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Over the past two decades, the corridor has become a launching pad for hundreds of projects large and small, supporting efforts for historical preservation, recreation, environmental restoration and economic development in the 46-mile strip of valley between Worcester and Providence.

"We call ourselves a catalyst," says Louise Redding, who chairs the corridor commission.

Redding says the development and operating funds the corridor has received, combined with the talents of those it employs, have sparked numerous projects with value far exceeding that initial investment.

"In the 20 years, we've had about $23 million in federal money coming in, and half a billion dollars in projects coming out the other end," she says. "We are putting the seed down."

Among the projects spurred on by the corridor are Woonsocket's Museum of Work and Culture, the Blackstone Valley Bikeway, the Blackstone Valley Visitor's Center in Pawtucket, and Worcester's Northern Gateway Visitor's Center. The corridor has assisted with efforts by the Blackstone River Coalition to clean up the river. It sponsors recreation and tourism activities, and has funded various efforts relating to local land use planning, historic preservation, and education.

Comprising parts of two states and 24 towns, the corridor recognizes the area that gave birth to America's Industrial Revolution, a link to the past that led to its special status with the National Park Service. Through the corridor, that link has brought the region an influx of federal funds and resources that has in turn attracted millions of dollars in investment in the valley's future.

Michael Sullivan, director of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and a member of the corridor commission, says the river is an important natural and cultural resource.

"It was in the Blackstone Valley, for the first time in America, that the power of water was successfully harnessed for the industrial production of cotton yarn by Samuel Slater in 1793," he says. "Its influence shaped the history of American free enterprise, labor, immigration and ethnicity, and management of the environment. It has worked hard and created a connectedness and linkage for the
region."

That cultural background helped convince the federal government to step in with the creation of the heritage corridor.

First authorized in October of 1986, the corridor was a then-new concept for involving the National Park Service in overseeing an area where the federal government owned none of the actual land. The measure was pushed in the U.S. Congress by former U.S. Senators John Chafee and Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, along with former Massachusetts State Rep. Richard Moore of Uxbridge, who testified in favor of the corridor. Moore is now a state senator.

A study the previous year by the National Park Service to review the area's prospects for federal involvement remarked on the state of the valley and the potential benefits that could be reaped by a concerted preservation effort.

"A major interstate project to interpret the history of the Blackstone Valley would receive enthusiastic support at the local level and would be an important first step in raising local awareness of the valley's cultural resources," according to the study as reported by The Call.

"he report went on to outline the underutilized and depressed state of the region at that time.

"Most residents do not perceive the valley as an attractive region or as a significant, interstate resource. The visible effects of economic decline, abandoned mill buildings, derelict industrial lands and pollution of the Blackstone River are some of the most important factors in this lack of local pride," it read.

Twenty years later, the reality is quite different. The Blackstone's banks are dotted with parks and condominiums, and its waters are frequently plied by sightseers and recreational boaters.

Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), the son of the corridor's namesake, says that the corridor's efforts have helped reveal the assets of the region that had long been hidden or neglected.

The two key factors in drawing tourism, he says, "are natural beauty and history," both elements possessed by the Blackstone Valley. With the help of the corridor, the area's prospects have turned around as it has embraced those draws.

"This is the economic shot in the arm the valley really needs," he says.

Michael Ferry, a teacher at Woonsocket High School, is a board member of Corridor Keepers, a local group formed last year to lobby for the continued existence of the corridor.

He says the key role of the corridor is the way it provides a connection across state and municipal boundaries.

"The commissioners have been able to do something almost impossible," he says - to get two states and 24 towns to work together in a common interest - "and figure out how to tell the story of the Blackstone Valley."

That cohesive force helped communities all along the river to see the potential value in their many abandoned mill properties, which in turn brought millions of dollars in investment.

"Corridor planners put together a vision for what the old mills could look like as residential housing," Ferry says, "and showed that it could be an economic boon for the cities."

Although the going was slow at first, renovated mill units are among the hottest properties on the market - Ferry noted that the selling price for one condo in Pawtucket recently topped $1 million.

"They're selling them as fast as they can remodel them," he says.

Ferry initially got involved with the corridor through another part of its mission - education. He says National Park Service rangers visit his and other classrooms in the area and help teach local history and conduct river-related activities.

Ferry said that education is a less visible effect of the corridor's presence, but still an important one, since future generations will be responsible for continuing the existing commitment.

"I'd hate like heck to lose all this work that's been done," he says. "We've got to get the younger generation to step up."

That generation will likely have to continue on without the presence of the corridor itself, as there are hints that the latest five-year reauthorization could be the last.

This re-authorization came just weeks before the corridor would have expired, and Redding says that it probably would have done so if not for Chafee's intercession with Senate leadership.

Redding cites the growth of the heritage corridor movement in general as one reason the government may look to close down its older examples, as well as a federal budget crunch in general.

Over the next five years, Redding says the corridor commission would like to oversee the completion of the bike path, which is already mostly finished in Rhode Island, but has been slow to come to fruition in most of the Massachusetts portion of the valley (see related story, this page). Another project it is pushing is the historic restoration of a section of the Blackstone Canal, the former commercial waterway that linked Providence to Worcester.

Along with those efforts, Redding says the commission's focus will be on ensuring that its accomplishments won't be lost after it is gone.

"We'll look to ensure that the very important icons we have in the heritage corridor are permanent," she says. "We'll be going back and looking at programs and ensuring their long-term sustainability."

Fortunately, the commission will have five years to ready those plans, and Ferry says that judging from interest in the Corridor Keepers and other groups, there are plenty of people eager to form an organization that will succeed the corridor.

But there is plenty of work to do until then, Redding says. With yet another successful event - Saturday's Greenway Challenge - just concluded, and their new lease on life, Redding says she and the commission are thrilled.

"I'm walking on air," she says.

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