Intelligent Travel: Up Next: Blackstone Valley

Slater Mill, the little yellow mill that could

In 1793, the American Industrial Revolution was sparked in a yellow wooden textile mill perched on the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. More than two centuries later, the oft-overlooked Blackstone Valley is finally coming into its own, chosen recently as the winner of the 2008 World Travel and Tourism Council’s prestigious destination award. Sure, Robert Billington, the region’s chief champion of sustainable tourism, knows industry isn’t exactly hip. So what? This is true authentic travel.

How is the Blackstone Valley relevant today?

Because we [in the U.S.] don’t make things here anymore. Most Americans don’t understand how food is produced or how a product is made. And you can bring people to a place where things began. You name it, we made it. We had the power of the day—wonderfully sustainable, renewable energy, and it was the river.

When you come to New England to learn where the beginnings of America are, we’re part of that story. If you haven’t come to Blackstone Valley, where industry began, then you really haven’t seen America. This was the Silicon Valley of its day.

What’s the best way to experience the Blackstone Valley today?

Slater Mill still stands and is open for touring. You can see socks and shoelaces being made the way they were made 100 to 150 years ago. You can walk the floorboards of the early industrialists. As you move up the valley, we have an original working blacksmith shop that made nails and wagon wheels and all the pieces needed for the Industrial Revolution. And just a few feet away is the Hearthside, a mansion built with the winnings from the Louisiana Lottery in 1810. It’s wonderful stone building with white pillars. That whole street is an envelope of history. It’s just amazing, and so intimate. You follow the bend up and go through these living historic landscapes.

To get people out on the river, we’ve built five riverboats. People can stay in an authentic British canal boat, and they can actually sleep on the Blackstone River. And we have several farms, like the Grace Note Farm Mill, a nice 10-acre farm in Burrillville, Rhode Island, where you can sleep in an authentic 18th-century farm. You actually help cook the meals that Thomas Jefferson ate.

What challenges do you face in the Blackstone Valley?

Right now, we’re working on Broad Street, which covers three miles and three communities. A lot of Colombian, Mexican, Guatemalan, and Portuguese businesses are along the street. Those are the newer cultures to the Blackstone Valley. Our goal is to enhance the street as a place. There are around 100 ethnically owned authentic businesses: restaurants, markets, bakeries and the like. And we’re working on train transportation. There are even negotiations in the works to have a train depot right on Broad Street. When one looks at Broad Street now, it’s a street in flux with just a darn good set of bones, but the flesh isn’t there yet.

How do you create "a place?"

A place has to be whole. It has to be vibrant and have that excitement of a place that you want to go to, as opposed to a place that you can’t wait to go through. For a lot of people, for example, Broad Street was a place you couldn’t wait to get through. We need to change that.

Read more: To find out where the world's socks and zippers are being made today, check out Peter Hessler's story "What's Next?" in National Geographic magazine's all-China issue, online now.

Photo: Juli Shannon

Subscribe to this blog's feed