Our oldest son has a sentimental weakness for Fitchburg, because that’s where he was born and grew up, and he both likes to hike and to explore the area. We decided to go for a short hike while exploring some of the history of the area, centered around the Nashua River and the paper mills, which brought us to Fitchburg’s Steam Line Trail. Not only would it be difficult to find an easier hiking trail, but it was also fascinating.
The trail is really more like a deserted road, which it might be. It’s wide with a smooth surface of gravel interspersed with grass. It’s also flat, so there’s no hard, uphill climbing, and it’s only one sixth of a mile long.
What makes this hike memorable is not that just that the trail is along the Nashua River, but that this trail follows a very large, somewhat convoluted and intricate pipe system, that was built to provide steam power to the various paper factories. It’s actually fascinating, for a few reasons, both good and bad. The good reasons are that it’s amazing that something this intricate worked, and although long out of service, still exists.
The bad part is that the Nashua River was one of the ten most polluted rivers in the United States, thanks to horrific pollution from the paper mills, which used this pipe system for the steam to make paper, but also dumped dyes and waste sludge directly into the river. This resulted in the water in the river being whatever color dye was being used that day, and virtually all life in the river disappearing under the deep sludge from the paper mills.
Today the river is cleaned up, and there are places along this trail where you can look down on the river and actually see a nice, crystal clear bottom. However, we didn’t see a single sign of life either, so the Nashua, although healing, has a long way to go before it becomes a trout fishing attraction.
Another thing to be aware of is that on one of the lookout places to view down into the river, there is a black, wrought iron fence for safety, since it’s a long way down; but don’t lean on the fence. My son leaned on it and it was so wobbly the fence itself almost fell into the river.
For more information, including directions and where to park, click this link to some basic details about Fitchburg’s Steam Line Trail.
