Our Story
Jones River Watershed Association
The Jones River Watershed Association is a non-profit, member-based environmental organization established to protect, enhance and restore the quality of the natural resources in Southeastern Massachusetts, in particular the Jones River and Cape Cod Bay, for present and future generations, while cultivating effective stewardship of our regional environment through science, advocacy, and education.
We began our work in 1985 in response to the terrible impacts of water diversions out of the basin. Since that time, we have maintained an increasingly consistent level of effort to educate others and ourselves about this small coastal ecosystem and its relationship to the globally significant Gulf of Maine. Because of the incremental steps taken over the years to conserve land, study the river, remove obstacles to fish movement, and address the politics that impact our local environment, we have a chance to restore the vital natural resources important to all of us. JRWA is committed to understanding the impacts of climate change and preparing the region to address those changes in practical ways that focus on ecosystem health.
Jones River Landing
Jones River Landing Environmental Heritage Center is a uniquely valuable landmark, steeped in history as well as a forward-thinking mission for advancing our environmental stewardship.
Representing three hundred years of boatbuilding tradition, it is a vestige of the once vibrant seafaring industry that thrived along the Jones River banks. As the largest river in Cape Cod Bay, the Jones River provides an essential habitat to a wide array of fish and wildlife that contributes directly to the health of the Gulf of Maine ecosystem. Now the home to multiple mission-driven programs, the Landing is undergoing an extensive revitalization designed to preserve and steward our community’s vital natural and historic resources.
Jones River Landing was formed in June of 2003 by the Jones River Watershed Association to be a center for the study, restoration, and stewardship of sensitive ecological systems vital to the health, habitat and species of the Jones River and Cape Cod Bay. The Landing offers unique opportunities to participate in many activities including monitoring of aquatic environments, projects to restore water quality and coastal ecosystems, and water-based recreation such as boating and fishing. It is also home to Mass Bay Maritime Artisans, both interconnected by an appreciation for our maritime environment.
The Landing facilities include a meeting area where people can assemble for conversation and information-sharing, and space for indoor and outdoor events for community participation.
Mass Bay Maritime Artisans
Mass Bay Maritime Artisans perpetuates the environment in which true maritime artisanry skills, based on scholarly study, experience, and practical knowledge, continues to hold its historic and essential role in the Mass Bay region.
MBMA is a resource for professional and amateur boatbuilders, curators, sailors, and boat nuts. We conduct workshops taught by practicing local artisans and hold a Speakers’ Series featuring boatbuilders doing seminal projects, as well as manufacturers of marine goods, all operating right here in Massachusetts.
Connecting to the past…
The Maritime history of the Jones River Landing area reaches back beyond the beginnings of America’s colonial period. Stories of Leif Ericson’s Cove, the discovery of a Norse axe, and the proliferation of archeological digs attest to this long history.
In 1605, Samuel Champlain visited and charted what is now Kingston, Plymouth and Duxbury Bays. When the pilgrims arrived in New England in 1620, they recorded traveling at least three miles up the Jones River in search of a settlement site, likely as far as the now restored river at Wapping Road. They named the river for their Mayflower captain, Christopher Jones.
John Bradford, son of longtime early governor of the Plimoth colony, moved to the Jones River Landing area in the mid–1600’s. By the 1700’s, the Jones River became critical to the fledging country as a location for shipbuilding and all the supporting industries. The first commissioned naval vessel of the United States, the Brig Independence, was built along the banks of Jones River Landing.
By the 1800’s, Joseph Holmes owned the Landing and was the largest owner/shipbuilder in the nation. He and others were responsible for launching thousands of tons of merchant shipping destined for ports around the world.
In the late 1800’s, Nate Watson, born on Clark’s Island, perfected the design of the Kingston Lobster boat at his Jones River shop, now owned by the Landing. With this design, Watson became a world famous race winner, ultimately propelling him to the pinnacle of the racing world as an America’s Cup skipper. George Shiverick (1895-1940), builder of hundreds of sail and powerboats for local use, launched them out of the very building that houses the Jones River Landing boat shop today.
Jones River Landing is perhaps the oldest continuously operating boatyard in the country, with shipbuilding first established here by the early 1700’s.
The site of Jones River Landing has been the home to many remarkable vessels that helped build the industry and wealth of our newly forming nation. Historic buildings on the site include the Shiverick Boatshop, dating to 1895 when it was operated by esteemed boatbuilder George Shiverick, and the Stephen Drew Heritage House.
Our dependence on the river has a long history of supporting pre-colonial societies and a variety of early colonial industries as well as agriculture. For 100+ years, it has been used as a source for drinking water for Plymouth County. Today, over 150,000 residents from Brockton to Kingston rely on water from the rivershed.