Mill Pond / Cushing Ice House

Duxbury, MA 02332, USA

Owned By: Town of Duxbury

• Directions

This property includes a small historic site and a 13-acre pond. The Cushing Ice House once stood here. It was used to store ice harvested from the pond. Island Creek flows through the pond.

Features

This land is within the region of the Patuxet Wampanoag tribe, who for centuries have inhabited the area around the Jones River now known as Duxbury, Kingston and Plymouth.

Habitats and Wildlife

Island Creek flows from Island Creek Pond, located in the village of Tinkertown. Visit the pond at  Duxbury’s Crocker Memorial Park. Fed by natural springs, it flows south for two miles through Mill Pond, under Route 3A (Tremont Street), and into Kingston Bay at Hicks Point.

There is a sluice way downstream of Elm Street and a fish ladder downstream of Tremont Street designed to facilitate the migration of anadromous fish. Alewife and blueback herring, as well as rainbow smelt, swim upstream to spawn in Island Creek Pond. Other fish commonly found here include largemouth bass, pickerel, yellow perch, sunfish, shad, and crappie. The forest surrounding the pond is primarily oak and pine, with some cedar.

The pond’s water quality is impaired, due to the overgrowth of non-native aquatic plants. There is a fishway at the dam, but it has deteriorated and no longer functions.