Ashdod Triangle

781-934-6106

https://duxburyhistory.org/lands/ashdod-triangle/

Owned By: Duxbury Rural & Historical Society

• Directions

A small open area with a stream running through it. Located at the intersection of Union and Congress Streets.

Features

The Ashdod Triangle, acquired in 1908, was one of the Duxbury Rural and Historical Society’s earliest purchases. An important intersection for those traveling between Pembroke and Duxbury, it was initially acquired to preserve trees planted there (they are gone now).

This west Duxbury neighborhood goes by the name Ashdod. It appealed to early settlers because its open meadows — bordered by Keene’s Brook, Philips Brook, and the South River — were excellent farmland. Later, mills were established on the streams.

In the 1730s, Reuben Peterson (1710-1795) dammed Phillips Brook to power a sawmill, creating Peterson’s Sawmill Pond, just down the road on Congress Street. The dam is right underneath today’s Congress Street (Route 14). (Look behind the Ashdod Fire Station to see the mill’s foundation stones.) In her book, Settlement and Growth of Duxbury 1628-1870, Dorothy Wentworth describes it as “the usual up and down type mill.” It ran for many years, but like Howlands Mill upstream, suffered from insufficient water supply.

According to Wentworth, an agreement in the Town Records of 1772 says, in part, “Reuben Peterson will pay Consider Smith a shilling a year for the privilege of maintaining a ditch across the Simmons land through which to bring an additional supply of water from a stream draining out of Black Friar Swamp. That ditch is right here at the Ashdod Triangle!

Prior to European contact, the Mattakeeset band of the Massachuseuk (or Massachusett) Native American tribe lived for thousands of years in the North River watershed. Their village included most of today’s Pembroke and Hanson. Meanwhile the Patuxet band of the Wampanoag tribe inhabited the Jones River watershed, and the area now known as Kingston, Plymouth and Duxbury. This property lies within the upper portion of the South River watershed — right between those two territories. It’s possible that both tribes utilized the area.

Trail Description

Open area; no trails.

Habitats and Wildlife

The stream (actually a 200-year-old manmade ditch) that runs through the triangle has historic significance and can be a fun place to explore. Two South River tributaries are nearby. Keene’s Brook is to the northwest, and Phillips Brook is to the east. Phillips Brook flows through Peterson’s Sawmill Pond and continues northeast into the Camp Wing Conservation Area, where it joins the South River. Keene’s Brook flows into the South River just north of Temple Street.

The South River originates deep in Duxbury. Its source is in the Round Pond area, and from there it winds unobtrusively through the woods for several miles. Although one can view it from Route 3, and also from both the South River Bog and the Camp Wing Conservation Area, it remains a narrow and mostly un-navigable stream until just below Veterans Memorial Park. From there it flows through South River Park, behind the playground of South River School, and under the Willow Street and Francis Keville Bridges. Wider at that point, and navigable at most tides, its course winds through the marshes as it runs parallel to Route 139, all the way to Rexhame. From there the river turns northward. It flows for 3 miles between Humarock and the mainland to Fourth Cliff, where it joins the North River at its outlet to the sea.