MA. Includes a kayaker's description.

For all that the Assabet River runs through the center of Maynard, crossed by seven bridges, public access points - meaning places where it is possible to sit or stand by the riverbank, and if so desired, do some fishing, wade into the river or launch a canoe or kayak - are scarce.

Passage through Maynard starts at the White Pond Road Bridge on the Maynard:Stow border and ends at Ripple Pond, which is the name of the body of water backed up by the dam next to Route 62, in Acton. This portion, some 2.5 miles long, offers a mix of flat and flowing water ranging from placid to exciting and potentially dangerous.

Upstream of the Ben Smith Dam provides five miles of flat water. Boaters' access in Maynard is at Ice House Landing and at White Pond Bridge. The former is near the Department of Public Works, on Winter Street, and offers a few parking places and a short portage to the shore, where it is possible to put in a canoe or kayak. The latter has space to put in a small boat off a trailer, but parking is problematic. Between, there are good views of the water from Track Road, on the south side, but the shoreline is steep and brushy. Farther upstream but still part of the same flat water is a put-in in Stow, at Sudbury Road.

Downstream from the Ben Smith Dam there are views from the bridges and along Walnut Street, but no accessible shoreline on town property other than a short stretch in Tobin Park, by the footbridge, and then much farther east, from a trail that descends from Concord Street.

Kayaker working the rapids upriver from Main Street, Maynard, MA

Maynard owns or is about to own or can consider owning land that could provide much more river access. Construction of the Assabet River Rail Trail will include a larger parking lot at Ice House Landing. The town could improve the put-in.

A private parking lot at the back of Millpond Square provides access below the dam. The town could look into purchasing part of the lot. There is an easy 80 yard portage to a put-in place. The same concept would hold true for buying part of the parking lot at the Elks Lodge, as either a takeout for river runners or a put in for Ripple Pond. Between, the town already owns land behind the Town Building and is in the process of buying riverside land at the end of a small parking lot on River Street. These two sites have a steep bank from shore to river, so not ideal for boating or fishing access, but could become attractive viewing areas.

Lastly, the river border from Main Street to the footbridge (adjacent to the Gruber Bros. Furniture building, currently an overgrown mess of poison ivy and bittersweet) could be improved to include a boardwalk, benches, small tables, plantings, bicycle rack, informational kiosk, water fountain, a cart selling Italian ices, live music…

                                          

All this harping on access, access, access begs the question – is it really possible to boat through the center of Maynard on the Assabet River? Safe? Legal? As noted, upstream of the Ben Smith Dam is flat water, so boating is possible, safe and legal. Through town, the criteria are deep enough to float a boat but no so high as to risk hitting the undersides of bridges. A gauge located behind Tedeschi Food Shops provides on-line information on depth and flow rate, findable via internet search on the terms USGS ASSABET followed by selection of the one that has “Current Conditions” in the description.

Pipe under Mill Street Bridge reduces clearance (flood, March 2010)

From talking to experienced boaters, a depth at the gauge between 3.0 and 4.0 feet floats a boat through Maynard and provides for stretches of Class I-II rapids. Approaching 5.0 feet the bridges become dangerous. The river gets faster. At 2.0 feet the flow is 100 cubic feet per second, increasing to 600 cfs at 4.0 feet and 1200 cfs at 5.0 feet.

As for legal, the Massachusetts River Protection Act extends state control to “Any river or stream that is a naturally flowing body of water that empties into any ocean, lake, or other river and that flows throughout the year.” Recreational activities are allowed, keeping in mind that all the scrap metal and broken glass make barefoot wading unadvisable. 


One experienced kayaker's description of running the center of town when water was 4' deep: 

• Great Road Bridge – ran to the right through a 2’ drop
• Mill Street Bridge – ran through the center, but the right arch is also an option [August 2015: just downstream of center there are large tree trunks hung up on larger rocks]
• Florida Road Bridge – flatwater under the bridge, but there are some nice waves just downstream
• Main Street Bridge – some easy waves leading up to it, but it can be run anywhere
• Walnut Street Bridge – fast moving current under the bridges pushes right, some nice wave below the bridge
• Waltham Street Bridge – ran in the middle since the left and right arches were blocked by construction steel [note: this was the old bridge; the new bridge is a single span]

A Murder of Crows

We know to say “pride of lions, gaggle of geese, school of fish,” but why? As it turns out, social standing among Medieval European nobility required that men should know their venery – the proper naming of groups of animals – else be taken for crass and uneducated. Collections of these terms culminated in a master list compiled in The Book of St. Albans, in 1486. The term “A murder of crows” dates back at least that far, but unfortunately without any historic explanation as to why “murder.”

Anyone delving into the history of venery should consult "An Exaltation of Larks," by Jame Lipton. Older versions of "murder of crows" were written as "mursher of crowys" and "murther of crowes." The 'murther' (or 'murthre') spelling was common into the 1600s but is now archaic. Similarly, 'crawe' was Old English and 'crowe' Middle English before evolving into 'crow.'  

From Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds."  Crows were trained to fly
to the jungle gym. Special effects crows were added to make the
number of birds larger than it actually was.

Crows do gather. One of the key scenes in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, The Birds, cuts back and forth between the inside of a small school and the progressively larger number of crows gathering on the playground equipment outside. In real life, when crows happen upon an owl they will sound an alarm call that draws other crows from miles around. The resultant mob of crows, all cawing loudly, will harass the owl until it leaves the area. Crows will also mob hawks. It sounds very much as if the crows intend bloody murder, and perhaps that led to the historic term.

An oft-mentioned folklore on “murder” is that a group of crows can decide to turn on one of their own, pecking it to death. The truth in this is debatable. A solitary crow happening upon a crow family’s space will be set on, but driven away, not killed. These attacks can be many-against-one because families are more than just the mated pair. Offspring from the previous year or two stay near their parents and help with feeding and defending the new babies.

During the spring/summer nesting season families are scattered, but in fall and winter crows prefer to congregate, especially at night. Foraging flocks of 10 to 50 will start to cluster as evening nears, then fly to join other flocks in a preferred night roosting area, where numbers can be as high as in the thousands. In northern regions these tree roosts may be in parks and cemeteries within cities; the thinking being that the winter temperatures in cities are slightly warmer than in the surrounding countryside, and also that the ambient night light of cities discourages marauding owls.

Locally, the population of crows has been impacted by West Nile Virus (WNV). The virus is endemic and non-lethal in many species of birds in Africa and the Middle East. It was first detected in the United States in 1999, in wild crows living at the Bronx Zoo. WNV then rapidly spread across the continent. Mosquitoes are the major vector, but raptors and scavengers can become infected by eating ill or dead animals. The viral strain that reached North America was particularly lethal to crows. The crow population in Massachusetts is half of what it was fifteen years ago. There is evidence that the negative impact of WNV is stabilizing in recent years, with some states showing recovery from the lowest bird counts. 

WNV also infects people. Most will have no symptoms. About 20 percent will develop fever, headache, muscle ache, nausea or skin rash (risk of symptoms increases with age). Less than one percent will develop a severe illness. In Massachusetts there were fewer than ten cases reported each year for 2013 and 2014.

WNV is not the only bird virus troubling the U.S. Apparently, wild ducks or geese migrating overhead over chicken and turkey farms in the mid-west have caused an avian flu epidemic. Tens of millions of birds are either dead, dying or else being euthanized to prevent spread of H5N2 avian virus to other farms. The risk of human cross-infection from this strain of virus is very, very low, but do expect to be paying higher prices for eggs, chicken and turkey for months to come. And pet food, too, as laying hens, when culled for declining egg production, end up in cat and dog food.  

Murders in Maynard, MA

This entry combines two columns: "Murders in Maynard?" and "More Murders in Maynard

MURDERS IN MAYNARD?   Maynard's major crimes rate is below average for Massachusetts and the state is below average for the nation. Looking only at murders, the state's rate is roughly 2.5 per 100,000 population per year. For Maynard's 10,000 population that works to one murder every four years or so. Actual numbers are lower - according to Police Chief Mark Dubois, town records appear to show no murders in the past twenty years. Maynard was not always so quiet. Back around 1910-1940 there was a murder almost every other year! And this was at a time when the population was smaller. Here is a sampling of murders from long ago:

1896: John Dean, age 75, living on his farm on Acton Street, was murdered by Lorenzo Barnes. Dean was struck on the head with the back side of an ax and robbed of approximately $70 he had on his person. Barnes did odd jobs around town, including for Dean. He was frequently intoxicated. He was arrested because he was spending more money in town than he typically had. In evidence were his bloody boots recovered from the Assabet River. Barnes was the second to last person in Massachusetts to be executed by hanging. After that, it was the electric chair until executions ceased in 1947.

1912: Cora Olsen, 19 years old, was shot several times by Charles Lowrey, a young man she had been dating for several years. Olsen had joined the Navy, deserted, returned to Maynard, was drinking heavily and no longer welcome at the Olsen household. After the shooting, Cora ran to the nearby mill for assistance, leaving a bloody trail behind her. Doctors were swiftly contacted by telephone, as were the police. Lowrey was apprehended in South Acton trying to catch a train to Boston, where he had re-signed with the Navy and was expecting to ship out shortly. Olsen recovered from her wounds.

1919: Luigi Graceffa, age 30, found floating in Charles River, knife wounds. He had testified as a witness in a murder case in Waltham, and this was thought to be a revenge killing. Later the same year, Joseph Graceffa, Luigi's brother, along with two friends, opened fire shortly after noon on two men who were visiting from Fitchburg. Joseph Sipoli died. Rizzo Dianisa survived a serious bullet wound to the head. The attack was in thought to be in retaliation for Luigi's death. 

