Conference 7.286::maynard

    Through where the Paper Store is??
    
    I doubt it.  I have an old map of maynard (it says Assabet Village,
    when we were a suburb of Sudbury).  It seems to show the river where
    it is now.  Maybe it was moved a little through where Elizabeth
    Schnair's store is, but not much.
    
    To the best of my knowledge, the river is where it was.  The upper
    end of the mill pond ties to a canal, which ties back to the river
    across 117.
    
    dave pierson

    Before Maynard was here the river flowed through the mill pond and
    between where ML1 and ML5 are located!  The channel through the
    middle of town has two right angles that are part of the artifical
    channel - remember that Nature hates sharp edges.
    
    rmm

re .2:

I don't think so.  The channel to the millpond is much too small and straight
to be from the river.

Also, the natural forces of erosion tend to encourage sharp corners in rivers,
not discourage them. (check out a map of the lower Mississippi for an extreme
example of this)

-Mike

    Re/ .2:
    
    Sorry, but river erosion does NOT encourage sharp corners.  The
    lower Mississippi, like many rivers its age, "meanders", which means
    that it curves back and forth across relatively flat land.  However,
    those curves tend to be several miles across ... hardly what one
    would call "sharp corners."

re .4:

The motion of water moves faster along the outer edge of a curve than the
inner, this causes more erosion along the outer edge than the inner edge.

Whether this produces sharp(er) corners or meandering depends more on the
geography of the land than anything else, but this process discourages straight
rivers in any case.  I know of several smaller rivers and streams with natural
right angle bends.

-Mike

    re everybody_so_far
    
    Without getting into theoretical hydraulics...
    I checked a couple of maps.

    Map 1:
    From an atlas published in 1875.  This shows what flows behind Main
    St and comes out next the liquor store/travel agency as "The Assabet
    River".  What I think of as "the canal" leading from behind the
    dam upstream from 117 to the "upper" end of the mill pond is shown
    as "The Race".
    
    Map 2:
    Reaonably current topographical survey map.
    This also shows the channel down town as "the Assabet".  This course
    has several small tributaries on the map, and meanders.  I suspect
    of it had been dug, it would be straight, to be shorter, and cheaper.
    The channel from above the dam to the mill pond is shown as a dead straight
    line.
    
    I suspect the channel along the mill yard, and possibly above that,
    has been tinkered with, and the corners may have been sharpened.
    This might, forinstance, have allowed the Mill more usable land
    area.
    
    thanks
    dwp