Fairhaven’s Atlas Tack Went From EPA Superfund Site to Bird Haven

Henry Huttleston Rogers' contributions to the Town of Fairhaven were immeasurable. Rogers, an industrialist, lived from 1840 to 1909, leaving many gifts to the people of the town he loved so well.

Rogers built the Rogers School, Fairhaven High School, the Millicent Library, Town Hall, the Unitarian Memorial Church, the public water system, Cushman Park and numerous roads.

Rogers also built the Atlas Tack Corporation. According to the town, construction began on the Atlas Tack factory in 1901 "between the marshy banks of Priests Cove and the former Fairhaven Branch Railroad."

Atlas Tack "was the world's largest producer of wire tacks, bolts, shoe eyelets, bottle caps, and other small hardware." The company manufactured some 24,000 items.

Atlas Tack closed in 1985. Five years later, "the property was placed on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) National Priorities List as one of the country's most toxic hazardous waste sites, called Superfund sites," according to the town.

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Atlas Tack began a partial cleanup of soil sediment, groundwater and Boy's Creek, which was contaminated by years of chemical waste collected in a lagoon on the property. The EPA oversaw a more thorough remediation beginning in 2004.

The town says, "Since the site restoration was completed, the freshwater wetland and tidal saltwater marsh at Atlas Tack have become popular destinations for over 200 shorebirds, providing a rich diversity of coastal habitat adjacent to Priests Cove."

Only the former Atlas Tack office building remains today at the intersection of Pleasant Street and the Phoenix Bike Trail.

Bikers and walkers who enjoy the trail along the restored marshland from Pleasant Street East are treated to the sights and sounds of the birds, occasional deer that wander from out of the marshland, and even a bird watcher or two.

While most who enjoy the Phoenix Bike Trail tend to travel east from Sconticut Neck, the stretch between Pleasant Street and "The Neck" is somewhat less traveled, and home to many birds and other critters.