Maps & Pictures Approximate Cedar Swamp boundaries, outlined in blue.

Pictures from the CSCT July ’03 canoe trip to Cedar Swamp Pond

On an early morning this past July CSCT members paddled their way to the Cedar Swamp Pond at the center of the Great Cedar Swamp. It is not the easiest of trips, putting in at the Fruit Street Bridge near the Hopkinton/Southborough Town line we zigzagged for about two hours against the headwaters of the Sudbury River current to the Pond. It is a very worthwhile and rewarding adventure. At the Pond you have the feeling of being in a far away place yet on the way there you pass through tunnels under the Massachusetts Turnpike and Route 495. You can also see the train tracks which cut through the Cedar Swamp and we were greeted by one train whistle on our trip.

Cedar Swamp consists of approximately 2000 acres stretching from Route 9 through Westborough then into Hopkinton and the corner of Southborough where the Sudbury River starts its journey through many Metro-West towns eventually joining with the Assabet to form the Concord River and continuing to the Merrimac and then the ocean. Obviously, the Cedar Swamp has an environmental impact on the quality of life for tens-of-thousands of people in communities along this path. The only warm weather access to the Pond, this nearby but remote place, is by kayak or canoe.

The vision for Cedar Swamp began almost 110 years ago when the Metropolitan Water Works began water and resource protection for the area known as the Great Cedar Swamp. Through a series of acquisitions, with deeds dating to 1895, the Water Board accumulated the properties, which comprise a significant portion of the Cedar Swamp. These lands located in Hopkinton, Southborough and Westborough were the forethought for the Sudbury River Watershed. The swamp and the high yield aquifer beneath it are a vital water resource for the area. The swamp is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Cedar Swamp Archaeological District with artifacts dating 9000 years. It is also Massachusetts’ first Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC).

Today, at times in parts of the Swamp, the peace is interrupted by the noise of traffic from the Massachusetts Turnpike and Route 495, the abutting industrial facilities and the numerous trains on the track which bisects the Cedar Swamp ACEC. Most of this land remains owned by the State of Massachusetts with the second largest property holder being the Sudbury Valley Trustees. There are many smaller parcels privately owned. Various industrial companies have almost encircled the swamp, their lands jutting into the swamp with some encroaching on State owned conservation land. In the 1960’s the Metropolitan District Commission sold over 100 acres of the swamp to Bay State Abrasives one of these industrial abutters. This property has since been listed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s watch list for contaminated sites and is now the location of a proposed mixeduse redevelopment project.