By Bob Saur:
Some reader (of a certain age) will recall that inexplicable hit of 1976 by the Captain and Tennille. We’re not talking about that today (and those of us who remember the song are hanging our heads in embarrassment.)
From generation to generation, the people of Londonderry have valued one section of town for the opportunities it offers, but over the years the reasons why they value it have changed.
1700’s – Let’s Be Glad They Didn’t Call the Town ‘Muskrat’
In pre-colonial times the native Americans made their homes along the banks of the flowing streams we now call Watt’s Brook and Saw Mill Brook. It is hard to find those home sites today, but to a trained eye there are telltale clues as to locations of their homes which were constructed of branches and animal skins. Today, when one stands on the bank of these streams, it is clear why these locations were valued; the reliable source of clean water for sustenance and crops, the wood for shelter and fire, and the wildlife for food and clothing. We don’t really know what the Native Americans called the area, but as the Ulster Scots settlers arrived, the native’s name for one of the local animals, the musk rat, was repurposed and the first references to “Musquash” as a place name appear.
Early 1800s – The Meadow and the Farms
At some point the settlers saw the value for the land for farming and grazing, there were after all more cattle than people in Londonderry at that time, and the area became known as Musquash Meadow. The meadow was such a prominent feature that the term was used on the legal deeds for the area. During this time the area was divided into parcels appropriate for the farming families of the day. By the mid 1800s the parcels had passed down through generations of farming families. The names Hardy, McQuesten, and Bancroft families, still familiar names in Londonderry and Litchfield, owned land in the area called the Musquash Meadow.
Mid 1800’s – The Mills Start to Build a Forest
As the mid-1800s arrived, the opportunity for year-round work in the new mills slowly lured families off of the land. By the time of the 1860 census, almost every family in Londonderry included some members with the occupation ‘shoemaker’. This change in occupation set the stage again for a re-valuation of the Musquash land, as fewer farm hands meant that trees slowly filled in the land that was once farmed. Around 1900 the new value of the Musquash was in the timber. Slowly, through patient purchasing of overgrown farms, lumber companies like Annis Grain & Lumber Co. and Hayford Kimball Lumber started to buy and merge the old farms into uninterrupted timber forests.
Mid 1900’s – Electric Power Arrives…or just passes through
Starting In the mid 1920s a new concept starts appearing in the Musquash – electric power. In this case power from the new Amoskeag Dam in Manchester and other dams in the region needed to be brought to area factories and mills in Hudson, Derry, and Nashua. Power line right-of-ways were purchased either as outright land purchases, or as easements, with the remaining farmers and timber owners gladly profiting from the electric companies. The routes for these power lines still crisscross parts of the Musquash today, although upgraded to deliver power from plants as close as Londonderry to as far away as Canada..
The 60s thought the 80s – The Commuters’ Homes
With the arrival of Interstate 93 in the early 1960’s, a new value was seen in the land as the lumber companies subdivided the land and sold off areas for housing. Neighborhoods like The Yellowstones off of Litchfield Road, and numerous roads off of High Range Road were subdivided and developed for housing. While it’s tempting to think that the developers took the best land and left the swamp, most of these developments are build abutting wetlands at the rear 
of house lots or the edge of the developments.
Today – Conservation & Recreation
As the town began experiencing explosive growth in the early 1970s, the Town of Londonderry established the core of today’s Musquash by purchasing 545 acres from a group of local developers. The Musquash is now thought of for the open space opportunities it affords the town, providing conservation, recreation, and preservation of wetlands and aquifer. As you stroll along the trails, you can also see a glimpse of the history of how people in Londonderry have interacted with the land.
Through over three centuries, Londonderry’s citizens have found value in the land called Musquash. To paraphrase the song lyrics “Looks like Musquash Love.”
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