Video clip of the water, wildlife, and Springfield College students at Mill River (March 15, 1991)
Description:
Video clip of the water, wildlife, and Springfield College student at Mill River in 1991. Initially, the video shows the recorders slowly moving through the river while the front of the boat is within the camera’s view. Next, there are three unidentified Springfield College students helping clean up the lake as well as replant some foliage in the lake that was destroyed from the pollution. At the end, there are close-up videos of plants, flowers, and animals around the lake. The video is about 20 minutes long. The video starts with about 5 seconds of colored bars. The tape is listed as "Lake Massasoit A-1" and dated “3/15/91” and comes from a series of 28 Betacam video tapes that is believed to be raw video that may have been used in the documentary "The Lost River: The story of the Mill River". In 1809, Lake Massasoit was formed by the army by damming the Mill River. The purpose of the dam was to ensure a constant flow of water downstream for the Springfield Armory “Watershops.” The Springfield Armory was America’s first and last National Armory, formed in 1777 and continuing production up until 1968. The formerly named Watershops Pond has 7 miles of shoreline and covers 186 acres. From 1892-1900, the buildings of Springfield College began to come about, and the name was changed to Lake Massasoit by Springfield College officials. The name came from a local hotel, the Massasoit House, owned by Marvin Chapin, a generous benefactor of the college. In 1920, the college purchased a large area of land on the upper end of the pond, and called it the “Freshman Camp.” Since the college was formed, students, faculty and visitors have used the Pond for sailing, swimming, ice skating and fishing. However, the lake was officially closed for swimming in 1984 when the lake was said to be unhealthy.
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