RIDGE ROAD CAMP >>SAMPSON'S POND - A Brief History

SAMPSON'S POND - A Brief History
by David Peterson, South Carver
(published in the Carver Gazette, Vol. I, Issue IV, in August 1983)

The First Big Crunch

Geographically speaking, Sampson's Pond is quite new - and the first water to enter it was frozen solid. Like most of Carver's natural ponds, it dates only from the fourth and latest of the glaciers to scrape Carver's surface, about 10,000 years ago.

Softening from a long-term warming trend, the mile-high ice sheet shed huge "icebergs" at its leading edge, which were pressed deep into the sand and gravel already hundreds of feet thick from the previous glaciations, under the rest of the floe as it ground its way southeastward to contour the ponds of Wareham, Buzzards Bay, and Vineyard Sound.

But if its origin parallels that of our other ponds, its history since is quite different - and filled with distinctions as the following notes will indicate.

Wampanoags and Eutrophies

We need no written records to learn about those first 10,000 years either. Sampson's did what ponds always do; it "eutrophied," filling with vegetation first, then decaying into peat and slowly filling the ice-carved depths to create only a large swamp, with smaller open water areas.

But this became a swamp with a difference. As iron-bearing streams from most of Carver fed into these peat layers, a rich form of iron-ore called "bog-ore" was evolved, unknown to the Indians or the first white settlers.

The remaining open waters were important to the Indians for other reasons, however. The Wampanoags, the tribe of Samoset who greeted the Pilgrims, maintained a major campground on the bluffs to the southwest from which many artifacts have since been claimed and which the Ellis Atwood Corporation has maintained as a handsome lakeside wilderness. These high groves of old white pine are locally called Indian Bluffs. The Wampanoags valued this site for many reasons; it lay on their route between fishing grounds at Narragansett Bay and Patuxet (Plymouth), it offered fresh water and fish, and its height gave them security of visibility across the pond to the west and the Crane Brook boglands to the east. From Plymouth they presumably traveled for the same reason along the ridge at the northeast edge of the pond, where arrowheads and worked stones have also been recovered. The Ridge, a glacial esker, now carries the Ridge Road around the pond's north edge. Once busy enough to support a neighborhood schoolhouse near the Erickson homestead, the road is now little more than a path much like the Wampanoags knew.

An Either-Ore Situation

In desperate need of iron tools and equipment, the early farmers who settled around Sampson's pond soon discovered the rich layers of ore lying just below the marshy surface of their swamplands. By 1735 the first of eight crude blast furnaces had been built in Carver, the largest and longest-lasting of which was to flourish near the richest source of ore - Sampson's Pond. At first landholders were permitted to mine the ore abutting their land; when this became an unruly scramble the town assumed title to the pond's resources. This too proved unworkable and by 1760 the two major landowners successfully petitioned for mining rights. The town father;s set a line roughly between McFarlin Park and Bowman's Point; Bartlett Murdock mined ore to the east of that line, and George barrows, to the west. Murdock, and later Benjamin Ellis established the Charlotte Furnace at the pond's outlet with their estates gracing the corners now known as South Carver, then called "Furnace Village"; Barrows mined the western coves, supplying ore to several of the furnaces in that area. Coincidentally, both men dug to a depth of twelve feet by today's water level, restoring the pond to a depth and clarity similar to that produced by that prehistoric iceberg. Of course, Sampson's Pond was largely drained by that point and even the 1857 Plymouth County map shows only about half the present pond area.

By 1850, better courses of ore and better furnace technology ended most of the local mining, but much ore remains under the swamps, bogs and ponds on Carver. Construction on the shores of Sampson's Pond still yields chunks of the heavy, rusty, raw ore, and near the town beach, bright blue fragments of slag from the Charlotte Furnace are still taken home as "treasures" by young swimmers.

Class Comes to Carver

The years from 1830 to 1890 were ones of stabilization for Sampson's Pond. the Charlotte Furnace became the Ellis Foundry, famous for high quality iron utensils and Civil War weapons, though using iron mined and refined elsewhere, as local sources dwindled. Like the foundry, the village prospered and the handsome Greek revival homes such as that of Jesse Murdock (now the Marcus Atwood House, at the town beach) created a model village out of the earlier "Furnace Town." As the pond filled partially, its shores again became attractive as home sites; wealthy industrialists from the Northeastern cities such as William Savery and George Bower built their country mansions and stables in the newer gothic and Victorian styles, bringing a different kind of elegance to the northwestern coves. The families of C.H.B. Davison and Jack Shaw are now associated with these estates. William Savery's stables housed the trotters he liked to race on the double half-mile track he constructed through the pines, which we now know as Savery's Avenue.

