The Quabbin Reservoir

  The Quabbin Reservoir covers the towns of Dana, North Dana, Greenwich, Enfield, and Prescott, Massachusetts.  It was created in the 1930’s by flooding the Swift River Valley.  It is one of the largest manmade reservoirs in the country.  It accommodates over two million people in 46 cities daily.  The Quabbin covers over 80 square miles of land mass and covers an area of 39 square miles of water. 

Quabbin reservoir is the largest body of water in Massachusetts.   The Quabbin has a tremendous variation of animals such as Deer, Eastern Coyotes, Bobcats, Wild Turkeys, Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles, and many more.  The Quabbin reservoir has a large amount and variety of wildlife unequaled in the region except, maybe, for the wildest tracts of Maine.

It was discovered in the 1920’s that Eastern Massachusetts did not have a large enough water supply.  They decided on the Swift River, 100 miles from Boston.   Through series of “buyouts” the people of the town were tossed out of their homes.  Their houses were bulldozed, bodies were dug up (except for Native American), factories were demolished and millions of trees were cut down. 

Eleven towns were affected by the flooding.  Flooding of the Valley started in 1939.  In 1946 was filled all the way (412 billion gallons). The reservoir was named after a Native American chief of a local tribe.  The chief’s name was Nani-Quaben.  The name means well watered place. 

Many unnamed streams feed into the reservoir.  Sometimes in the water you can look down and see the remains of foundations and stone walls made by the inhabitants of the four flooded towns.

  The following poem was written by William H. Walker whose thoughts and feelings were inspired by the flooding of the Swift River Valley for the Metropolitan Water Supply:

Home, Sweet Home

They tell us they have paid us for our land,
They tell us that our homes have been well sold,
But do not folks in Boston understand
There are some things you cannot buy for gold?

  My humble home now seems more dear to me
Than any city mansion ever will;
No fairer outlook will I ever see
Than from my window out on old Den Hill.

  Here as a careless, happy child I played
And never thought or cared from here to stray.
There in the church-yard are our loved ones laid.
And here in peace had we still hoped to stay.

  The roads and fields, haunted with mem’ries seem
Fond mem’ries of’ a by-gone, happy year.
We may not loiter o’er now and dream
Of scenes and faces one to us so dear

  Our honored sires who helped this town to make,
Cut off the forests, cleared the fields from stones,
Their quiet graves they now must all forsake.
There is no rest, here, even for their bones!

  We may not for our fields and forests mourn;
To leave our homes may be a passing pain.
To see our loved ones from the church-yard torn,
Brings all our grief and sorrow back again.

  Dear Valley, soon must all your beauty fade,
And all your loveliness will pass away.
Stripped of your homes, stripped of your trees and shade,
And waters poured on ruin, drab and gray.

MATH PROBLEMS:

1.If your friend who’s grandmother used to live in North Dana told you that the Quabbin reservoir now covers 3.5 times as many square miles of water as the Swift River did, how many square miles did the Swift River cover?  (The Quabbin covers an area of 39 square miles of water.)

Solution:   11.142857

2.  The Quabbin Reservoir accommodates over 2 million people in 46 cities daily.  If the cities all have the same amount of people, approximately how many people live in each city?

Solution:   43478.26

3.  If it took one year to flood the towns to make the Quabbin, and the Quabbin holds 412 billion gallons of water, how much water per day filled the Quabbin in the year it took to make it?    {Hint there are 365 days in a year}

Solution:   1,128,767,123

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