1921: Hannah (Ingerdella) Johnson, age 24, was shot at 7:20 PM, while walking on Main Street with her husband. By her husband. The young couple had been married for just over a year, but the marriage was strained, and reports of the time state that Mrs. Johnson intended to file for a divorce. After shooting his wife, Walter Johnson lit a cigarette, sat down next to her body, and shot himself through the chest. He died about 20 minutes later, smoking to the very end. Police found a note on the body that read in part "...I bought the gun to do this act. You [Hannah's uncle and aunt] will never understand why I would do such a thing."

Sometimes a newspaper article from the period cannot be found in the microfilm records, so all that exists is the town's Annual Reports listings of dates, deaths and causes. From this we get 1909; Joseph Fiorentino, bullet wound; 1915: Stefana Terrasi, revolver shot, 1916: Jeannie Marie Clark, bullet wounds; 1923: Rosario Buscemi, bullet wound; 1924: Oscar Hietala, bullet to head; 1924; Frank Vodoklys, pistol shot. Unfortunately for historians, the deaths reports stopped listing details after 1927, so from then on only the annual police reports. The decade 1930-40 notched nine manslaughter deaths, but without details.    

Image from Boston Globe, 1953

1953: Referred to in the Boston Globe as the "Mill Pond Murder," Lila Taryma, mother of four, disappeared the Saturday evening before Easter Sunday. Her body was found seven weeks later in the Mill Pond, lashed to a heavy radiator. Cause of death was head injuries. Her husband, Anthony Taryma, was initially charged with her murder. They had been seen arguing at a bar that evening, but he left and she remained. Anthony was not brought to trial due to insufficient evidence. He moved away, remarried, died years later in an automobile accident.

MORE MURDERS IN MAYNARD: As noted in a 2014 column, Maynard 100 years ago was a violently different town than it is today. Town records and newspaper accounts show roughly a murder every other year during the period 1910-1940, placing our town well above the national average even during that violent era. A sampling of murders from long ago: 

1901: Joseph Fredesco, age 18, was found dead in the Assabet River. Fredesco had been in the country just two weeks, in Maynard just two days, and was employed with a railroad work crew as water boy. He had eaten the noonday meal with co-workers, but his absence noted late afternoon led to the search that found his body early that evening, upstream from the Ben Smith Dam. An examination discovered a head wound on the right side, bleeding from the left ear, and multiple bruises on his back, although the actual cause of death was drowning. The supposition was that he had gone to the river bank to bathe in the shallows, his clothes being found on the riverbank, and was attacked there by a person or persons unknown, then pushed into the river while unconscious. Fredesco did not know how to swim. This was the third sudden death in Maynard within 24 hours, but the other two were clearly natural causes.

In a non-fatal incident that same 4th of July week, Richard Parmenter was shot in the thigh while walking down a street with his daughter. It was determined that the bullet was from a stray rifle shot from some distance away. Unlike others mentioned in this column, Parmenter was not a recent immigrant - his family had crossed the ocean in 1639. Dr. Frank U. Rich came to Parmenter's house and removed the bullet with a forceps. The newspaper account did not mention any use of anesthesia, and this was decades before the invention of antibiotics. Parmenter survived his wound - Glenwood Cemetery records have him dead and buried in 1934. From an 1899 news item, Dr. Rich was the first citizen of Maynard to own an automobile.    

1915: Stefana Terrasi, age 27, was shot dead on a late Sunday night in April in the front hallway of a house not his own. Police identified him as living in West Concord and working at the gunpowder mills. The medical examiner determined Terrasi had been shot three times from behind. Given the position of his body - face down, head away from the entrance - the thinking was that he had been trying to get away from someone he knew (or else had recently meet and deeply offended). A news report at the time mentioned that "...there was a crowd of people about the place all the afternoon, Sunday, and there was a great deal of noise and evidences of drinking."

1923: Rosario Buscemi, age 38, shot in an apartment building on Main Street. He and his brother had gone there to confront someone. When that person would not open the door the brothers started shooting at the door. The occupant shot back through the door, hitting Rosario. His brother fled to New York, where he stayed and raised a family.

1924: The town's annual report listed two men dead from bullet wounds to the head, but perusal of newspaper accounts found both to be suicides. Frank Vodoklys, age 59, immigrant from Poland, was despondent over the failing of his meat and provisions business (in the building now Morey's Tavern). Survived by his wife and five children. Oscar Hietala, immigrant from Finland, age 45, had recently learned of his wife's death, in Finland. He had taken to drinking heavily (despite this being during Prohibition). Survived by four children in Finland.

Nationally, there were peaks in murder rates from 1920-1935 and 1970-1995; both periods exceeded eight per 100,000 population per year. Current national rate is 4.5 per 100,000 with Massachusetts at two per 100,000. There are some interesting theories as to why murder rates go up or down, such as up during bad financial times or popularity of new illegal drugs creating violent competition amongst sellers, down from better policing, more violence-prone people in jail for lesser crimes and the availability of birth control reducing unwed mother pregnancies. One novel theory is that childhood exposure to lead (from lead paint and leaded gasoline) results in violence-prone adults, so as blood lead levels decreased nationally so did murders, decades later.