Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor

A REVOLUTIONARY IDEA

The Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor is a special type of national park. It is a partnership park that stretches from the headwaters of the Blackstone River in Worcester Massachusetts to the Narragansett Bay in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1986, Congress officially designated the Blackstone River Valley as the nation’s second National Heritage Corridor. So what is it? It’s kind of a virtual park—a park where people live, work and play—a living landscape. Networks of partnerships among state and federal governments, local jurisdictions, historical societies, environmental organizations, businesses, sports groups, even private landowners—working together to promote and take care of those things that make the area so special.

This heritage corridor effort is being coordinated by a Federal commission made up of twenty people who represent the interest of local government, as well as the heads of several key state agencies from both Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and the National Park Service. The Blackstone Commission is unusual among heritage areas in that it actively pursues seven big priorities: heritage education, recreation development, ethnic and cultural conservation, environmental conservation, historic preservation, land-use planning, and heritage-based economic development. That’s a very big agenda.

The Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor received a resounding endorsement from Congress when legislators voted to reauthorize the Corridor for another 10 years while at the same time expanding its boundaries.

The reauthorization reaffirms the Valley’s designation as a national resource and assures the continued presence of the National Park Service in the Valley. Additionally, it expands the Corridor to include the communities of Worcester and Leicester in Massachusetts, and Burrillville, Glocester, and Smithfield in Rhode Island.

"Congress has confirmed the validity of the goals and vision that were set forth when the Corridor was established 10 years ago," notes Susan K. Moore, Executive Director of the Blackstone Corridor. "We will now be able to continue our work with communities toward resource protection and preservation and economic revitalization."

"We’re proud of our history and proud to be part of the

Corridor. Kettle Brook, which is the largest

Headwater tributary of the Blackstone, once

Supported 8 mills and small villages associated

With the mills. We had a thriving Quaker village

Dating back to the 1730s. We also have a lot

Of recreation areas and are planning hiking

and biking trails as well as an outdoor classroom."

Bryan Taberner

Leicester

Visit the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor