Video clips of the water and wildlife along Mill River (ca. May 1991)

Video clip of the water and wildlife along Mill River in May 1991. There are close-up videos of the water, trees, and animals and insects. The video depicts the stillness of the water for many minutes. For about five minutes in the middle of the video, the recorder sees two adults and three children along the edge of the lake getting into a canoe. These people seem to work at Springfield College. The video is about 20 minutes long. On the case for tape the date of 5/91 is listed. There is about 5 seconds of colored bars to start the video. This tape seems to be a continuation of the tape "Lake Massasoit #11." The tape is listed as "Lake Massasoit #12" and comes from a series of 28 Betacam video tapes that is believed to be raw video that may have been used in the documentary "The Lost River: The story of the Mill River".In 1809, Lake Massasoit was formed by the army by damming the Mill River. The purpose of the dam was to ensure a constant flow of water downstream for the Springfield Armory “Watershops.” The Springfield Armory was America’s first and last National Armory, formed in 1777 and continuing production up until 1968. The formerly named Watershops Pond has 7 miles of shoreline and covers 186 acres. From 1892-1900, the buildings of Springfield College began to come about, and the name was changed to Lake Massasoit by Springfield College officials. The name came from a local hotel, the Massasoit House, owned by Marvin Chapin, a generous benefactor of the college. In 1920, the college purchased a large area of land on the upper end of the pond, and called it the “Freshman Camp.” Since the college was formed, students, faculty and visitors have used the Pond for sailing, swimming, ice skating and fishing. However, the lake was officially closed for swimming in 1984 when the lake was said to be unhealthy