Glaciers formed the character of the Freedom’s Way National
Heritage Area landscape. During the last great ice age, the
entire Freedom’s Way area was covered by glacial ice that
shifted and alternately pushed forward and receded over hundreds
of years. Heavy ice ground down mountaintops rounding their
edges. Rivers of moving ice stripped away soil, flattening
smaller hills into underlying bedrock kames. Gigantic chunks of
rock were torn away and ground into gravel. This movement of
water, ice and boulders caused the creation of what is, today, a
landscape of undulating hills, monadnocks, fertile valleys, and
two large river systems: the Concord/Assabet/Sudbury River and
the Nashua River, their tributaries and watersheds. Initially,
these rivers served as food source and transportation corridors
for the Native Americans and then for the first European
settlers. Today their banks welcome outdoor enthusiasts, and
canoers once again paddle the river paths.