There are two ponds that flow into the Spicket River that helped supply the Arlington Mills in Lawrence with its water. Each pond has a unique history worthy of a closer look. Arlington Mill Reservoir, or today just Arlington Pond, and Big Island Pond, which borders Derry, Atkinson and Hampstead, New Hampshire. Big Island Pond…
There’s a tiny brook that flows from Searles Pond near Holy Family Hospital and feeds into the Spicket River just before it in turn feeds the Merrimack River in Lawrence. It’s name betrays a violent history, long before Lawrence and Methuen become heavily developed urban environments. Google has led me a couple of times to…
Straightening the Spicket The Spicket River flows from New Hampshire into the Merrimack River in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The river has changed over the years, particularly during the explosive development of Lawrence and Methuen in the Industrial Revolution. By the late 1880’s the City of Lawrence had enough of the typhoid breeding ground that the river…