PETERSHAM – Many communities in Central Massachusetts have landscapes with remarkable stories, one of which is Petersham’s Swift River Valley.

The east branch of the Swift River, from its headwaters in Phillipston to Pottapaug Pond in the Dana Section of the massive Quabbin Reservoir, will be the focus of a symposium on the Swift River Valley on Tuesday, July 2 at 7 p.m. at the Harvard Forest’s Fisher Museum.

Facilitated by local land historian Larry Buell, this event will add to the extensive body of research, photos and artifacts that exists on the Valley. Buell has been studying the Valley for over 60 years.

“There is some amazing history related to the Valley that must be preserved for present and future generations,” said Buell, who went on to quote noted poet and farmer, Wendell Berry, “If you don’t know where you are, you may not know who you are.”

The symposium will invite members of the Swift River Valley Trust, a collaborating organization that is focused on the Valley, including Harvard Forest, Trustees of Reservations, Mass Audubon and the Quabbin Visitor Center. Buell will have an assortment of pictures, maps, journals, newspaper articles, and correspondence related to the Valley.

Topics will include the 19th-century Brown’s Pond mills, the Stage Road from Worcester to Brattleboro Vermont, land-use history area, the pre-European cultural history of the Indigenous Nipmucs, the natural history, and the various efforts to preserve the unique valley.

Many who know the Valley have been invited to the symposium, including ecologist Robert Clark, stagecoach historian Lucy Allen, Andy Williams, former director of Mass Audubon Camp Wildwood, and Dick O’Brien, former regional director of the Trustees of Reservations.

The program is cosponsored by the Petersham Historical Society and the University of the Wild and is free and open to the public and welcomes anyone with an interest in local natural and cultural history. For information, contact Dr. Larry Buell at Larry@UofWild.org or at   978-855-1420.