Neponset River

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The Neponset River is a river in eastern Massachusetts. The falling waters of the Neponset provided the energy for the country's first water-powered grist mill, gunpowder mill, and paper mill, among others.

The Neponset flows from Foxborough into Boston Harbor in Massachusetts Bay, forming the boundary between the city of Boston and the city of Quincy and the town of Milton. It also travels through the towns of Canton, Dedham, Norwood, Sharon, and Walpole.

The River's recorded history begins in 1619 when fur trading started by the English on Thompson's Island, and Native Americans used the Neponset River to bring skins for sale.

The upper stretch of the Neponset River, in Foxboro, Walpole and Norwood, is steeply sloped, however, dropping about 228 feet (69 m) over its first 12 miles (19 km) and so the earliest years of the Industrial Revolution truly brought the Neponset to prominence. In 1635, Israel Stoughton built the first dam on the Neponset (only the 2nd dam in entire New World) for his grist mill. It was the first of three mills for flour, gun powder and paper making. In 1640 shipbuilding began at Gulliver's Creek Wharf, and in 1673 John Trescott built a lumber mill on the river.

In 1765 a chocolate mill was established by Dr. James Baker and Irish immigrant John Hannon, and in 1770 Daniel Vose's Wholesale Shipping Warehouses at the second Milton Town Landing at Lower Mills were at the peak of their operation. Ship building and commercial shipping were the major river industries at the estuary. In 1773 George Clark built a paper mill on remnants of Trescott's Lumber Mill, which became the Tileston and Hollingsworth Paper Mill in 1836. And in 1826, the river became the terminus of the Granite Railway, the first commercial railway in the United States.

After much remediation, the Neponset is now cleaner than it has been for two or three centuries. At present two dams block fish from entering the river; there is some pressure for their removal.