Overcoming nature

Bullough's Pond, in Newton, Mass.

— Photo by John Phelan

“Yankee wealth is the creation of human hands, not of nature. Our soil is thin, our weather cold, and the mineral resources that lie under our mountains are negligible. Yet the people who live here are and have long been prosperous….Over and over again people in this small corner of the planet have faced disaster in the forms of economic collapse or resource dearth and overcome the odds.”

— Diana Muir in her book Reflections in Bullough’s Pond, a mill pond in Newton, Mass.

Every year is extreme

Bullough's Pond, a former mill pond in now-suburban Newton, Mass.. The pond is a popular place for bird watching and ice skating. In the 19th Century, before man-made refrigeration, and when winters were colder than now, it was the site of a commercial ice business. In 18th Century New England many ponds were created by building dams on streams to create reservoirs to power small mills to grind grain.

“There are no ordinary seasons in New England, only years that are unusually rainy, or abnormally hot, or remarkably cold.’’

Historian Diana Muir, in her book Reflections in Bullough’s Pond: Economy and Ecosystem in New England