Exploring Nature and History

In June of 1971 two friends and I drove from Illinois straight through to Boston, to begin the post-college chapters of our lives. It was daylight by the time we picked up the Mass Pike. I was surprised at how far one end of the state was from the other—Midwestern pupils looking at a U.S. map assume that any state too small to hold its name must be teensy, and New England states are labeled in the blue Atlantic.

I recall a sense of recognition, seeing stone walls for the first time, thinking, “Oh, that’s what Robert Frost was talking about.” I was, and I remain, enchanted with the Massachusetts landscape.

I was born in southern Illinois, where, because the land was not worth farming, there were woods, creeks, and fields to be explored. In the middle of my childhood the McAdows moved halfway upstate, to Champaign, which is surrounded by land as productive as any on Earth. Cornfields alternated with soybeans all the way to Chicago. I was ripe, after living there, to appreciate the variety of eastern Massachusetts: the outcroppings of ledge, the bogs and other wetlands, the friendly, transparent streams and rivers, and the mixture of forests and fields. The eskers! And a wonderful variety of wild animals and plants.

This area rewards curiosity partly because its economy has always been in flux. The need to make a living is constant; the ways to do so, in constant change. The natives and early European immigrants ate and wore what could be found or grown here, or what they could make from those raw materials. Ways of growing shaped the land, while ways of making affected our streams. Both had consequences for wildlife; for example, fish that swam up rivers to breed were key to the economy of natives and settlers, but the use of dams for waterpower stopped that. Saxonville, which had been a place to catch fish, became famous for mills.

Thirty years ago I couldn’t have told a tree swallow from a tree sparrow, and all I knew about local history was the “Battle of Lexington and Concord.” I’d heard of Thoreau, but hadn’t read Walden. Since then I’ve lived in Southborough, Holliston, Millis, Hudson, and Concord, and worked in Framingham, Maynard, Medway, Natick, Dover, and Sudbury. I’ve written books about the Concord, Sudbury, and Assabet Rivers, and about the Charles River. Learning about the nature and the past of eastern Massachusetts has proven to be a continuing source of pleasure.

As I’ve become better informed about our region, my affection for it has deepened. This is the first of a series of columns I’ll offer in this newspaper. They’ll be about our nature, history, and environment, and about people who help us understand this place. Your comments and questions will open new explorations; you can reach me at rmcadow@sudburyvalleytrustees.org.