Quabbin, the Accidental Wilderness [Paperback]

Thomas Conuel (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press; Rev Sub edition (November 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870237306
• ISBN-13: 978-0870237300
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,124,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful look at complex human/environmental interaction, July 21, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Seattle, Wash.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quabbin, the Accidental Wilderness (Paperback)

This small paperback offers a surprisingly detailed look at the history behind the creation of the Quabbin Reservior, created in the 1930s in Western Massachusetts to supply Boston with drinking water. It also takes a look at the state of the reservoir today, which has become an oasis of carefully-managed wilderness in the midst of thickly-settled central New England. Despite a subject that could lead a writer to academia-inspired pedantry, it has an almost storybook quality that makes it as pleasurable to read as it is informative. For anyone interested in a WPA-era tale of a massive, government-sponsored public works project, or with an interest in the politics of environmental preservation and manipulation, it's a good investment.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creating Massachusetts, March 2, 2002

By 

David Butterfield "botteville" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Quabbin, the Accidental Wilderness (Paperback)

Have you ever wondered why the state of Massachusetts can now support such a high population density? Have our periodic droughts ever piqued your curiosity as to where the water for the city of Boston comes from, when the towns around it must observe water restrictions? What happened to the cholera-laden wells that used to water Massachusetts and keep its population down? This professional report to the people details step-by-step the razing of the pleasant town of Enfield and the creation of a 10-mile-long reservoir in the former Swift River Valley. One accidental effect was the restoration of a wilderness area to which the eagles, long gone from massachusetts, have returned.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Buy a History and Explorers Guide instead, August 10, 2005

By 

DefinitelyNotEmeril "BobinMass" (Granby, MA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Quabbin, the Accidental Wilderness (Paperback)

Was it too hard to include a map????? Thank God I had already downloaded one from Mass Fish and Game. The History and Explorers Guide is much more complete, has the same information and more, is better written, more pictures....yada yada yada.