LocationsMassachusetts
Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell Heritage State Park
Two miles of riverfront along the Merrimack, with exhibits about the canals and mills that were dug and built here to turn a river into a city.
Researched from this park's own sources. Nobody's walked it yet.
Read this bit out
Everything in Lowell was built to use one thing: water going downhill. The river drops here, and somebody worked out that if you dug canals to carry that falling water past a row of buildings, the water could turn wheels inside them, and the wheels could work machines, and the machines could make cloth faster than anybody had made cloth before. The whole city is a machine for catching a river.
One of your three free places, or the Explorer Pass. What that costs
Before you go
- Time there
- Plan on about an hour and a half at the park.
- Parking
- Free. Free parking in the lots by the Rynne Bathhouse and Market Mills. Sunrise to sunset. Dogs are allowed.
- Underfoot
- A flat two-mile stretch of waterfront.
- Stroller
- A stroller is fine here.
22 challenges written for this place
A game deals seven to fifteen of them, so no two visits are alike.
Every game includes this one
Get To The River
Find the Merrimack and stand where you can watch it going past.
A few of the others
Find A Canal
Find water that is going somewhere in a straight line. Somebody dug that.
The River Behind Us
One photo of everybody with the river behind you.
Against The Brick
Find the biggest brick wall here and photograph everybody standing against it.
Their Turn
Hand the phone to the youngest. They take one picture of whatever they want.
Why Build It Here?
This whole city was built where the river drops. Work out what falling water was for.
Two Miles Of Waterfront
This stretch runs two miles. Work out how long it would take your family to walk it and back.
The rest are a surprise โ that's the whole point.
Play this at Lowell Heritage State Park
Free. Works with no signal once you're there.