Concord

Understand

The Massachusett people lived here for thousands of years prior to European arrival. This site at the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers was chosen, as the floodplains created abundant arable land and opportunities for fishing. The area was known as Musketaquid, an Algonquian word meaning "grassy plain". The vast majority of the first inhabitants were killed off by smallpox and other plagues at the dawn of the 17th century. Survivors sold their land to the colonists, and began to assimilate into the prevailing Puritanical culture.