The pond waters still several feet lower than at present, Sampson's Pond's three "islands" had a history of their own. Of the field of boulders near the western shore, little is known. But Grassy Island off Bowman's Point was used during this time for the grazing of sheep; shrubs still root occasionally among these shallow rocks in the sand. And Little Island, now just a treacherous group of rocks off McFarlin Park, was enticing enough to inspire the hopes of a Mr. Levi to build a summer home on the site. Older residents still refer to this area as "Levi's Folly".

Cranberries, Catches and Camps

By 1890, the foundry industry had declined but the cranberry industry was beginning to flourish. Lowlands stripped of bog ore were replaced by productive bogs of a different sort, and prosperity returned to Sampson's Pond - along with another set of changes. Pumphouses and flumes appeared along the shores. Water was drawn from and replaced in the pond as cranberry culture dictated. The water level of the pond was significantly increased over the years; the islands disappeared and the large cove to the northeast, originally a pasture and woodland, became open water. The long sandbar bordering this cove stretching from Bowman's Point eastward, supported pond lilies instead of picnickers. The new water levels brought new opportunities, uses, and new visitors to the pond.

Sampson's Pond earned the distinction as a prime fishing site. A Massachusetts Fisheries Report for 1951 described this as an ideal environment for bass and perch; pickerel and bluegills also thrive. In 1975, a 15 1/2 pound large-mouth bass, a New England record, was caught by a Brockton ice-fisherman. Record pickerel have also been taken here.

Where fish abound, fishermen follow. In 1923, a Carver farmer, Arthur Peterson, purchased a quarter acre of shore property in the "new" northeast cove for $100 and that winter built a fishing camp for his family, at that time the only seasonal structure on the pond. Ridge Road Camp was often rented during the next decades and some who enjoyed the location such as Dr. Murray and Dr. Barke, later built similar camps elsewhere on the pond. Over half the residences on the pond today are seasonal and Sampson's Pond is a major recreational facility.

Pressures, Foresights and Visions

Today, many interests compete to use the resources of Sampson's Pond. Recreation is a major use; although the many submerged boulders discourage power boating, the area is well suited to canoeists, and sightseers as well as fishermen. Reliable, gentle winds entice shallow-draft sailboats and the clean beaches and waters are ideal for swimmers. Naturalists study the rare and tiny fresh water jellyfish that sometime surface, and the unique Sebatia, a pink waterside daisy that grows only on the sandy edges of Plymouth County ponds.

The pond has seen population pressures of several kinds. Until the 1950's when the Route 58 bypass was built behind the village and before Route 3 and 25 existed, Cape Cod traffic to and from Boston used Lakeview Street; on summer weekends, traffic would be backed up for miles in Carver, and pond residents recall the unmoving chain of red and white car lights long the water's edge. The same residents will recall that before Edaville, Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Atwood entertained local residents with elaborate Christmas displays in their yard, including at one point a miniature train for children to ride as they enjoyed the spectacle. A warming house with its huge stone fireplace will marks the site.

The town's foresight in providing an excellent public beach and building in 1978 is a wise answer to public needs. In fact, the history of Sampson's Pond is primarily one of good luck in the good taste and generous spirit of its surrounding residents. The Atwood Beach and McFarlin Park are two early examples of this. There are others: The outstanding feature of Sampson's Pond today is the natural beauty of its shoreline. Fully half of its perimeter is left in its natural state owing to the vision of its owners; the eastern shore including the pine groves of Indian Bluffs as managed by the Ellis Atwood Company, and the northern reaches around Bowman's Point, of the Davison family.

The history of each of these tracts includes proposals that they be protected as historical or recreational sites, or as wildlife sanctuary areas. The realizing of these visions would allow Sampson's Pond to cope with the exploding population needs of new generations.

Pressures on the pond from cranberry growers and pond residents is also coming into a favorable balance. Summer residents miss the wide beaches that late summer droughts used to provide, but understand that water must be impounded for the October harvests and frosts. The over-impounding that occurred during the winter of 1980-1981 brought a strong reaction from owners of washed out beaches and eroded banks, and seems unlikely to occur again with town officials now monitoring the water levels and outflows. And the extensive fish-kills that occurred annually during the 1970s near the pond's inlets and flumes have become rarer with more informed use of chemicals and fertilizers on the bogs.

A Remaining Challenge

Ironically, as people learn to use Sampson's Pond's fragile resources more wisely, it is a natural event which created the unresolved challenge for the 1980's. In 1968 a new species of pond weed, Eurasian watermilfoil, was introduced to the pond, presumably from tropical fish tanks, and has had a "gypsy moth" impact on the pond. Within a few years milfoil had spread throughout the shallower areas impeding virtually every recreational and agricultural use of the pond's water and jeopardizing fishlife as well. The State is aware of the problem, but action by the town seems necessary if control measures are to be implemented and the pond to be restored to its former high quality

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