Nye
Pond to Scorton Creek
 |
This 1957 view shows Nye Pond flowing out to Cape Cod Bay through the
East Sandwich Fish Hatchery near Old County Road, and the Game Farm
beyond. Both of these Division of Fisheries and
Wildlife facilities are now
conservation land.
|
By John Nye Cullity
The Sandwich Conservation
Trust will continue its series of monthly walks this Sunday at 2 P.M. with an
exploration of the East Sandwich water system and adjacent lands that begin at
Nye Pond and flow out to Scorton Creek and the bay.
This system is one of three
in Sandwich that begin as powerful springs which flow fresh for a bit before
entering salt marsh. The others originate
in Upper Shawme Pond, and in the pond next to the Green Briar Nature Center at
Spring Hill. All three supported various
water mills and many other historic uses, and all three experienced all sorts
of manipulation - damming, filling, bridging, diversion, etc. My ancestors did much of the fiddling around
at Nye Pond and out to the marsh, and on this walk I will describe what was
done.
Equally interesting is
Nature’s response to man’s imposed changes, including, finally leaving it alone. To determine this we study the land
carefully, along with old photographs, maps, documents and stories. We can never know exactly what took place,
but we can more or less trace the changes.
As always, we will take note of interesting trees and other vegetation
and signs of wildlife that now exist.
This will be a fairly
easy walk – no steep grades – but there may be a few roots, wet spots and
puckerbrush. It will last about an
hour-and-a-half or so. We will meet at
the Grange Hall at 91 Old County Road – 2 P.M. – and please park on grass or
gravel so that cars don’t protrude into the road or block driveways. If it is raining the walk is cancelled.
If you are interested in
the history of landscape change, you might enjoy attending the annual meeting
of the Sandwich Conservation Trust at the Grange Hall on Sunday afternoon, October
5th. SCT members will begin our business meeting at 2 PM, and I will
be presenting a slide show and talk at 2:30.
The public is welcome to both.
Donations to help pay for the hall or support the SCT will be most
appreciated.
 |
Fisherman’s Landing on Scorton Creek, once the site of a small
shipyard, saltworks, and a dock for coastal shipping.
|