120 Years Ago: The Portland Gale

Looking toward the South River in the Rexhame Dunes (2018).

Friday morning, November 25th, 1898: sunny and clear. Thanksgiving now over for another year, the citizens of Marshfield and Scituate begin their days. Not too cold, not too windy, it is the kind of weather in which people are glad to be outside, soaking up a last few warming rays of sun before the biting chill of winter sets in.

Friday evening: a low pressure area is noted to be moving northward from the Gulf of Mexico along the eastern seaboard. Other reports show a similar weather system moving eastward from the Lakes Region. As these are not unusual conditions for a seaside New England town at this time of year, no special precautions are taken. 

Saturday morning, November 26th: a gray day, strangely quiet. 

Saturday evening: the temperature drops. Snow flurries begin, and there is talk of an oncoming squall. 

The gale comes on quickly and severely, and lasts through Saturday night, its winds churning the waters, bringing on floods that destroy ships and houses, bridges and roads. The eye passes over Marshfield and Scituate around 6 o'clock Sunday morning, offering temporary relief from the relentless snow and winds. After another 24 hours of storming, the sun of Monday, November 28th rises to reveal death, disaster, and drastic change.

Under normal circumstances, the Portland Gale would have gone down in history as another characteristic Nor'easter, its fierce winds and waters causing the usual damage along the coast. However, in the towns of Marshfield and Scituate, a storm surge washed away the land between Third and Fourth Cliffs, at Humarock. This cut in the beach created a new outlet to the sea, redirecting the course of the North River, and adding three miles to the length of the South River.  

Until the Blizzard of 1978, the 1898 Portland Gale was known as the most intense storm ever to pass through New England. Its fierce, icy winds blew throughout the weekend, generating huge breakers that pounded the shore steadily, day and night. Cape Cod was hit the worst, but there was destruction up and down the coast. From Maine to Massachusetts, 141 shipwrecks were reported. A total of 100 bodies were found along the South Shore, from Nantasket to Plymouth. 

Along the South Shore, electric and telegraph poles lay among fallen fences and uprooted trees. Many houses displayed toppled chimneys and broken windows. Brant Rock resident Carrie Phillips wrote, “Sea walls are all gone. There is hardly room to drive a team. . .  the bank has washed away so. . . . The roads are full of wreckage of all kinds, lobster traps, boats and furniture, I can look out my window and see a nice bed lounge and stoves, etc. scattered around.”

The steamer Portland, which had set sail from Boston on Saturday evening, was wrecked at sea, sparing not a single passenger. Clothing, cabin furnishings and merchandise -- boxes of tobacco, cheese, and oil, barrels of whiskey, tubs of lard --  were among the salvage found up and down the shore. 

In earlier times, the town of Marshfield was known as Missaukatucket -- "At the large mouth of the river." The North and South Rivers flowed together and emptied into the sea at what is now Rexhame Beach. Until the Portland Gale, the peninsula of Humarock ran south from Scituate's Third Cliff, extending far past Fourth Cliff to the river mouth. What is now the mouth of the river, was then a narrow shingle beach connecting the cliffs. 

A 2018 view of the Rexhame Dunes, the former location of the mouth of the North River.

When the new mouth of the river broke through, three miles north of its original inlet, Humarock was suddenly detached from the mainland. It became, if only for a few years, an island. Despite the efforts of a group of divinity students, armed with shovels and determined to keep the mouth open, the inlet at Rexhame filled in with sand, and Humarock was once again a peninsula, attached to Marshfield now, instead of Scituate.

It may not have been entirely nature's choice to cut a new river mouth. In 1831, Samuel Deane, in his History of Scituate, observed, “The beach between the third and fourth cliff, is composed of sand and pebbles, . . . it is slowly wasting, and the river probably will eventually find its outlet between these cliffs.”

This was likely music to the ears of North River shipbuilders. The river was so shallow that large ships could only be brought downstream during high tides. It often took a full week to navigate a newly-constructed vessel to the sea. 

An attempt to relocate the mouth of the North was made in 1843. Citizens drew up a petition requesting a cut between the cliffs. After a local hearing, the state decided against the proposal, concluding that such a cut would damage the meadows upstream. Despite the state's rejection of their plea, proponents of the cut set out one night with picks, shovels, hoes, and axes, driving ox and horse teams, using only dim lanterns to light their way. 

Working through the night, they managed to dig all the way across the beach, only to discover a rock-hard meadow bank beneath the sand, dense enough to prevent the completion of their mission. Water flowed through the newly-dug channel temporarily, but the beach soon filled back in. There is speculation, however, that because of this initial effort, the land between Third and Fourth Cliffs was weakened, and thus more vulnerable to the Portland Gale’s tidal wave. 

The mouth of the North River in the 1990s.

