. . .country roads take me home, to
the place I belong, West Hill Dam
and Park, Uxbridge, Massachusetts???
West Hill Dam and Park may not be
what John Denver had in mind when he
co-wrote Take Me Home Country Roads,
but it's certainly a place in the
country that I belong to now, since
I ventured there!
It was Monday, a glorious
sunny day with beautiful blue skies
and puffy white clouds. The
temperature was a warmish 47-50
degrees. A perfect spring day for
an adventure to a destination that I
had never been to before and didn't
know much about. Very much to my
surprise, what I found was a little
piece of heaven nestled in the pines
of Uxbridge, MA surrounding the West
River with a hilly backdrop. I say
"Very much to my surprise" because I
figured that this natural area would
probably be 'pretty', but I found it
to be awesome! (I felt this way
since the Dam and Park are located
so close to home in the Blackstone
River Valley, and not in Maine, New
Hampshire, or Vermont, although, it
has the feel of a vacation spot.).
The scenery is as the
landscape once was before
development. Its essence is serene.
The river cut through the rock and
winding through the fascinating dam
may not be on the scale of the great
Hoover Dam, but I found it as
captivating!
Upon entering the West
Hill Dam office, I was warmly and
enthusiastically greeted by the
project manager, Merl Bassett. Merle
told me what West Hill Dam & Park
were all about. West Hill Dam, West
River was "designed and constructed
and is operated and maintained by
New England Division, US Army Corps
of Engineers in cooperation with the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The
US Army Corps is authorized by
Congress to meet the engineering
needs of the Nation, either through
navigation, military, or flood
damage reduction. As a result of
different catastrophic events such
as 1955's Hurricane Diane and
Hurricane Connie, the dam was
requested and built in 1960. The
purpose of the West Hill Dam on the
West River (a major tributary of the
Blackstone River) is for flood
damage reduction. By holding back
the water from the Blackstone River,
it doesn't cause damage in
Woonsocket, Rhode Island and
Providence, Rhode Island. The dam
works by not releasing water out of
the dam until water levels in
Woonsocket start to go down." To
loosely echo Merle's words - to
think, there are people in Uxbridge,
MA protecting Woonsocket, RI!
West Hill Dam & Park is,
also, a result of demands of the
public for open space, natural
resource management, and recreation.
It is a wildlife area maintained in
partnership with MassWildlife. To
meet the needs of the public, the
areas include a beach at Harrington
Pool, a playground, picnic tables
and Pine Grove picnic shelters. To
hold events, the public may use the
overhead shelters.
The public can hunt, fish and trap
in the Park and horseback riding is
allowed on designated trails. But,
if bird watching is your penchant,
than you would relish in the 20
acres of the Grassland Restoration
Area, which maintains the desired
habitat for migrating birds.
VIP's, whether you are a
lover of nature, or engineering (or
both), experience West Hill Dam &
Park. The Dam & Park are a work of
man and nature at their best!
www.nae.usace.rmy.mil/recreai/whd/whdinfo.htm
