The Town of Montague came into being in 1754, two and a half
centuries ago. In that year boundaries were set for the new town*
and it was given its name. But our map history of Montague begins
earlier, when most of Montague was a unsettled wilderness, and
European settlement was concentrated in a few downriver enclaves.
Map 1 is an excerpt from a much larger map of
Massachusetts and New Hampshire by William Douglass. The towns
depicted here were all established by Massachusetts, which claimed
all the land shown on this part of the map. Montague - not yet
established - is in the center of this map above the word
"Sunderland". At this time - about 1745, there are settlers within
what would become the town of Montague, but they were residents of
ancient Sunderland, then a much larger town than it is today. Note
that the Sawmill River has its modern name even at that early
year. The next stream to the north, Papaguntiquash Branch**, is
now called the Millers River. The great falls of the Connecticut,
today’s Turners Falls, are prominent on this map, as they should
be for a time when rivers were the main thoroughfares. B
