The Old Slater Mill Association offered free guided tours of the area around Fishing Rock in downtown Pawtucket in October and November, 2025. The area was once traversed by the Indigenous Narragansett peoples and is the site of the 17th century Ironworks and the settlement of Joseph Jenks II. Click here for a 21-minute video of a tour of the Blackstone River given by Association Project Manager Joshua Choiniere on October 25, 2025.
(Above, left) The Blackstone River flows below the dam built to power the Slater Mill. (Above, center and right) Project Manager Joshua Choiniere describes the original settlement of Joseph Jenks, Jr. who came to the area in 1671 to establish an iron forge similar to the one in Saugus where he first worked.
(Above) During one of the free guided walks he gives, Joshua passes around photos of some of the houses that once stood in downtown Pawtucket that have all been removed during an effort to modernize the City in the 1960s. On the left is a photo of the Joseph Jenks Jr. and Nathaniel Jenks homestead, no longer standing, located on Quaker Lane, now East AvenuŠµ in Pawtucket.
(Above) Joshua points to the marker where the Baptist Church once stood in downtown Pawtucket close to the post office that has recently been converted into part of the library.
