The Bondsville Dam most certainly is of historical significance. It was built over 100 years ago for the purpose of providing water to the mills of Bondsville that produced the fabric known as duck. In fact, the name of the fabric produced became the nickname for the town of Bondsville. If you lived in Bondsville you notably lived in “duck”. The building of this dam not only provided water for the mills but additionally provided an impound and a way of life for the many who lived in the towns surrounding this watershed and for many well beyond the borders of the neighboring communities.
This watershed became a mecca for fishermen, hunters, trappers, boaters, swimmers, ice skaters and ice fishermen. The area behind the dam was both a recreational area and one of subsistence as every fish caught was eaten, every muskrat trapped and sold brought food and fuel to a depression era family, and every duck downed was a much needed meal. Virtually every family in the area had a boat “tied” on the river and small summer camps (now gone) were built on leased land that bordered this waterway. The dam while being built for economic purposes inadvertently created a recreational, ecological and environmental masterpiece. In later years, coupled with the clear, pure, cold and consistent discharge of water from the Quabbin Reservoir it became an area second to none in the state of Massachusetts.
In the late 1940′s/50′s and aqueduct was constructed from the Quabbin Reservoir to provide water to the cities of Chicopee and Holyoke. To bring the pipeline across the river the water was dropped to the level of what it would be if the dam were to be removed. It was an environmental, ecological and recreational disaster. Coves and alcoves went dry, the deeper parts of the river became steep banks with a trickle of a river, aquatic animals, amphibians, fish and vertebrates were left stranded and the fish population was decimated. Some species of fish never returned.
Subsistence fishing, hunting and trapping and old leaky boats have given into sport fishing, aluminum and fiberglass boats and Kayaks. In any given week during the prime season times this area is a beehive of activity with the state boat launching/parking area well oversubscribed on many, many days. This watershed has become a magnet to hundreds in any given week and is a vast home to a wide variety of fauna and flora and needs to be preserved by updating and retaining the Bondsville Dam.
Won’t you please join in supporting the “Swift River Preservation Association” before this irreplaceable piece of history, nature and recreation is lost forever.