Otis History: Project Mishoon
By Peter Cameron
July 2025
One of the Otis Historical Commission’s tasks is to answer requests for assistance in finding historical information relating to our fair town. Recently we received a request that was out of the ordinary. It came from Cheryl “Walking Crow” Studtler, the director of “Project Mishoon,” (projectmishoon@aol.com) an undertaking of the Hussanamisco Nipmuc indigenous tribe located in the Worcester/Shrewsbury, Massachusetts area. The tribe had an interesting question. What happened to the mishoon that was found in Otis in the 1860s?
Mishoon, I quickly learned, is the Nipmuc name for a traditional Native American dugout canoe. There were many different types across North America but tribes in Massachusetts used a type built out of a solid log. The insides would be carved and burned out to form the vessel. In 2011, in Lake Quinsigamond, located in Worcester, the tribe discovered 3 mishoons, loaded with rocks, evidently intentionally sunk in the lake. They were ultimately dated to the 1600s and were beautifully preserved in the oxygen depleted water. This discovery, over the next several years exploded, and in 2024 they built upon the discovery by starting a public outreach program building new mishoons, using the traditional method of burning out the interior of the log to form the dugout. They invited the public to observe and even help in their construction. The tribe has expanded their search for information for other mishoons that might have been discovered across Massachusetts. That led them to Otis.
Studtler found, in 3 newspaper articles from 1906, the story of the discovery of a mishoon here in Otis. It seems a Tyringham resident by the name of Addison B. Heath, in the mid 1860s, liked to duck hunt on Mud Pond in Otis. While walking through the muck along the pond he stepped on a solid wood object. He uncovered part of it and was perplexed. Returning with a shovel, he ultimately uncovered a dugout canoe. He noted the interior was charred indicating it had been built using the traditional indigenous methods. He hauled it out of the mud, dried it out and used it on the pond for 40 more years. In 1906 it was hauled into Tyringham, examined and then sent to the Peabody Museum in Cambridge. From there it seems to have disappeared.
This story had me inquiring around our community about this Mud Pond. An examination of topographical maps found 3 separate Mud Ponds in Otis. A close reading of the newspaper articles revealed Mr. Heath described the area in more detail. He describes Mud Pond as “Marshy shores of a lake which crowns the summit of Long Mountain in Otis.” Ah, a clue! I added this information to my verbal request for information around town. I eventually got an email from a resident in North Otis. She remembered hearing about Long Mountain to the west of Route 8 near the Tyringham border. She researched it online and found the Long Mountain Wildlife Management area. I went back to the maps and sure enough one of the three Mud Ponds was there “crowning the summit of Long Mountain,” within the wildlife management area.
I immediately sent the information back to the Nipmuc nation. Currently, I have not heard of any plans to mount an expedition to Mud Pond to investigate further, but it remains a real possibility. If any reader out there can add any other information or has been up Long Mountain, please contact me at striperblue131@aol.com. Otis’s history never ceases to surprise us!
Peter Cameron is an Otis, MA resident and a retired policeman. He is a graduate of Central Connecticut State University with a B.S. in History with a concentration in U.S. Colonial History.