HIDDEN HISTORY: West Street mill site a tribute to Yankee ingenuity, determination

The flow of the mighty Cocasset River under West Street afforded early pioneer settlers yet another opportunity to harness the river as a source of power to turn the wheels of industries.

They seized the moment in ways as varied as the imaginations of the dreamers who saw potential for success in making needed goods, creating industry in a farming community, and moving beyond dependence upon the land.

The challenge was unique, but no match for their creativity in taming the land and maximizing the utilization of raw materials they knew and respected.

There in that wooded area where they built a dam to impound water to ensure a continuous stream to power the mill, they found a creative solution for most every problem.

Cocasset River

The Cocasset River is a wonder unto itself, rising from a deep bed of peat across Route 1 from the Lafayette House that would be like liquid gold when used to power many early industries in a town that had only one natural pond, the original Shepards Pond, now Lake Mirimichi.

An early use of the Cocasset River was a dam on what was then Granite Street (now Lakeview Road) which filled Carpenter's Pond (now Lakeview) and a second dam upstream would fill Upper Dam to ensure an even more abundant supply of water for power.

The dam at Water Street was authorized to fill what was called Factory Pond to a depth of 14 feet and that body of water, now Cocasset Lake, was in continual demand for a series of various manufacturing operations.

As Cocasset River continued downstream, another dam created Foundry Pond from which a portion of the outflow was directed into Foxborough Foundry to cool the large iron castings such as sections of the Common Fence that were created there.

One more opportunity remained, and that was where the Cocasset River would fill yet another pond before passing under West Street. After filling five ponds for industrial purposes, the mighty river that started in Foxborough when it rose out of a bed of peat ended here in town as well, flowing into Wading River.

Read more:
HIDDEN HISTORY: West Street mill site a tribute to Yankee ingenuity, determination