Mine Falls Park is a 325-acre park in Nashua. Located in the heart of the city, it is bordered on the north by the Nashua River and on the south by the millpond and canal system.
Visitors from around New Hampshire and Massachusetts enjoy numerous recreational opportunities, such as walking, boating, fishing, cross-country skiing, and biking. The park also includes several fields for organized sports. The trails provide the city's only bicycle and pedestrian crossing of the Nashua River west of Main Street.
The name "Mine Falls" dates from the 1700s, when low-quality lead was supposedly mined from the island below the falls. In the early 1800s the potential of the Nashua River to drive the wheels of the mills was recognized. Workers used shovels and mules to dig a three-mile (5 km) long canal, which provides a vertical drop of 36 feet (11 m) at the mills.
In 1987, the Nashua River Canal and the Nashua Manufacturing Company Historic District (the Millyard) were placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1992, the park trails were designated part of the New Hampshire Heritage Trail system, which extends 130 miles (210 km) along the Merrimack River from Massachusetts to Canada.
The Nashua River Rail Trail is a 12.5-mile paved mixed-use rail trail in northern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire under control of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).
It roughly follows the course of the Nashua River, passing through the towns of Ayer, Groton, Pepperell, and Dunstable, Massachusetts and ends about a mile across the New Hampshire state border in Nashua, New Hampshire. The trail is frequently used by walkers, bicyclists, inline skaters, and, in the winter, cross-country skiers.
The Nashua River Rail Trail travels along a flat, scenic landscape with many opportunities to see wildlife. The trail passes through wetlands, ponds and swamps where a variety of animals such as beavers and herons can be seen, woodlands, and, toward the end of the trail, a few farms (cows can be seen on occasion).