Everything you need to enjoy the Mystic River basin - one of the most overlooked and dynamic regions of Boston and New England! • The towns that set the scene for the formation of America including Cambridge, Somerville, Malden, Medford, Winchester, Arlington, along with Boston & Charlestown. • The backdrop for the Battle of Bunker Hill, Paul Revere’s Ride, the Battles of Lexington & Concord, the Clipper ships, the Slave Trade, and even Amelia Earhart. • Detailed instructions for self-guided kayak and biking trips. • Tips for the best birding, hiking, touring and other recreational opportunities. • Includes over 60 high resolution photos, historic illustrations, and maps. • The ecological challenges facing this diverse environment. The Mystic River, A Natural and Human History and Recreation Guide provides everything you need to enjoy this fascinating and overlooked area of the country. Whether your goal is to learn about the history of these amazing towns, or find the best self-guided kayak or biking trips, even where to hike or go birding, this book does it all. Developed in conjunction of the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA), the book includes both natural and human histories. You will gather amazing and unappreciated insights about some of the most influential towns in New England - Cambridge, Chelsea, Somerville, Malden, Medford, Winchester, Arlington, along with Boston & Charlestown. Just some of the things you will learn about include: • in Chelsea, the Battle of Chelsea Creek, which set the scene for the Battle of Bunker Hill; • in Arlington, the Jason Russell House, where the bloodiest fighting took place during the British retreat from Concord and Lexington; • in Medford, the sites of the some of the most prolific rum-making and shipbuilding in Colonial America (including famous Clipper ships that conquered the China trade); • in Winchester, the site of the Mystic Lakes, and transit for the Middlesex Canal, which enabled the industrial revolution; • in Charlestown, the amazing Native American and pre-colonial history that preceded the Battle of Bunker Hill; • in Somerville, the companies that created American icons Marshmallow Fluff, NECCO Wafers, and even the first adjustable pipe wrench – the Stillson Wrench. Most of all, learn the story of the Mystic River and the renaissance that is taking place along her banks. The Mystic is the Boston area’s best undiscovered gem, and an area to be enjoyed and treasured by paddlers, bikers, hikers, birders, artists, cinema buffs – everyone! Whether a citizen or a visitor, The Mystic River – A Natural and Human History and Recreation Guide will become your go to resource for everything needed to appreciate and enjoy this fantastic region. I am a water person. Some say I was a fish in a past life. I love rivers and lakes and oceans, on or in them. The idea for this book began when I moved to Arlington after over twenty years in Concord where I had regularly paddled the Concord, Sudbury, and Assabet rivers as well as the Charles River and led river trips for the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), Massachusetts Audubon Society (MAS), Organization for the Assabet River (OAR), and Sudbury Valley Trustees (SVT). Frequently these trips included historical reviews of the areas we were passing through, as well as l bird watching, comparing what we were currently seeing with what was reported in the journals of Brewster and Thoreau. I began paddling, fishing (mostly with little success), and birding the Mystic Lakes and Mystic River and Spy Pond, biking in the area, and walking to work via Alewife Station. I became curious about what I was seeing along the river - the old pilings, the dams, the marshes - and discovered surprises such as Grandfather's House and plaques on the Middlesex Canal, and on the ice and farming industries. While excellent guide books were available to the rivers I had previously paddled, I found none on the Mystic. When I asked people about the Mystic, few knew much about it except that there was a movie of that name or, for fishermen, it was a great place to dock your boat and easily get into the harbor. The Mystic seemed to be one of the best undiscovered resources in the Boston area and one that if more people knew about it, more would come to it. By doing so, they would support efforts to protect, clean up, and improve the river, lakes, and watershed. The river, its lakes, and tributaries bring to life important stories In their short path, the history of America is told - from the Native Americans to the early colonists, to the revolution and through agriculture, market farms, and the Ice King to the industrial revolution, residential developments, commuting and suburbia, recreation, pollution and the environmental movement. In its early years of the Native Americans and its first European settlers up until about 1850, the river did not change much. It was a curving river with many marshes. Few people lived in the area durin