PETERSHAM — Waterways in small central Massachusetts communities have historically been places of commerce, culture, and community. Exploration of one of the major rivers that flows into the massive Quabbin Reservoir, the East Branch of the Swift River in Petersham will be the focus of an afternoon hike with local landscape historian, Larry Buell.
The Hike to the Headwaters of the Swift River will take place Saturday, May 18 and will start at 4 p.m. on the Petersham Common. The moderate hike will go North of Route 101/Popple Camp Road and visit the three headwater streams, the Petersham Poor Farm, School District #11, numerous dams and cellar holes, and unique natural and cultural history features.
Using historic pictures, local stories and lore, and local historic information, Buell will interpret the “Sense of Place” that arises from the unique landscape of Northern Petersham. During the hike into the hinter land, Buell will perform a water honoring ritual that was made famous during the Standing Rock Water Protector Movement where water will be collected and carried to the convergence of the Connecticut River and the Long Island Sound where the Swift River waters enter the Atlantic Ocean.
Buell will offer a personal perspective of place based on poet/farmer Wendell Berry who stated, “…if you don’t know where you are, you may not know who you are.”
For Buell, the “trek to the headwaters of the Swift gives one a deeper understanding of one of the best protected watersheds in central New England and is rich in cultural and natural history.”
The program is free and open to the public and is co-sponsored by the Petersham Historical Society and the University of the Wild at Earthlands. For more information on this and other programs visit: www.universityofthewild.org. For information and registration contact Larry Buell at larrybuell@earthlands.org or phone 978-724-0412.