Suneanassit and the Empty Canoe

After emerging from beneath one old mill building and seeing the towering smokestack of another...
...I recognized the location as the place where I'd experienced the fun of a few dental root canals.  Fortunately for me, this past Thursday afternoon pain relief wasn't on my agenda.

In fact I hadn't really planned on ascending Stony Brook or "Suneanassit" as it was known by the Native Americans.  Today's maps show it as North Chelmsford, MA.  My only intention was to duck into the brook from the Merrimack River for a quick peek...and oh well, next thing I knew I'd paddled 3/4 of a mile upstream...

The day was a beauty with sunshine, temperatures on the plus side of 40 degrees, and light winds from the southwest.

The trip back down the brook to the river provided a canal feel and look...
...bringing me back to the beneath-the-building portion...
...where the light at the end of the tunnel looked too small at first...
...then thankfully got a little bigger at stage right...
The big wood beams and steel trusses overhead are impressive.

Beyond these portals under the RR tracks lies the Mighty Merrimack...
...where I paddled upriver stopping to admire this mural along the way...
...which graces the intake facility for the Lowell Regional Water Utility.

I continued upriver towards Wickasee Island (aka Tyng's Island) which today is home to the Vesper Country Club.  It would be hard to paddle alongside this island without thinking of the Pennacook sachem Wannalancet and how special the island was to him.

Folks driving to the island pass this cast iron sign...
...before crossing this short bridge...

The text on the sign reads:
Wannalancet -
On Wickasee Island (now Tyngs Island) in the Merrimac dwelt Wannalancet, last sachem of the Pennacook Confederacy and like his father Passaconway a faithful friend to the English.  Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary Commission (1630 to 1930).

The real story of Wannalancet and his family's ultimate loss of this island is a sad one involving a fair amount of shenanigans on the part of the English.

A bit upstream of the island I encountered this empty and abandoned canoe...
...and couldn't help but be reminded of Wannalancet's comments regarding Rev. John Eliot's efforts in converting him to a new religion:"...I must acknowledge that I have all my days used to pass in an old canoe, and now you exhort me to change and leave my old canoe, and embark in a new canoe, to which I have been hitherto unwilling; but now I yield myself up to your advice, and enter into a new canoe, and do engage to pray to God hereafter."  The above found in Leo Bonfanti's Biographies and Legends of the New England Indians Vol. V.   (Wannalancet's words were recorded by Daniel Gookin in May of 1674).

I believe Wannalancet's spirit watches over Wickasee Island to this day, and can't help thinking of this empty canoe as representing the canoe he spoke of...but which one?  the old or the new?

This bald eagle watched my progress while in the island's vicinity...

...and maybe he knows.

Thinking that someone might recognize the canoe as their own, I noted the gps coordinates before leaving.  After doing so I looked across to the river's west side and thought it might not be far from Wannalancet's purported final resting place.  A later check of Google maps found the empty canoe was resting less than 2000 feet from the plaque-adorned boulder where Wannalancet is said to have been laid to rest.  From there he forever looks upon his Wickasee Island. 

Yesterday, all of this was toothsome food for thought as I returned from a Concord River paddle and watched the near-solstice sun sink behind Egg Rock...

*A little postscript:  Gookin wrote that after Wannalancet spoke of his old and new canoes an Englishman (Richard Daniel) who was present responded "...but now he went in a new canoe, perhaps he would meet with storms and trials; but yet he should be encouraged to persevere, for the end of his voyage would be everlasting rest."

The movie "The Outlaw Josey Wales" comes to mind and Native American character Lone Watie recalling the Secretary of the Interior instructing Lone and his people to "endeavor to persevere".

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