Please join me for a walk to commemorate the 120^thAnniversary of the Portland Gale. We will meet at the Rexhame Beach parking lot (at the end of Standish Street in Marshfield) at 11am on Saturday, November 24^th, and spend some time touring the riverbank and dunes. I’ll discuss the storm, how it received its name, and the damage it wrought, and also talk about what life was like on the South Shore in the 1890s. No dogs please. The walk is free, but please register by visiting http://www.nsrwa.org/nsrwa-events/the-1898-portland-gale-the-storm-that-changed-the-rivers-mouth-walk/

by Kezia Bacon

November 2018

A trail through the Rexhame Dunes.

Kezia Bacon's articles appear courtesy of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, a local non-profit organization devoted to protecting our waters. For membership information and a copy of their latest newsletter, contact NSRWA at (781) 659-8168 or visit www.nsrwa.org. To browse 20 years of nature columns, visit http://keziabaconbernstein.blogspot.com

Try Yoga at the River’s Edge This Summer

A Yoga at the River's Edge class in the Rexhame Dunes. Photo by Sandy Bacon.

It is morning on the river. The sun has risen enough to bring its warmth to the day. Trees sway gently in the breeze. Fluffy clouds dot the blue sky. An occasional bird flies by. Listening closely, we can hear water lapping at the shore. This is the setting for Yoga at the River’s Edge, a Saturday morning outdoor program that resumes June 9^thfor its 22^ndseason. 

In 1997, as a newly-certified yoga teacher and board member of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, I wanted to create an event that would unite two of my favorite things: yoga and our local rivers. That summer, I led a series of six Gentle Yoga classes at various scenic spots in Marshfield, Norwell, Scituate, and Pembroke. I chose places that first and foremost offered a beautiful view of the North or South River (or a tributary), but that could also accommodate a large group of people and their yoga mats. 

Yoga as a common form of exercise was just emerging in the 1990s. Unlike today, most gyms didn’t offer it. Dedicated yoga studios were few and far between. Yoga was the kind of thing you might just as easily find in a rented church hall or community center. It hadn’t attained its present popularity. It certainly wasn’t considered an outdoor activity.

But it was summer . . . and the North and South Rivers are so peacefully inviting in summer! Especially when the marshes have turned green, and the trees along the riverbanks are in full leaf-out. What a great way to begin the day – rolling out a yoga mat in a scenic spot, spending an hour relaxing, and stretching, and breathing deeply. Would people actually attend these classes? Would they mind putting their yoga mats on the grass or the forest floor? Would they be scared off by the threat of bugs? What did we have to lose? We decided to give it a try.

We met at the Indian Head River Reservoir, on the Hanover-Pembroke line, where a large expanse of lawn, bordered on one side by woods, overlooks the Indian Head River and its fish ladder. We met at Couch Beach in North Marshfield, in a cathedral of tall pines, on an upland that offers a panoramic view of the North River and its marshes. We met at the Norris Reservation in Norwell, at a little clearing in the woods, a stone’s throw from Second Herring Brook. 

We met on the lawn of the Marshfield branch of the YWCA, a secluded spot that overlooks Little’s Creek and the mouth of the North River. We met at the Driftway Conservation Park in Scituate, both on a grassy rise, and on a wooden dock beside the Herring River. And we met in the Rexhame Dunes in Marshfield, in the sand at the edge of the South River. Luck was on our side. Not one of these classes was rained out.

Something about Yoga at the River’s Edge appealed to people. Right from the beginning, we attracted a respectable number of students – not too many, not too few. Attendees commented on how gorgeous the locations were, how they might not have ever visited them if not for this series. They also remarked on how good it felt to do yoga outdoors, in a natural setting. The bugs, for the most part, held off. And so, year after year, we continued to offer these classes. 

In the two decades since Yoga at the River’s Edge began, I’ve welcomed seven additional men and women – all certified yoga instructors -- to the River’s Edge team. We each have our favorite places to teach, and we take turns doing so throughout the season, which now extends throughout the entire summer – mid-June to mid-September. We all feel fortunate to be able to lead these classes, gathering with fellow yoga practitioners at some beautiful spots along our local waterways. Plus, it feels good to give back – to support the North and South Rivers Watershed Association with the proceeds the donation-based program generates.

On behalf of the Yoga at the River’s Edge team, I hope you will consider joining us this summer. The season begins June 9^that one of my favorite places on the North River – Couch Beach in North Marshfield (access via Couch Cemetery, 629 Union Street). 

• Join our mailing list by emailing yogariversedge@verizon.net. 

• Find our schedule online at http://www.hellokezia.com/yoga/Yoga_at_the_Rivers_Edge.html 

• Or like “Yoga at the River’s Edge” on Facebook.

by Kezia Bacon

May 2018

Kezia Bacon's articles appear courtesy of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, a local non-profit organization devoted to protecting our waters. For membership information and a copy of their latest newsletter, contact NSRWA at (781) 659-8168 or visit www.nsrwa.org. To browse 22+ years of nature columns, visit http://keziabaconbernstein.blogspot.com