Thoreau Country: Location Note

The Concord River upstream is now called the Sudbury River

There is confusion about the names of the rivers. Thoreau used the name Concord River to apply to the entire length of the stream that runs from above the towns of Sudbury and Wayland to the Merrimack River. The tributary that inconspicuously joined at Egg Rock near Concord's North Bridge was known as the North Branch, the Elizabeth River, or (modern) the Assabet River.

By the turn of the century, however, that part of the Concord River upstream (south) of its junction with the Assabet River became known as the Sudbury River. (In Walling's 1852 survey this part was labelled Concord River, but Gleason's 1906 map shows it as Sudbury River.) Perhaps it had always been known by the latter name to the upstream farmers of Sudbury's Broad Meadow.

So, now, it is actually the Sudbury River that flows past the village, as in the photo below.

[Caption: Willows at Thoreau's Boat Landing. May 6, 1918. By Herbert W. Gleason. From the archives of the Thoreau Society. Used with permission.]

The Concord and Sudbury Rivers are, as Thoreau commented in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, remarkable for the gentleness of their flow, which often is scarcely perceptible. He continued,

"The story is current, at any rate, though I believe that strict history will not bear it out, that the only bridge ever carried away on the main branch within the limits of the town, was driven upstream by the wind."

Moving upstream from the village, below is a view of Fair Haven Hill in the moonlight from Heath's (or Hubbard's) Bridge over the Concord (Sudbury) River.

Written in pencil on verso of the print is the date 6/14/1851, referring to this Thoreau journal entry:

"The moon was now seen rising over Fair Haven and at the same time reflecting in the river, pale and white like a silvery cloud, barred with a cloud, not promising how it will shine anon."

Is that a canoe at the bend of the river?

Frank Bolles wrote a memorable story about camping and owls in the pines at the right in "A Voyage to Heard's Island," Land of the Lingering Snow (1891). [Undated photo by Herbert W. Gleason is from the archives of the Thoreau Society. Used with permission. Undated. Identification information states that the subject is "Moon rising on Fair Haven Bay" but I am not sure if this is Gleason's identification. I believe this photo was taken of Fair Haven Hill from Heath's Bridge, and that the body of water is the Sudbury (Concord) River a mile downstream of Fair Haven Bay. Conantum and "Frank Bolles' Pines" are at the right.]

This is Sudbury's Broad Meadow starting to flood in late winter. Allen H. Morgan, one of the souls of the river, took this looking downstream from Rt. 27 in about 1965. The old Rice Farm is in left center; Round Hill is at right. For much of its length, the Sudbury River is remarkably flat, dropping only one inch per mile. On his longer excursions, Thoreau would canoe past here.

August 2003 was opulant in the Sudbury Valley, with only the barest hint of tiredness in the colors.
Photo looking downstream from Sherman's Bridge with Weir Hill and Great Meadows NWR Hq.
in the distance. (Photo by Stephen Ells.)

[Page prepared by S. Ells
<<http://homepage.mac.com/sfe/henry/index.html>.]