Map for “Interpretation of Woodward’s and Saffery’s Map of 1642, or the Earliest Bay Path” (Levi B. Chase, 1901)
Levi Badger Chase’s map for his 1901 article on Woodward and Saffery’s 1642 survey of the Massachusetts Bay patent’s south line, drawn on a USGS base: the paths of Nipmuc country as he traced them — the Bay Path from South Framingham through Oxford and Sturbridge to Quabaug Old Fort and Springfield, branches to the Great Falls at Holyoke, the Ware River falls and Wickabaug, the path south to Woodstock (Wabaquasset), the Path to Nipmug Great Pond through Mendon — and the path from the Bay to Providence. In red, the 1642 map’s route and notes.
Source
| Map | The New England historical and genealogical register |
|---|---|
| Author | Levi B. Chase, 1901 |
| Archive | Internet Archive |
| Rights | Public domain. Published 1901 — before 1931, so public domain in the United States. Evidence |
| Accuracy | About 3 km (RMS 0.1 km at 32 control points). Placed by hand in a map-queue session and approved by a person. If something sits in the wrong place, members can fix it with Fix placement on the map. |
| Method | Placed by hand on the map’s own graticule: a second-order polynomial fit to the 32 crossings of its ruled 15′ meridians and parallels (72°40′ to 71° W, 41°45′ to 42°30′ N), read off the scan. The base was redrawn by hand from USGS sheets: 22 of its towns land a median 1.1 km from where they stand today (Worcester, drawn 2.8 km to the west-southwest, is the furthest), and the paths are drawn on that base, so read them to a kilometre or two. See the methodology. |
| Version | 1.0.0, updated 2026-10-15 |
| Covers | Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island |
Downloads
- Google Earth overlay (KMZ) — free (2.2 MB)
- GeoTIFF, tinted trails, EPSG:4326 (5324 × 2518; QGIS, ArcGIS) — free (2.4 MB)
- Print sheet over today’s map (3600 × 2200 PNG) — free (6.7 MB)
Project Homeland
This map’s trails are traced into Project Homeland, one map of the trail network melded from every traced source, where they are compared with the other maps’ lines. Members can trace more of them: Trace a trail on the map.
Changelog
- 1.0.0 (2026-10-15): First release: placed by hand at 32 places. From the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 55 (April 1901), facing p. 155, Internet Archive (University of Illinois copy); added for Project Homeland.
Credits
- From the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 55 (April 1901), facing p. 155, Internet Archive (University of Illinois copy); added for Project Homeland
- Georeferencing: Native Routes
- Scan: Internet Archive
Control points
The full list of control points with residuals is in control-points.geojson. Historic names indexed for search: names.geojson.
Something on this map sits in the wrong place? Members can show where with Fix placement on the map — confirmed fixes are tested against the map’s other control points each night and credited here. For anything else, report a problem.
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