Assonet River

Assonet ( uh-SOH-nit) is one of two villages in the town of Freetown, Massachusetts in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. An original part of the town, Assonet was settled in 1659 along with the city of Fall River, then a part of Freetown. It rests on the banks of the Assonet River. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 4,084; up from 3,614 in 1990. As of the 2014 census the village had a total estimated population of 9,093.

WPEP (1570 kHz AM) was an AM radio station licensed to Taunton, Massachusetts. WPEP's format had been full-service, offering local news and talk programming, as well as music and nationally syndicated talk. The station was last owned by the Anastos Media Group.

Profile Rock (also known as the Old Man of Joshua's Mountain) was a 50-foot high granite rock formation located in Freetown, Massachusetts just outside Assonet village and near the Freetown State Forest. Local Wampanoags believe it to be the image of Chief Massasoit. The Wampanoags occupied the region of Rhode Island and Massachusetts bounded by Narragansett Bay to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and Chief Massasoit was a close friend to the early Pilgrim settlers. Joshua's Mountain was named after Joshua Tisdale, who was the first to settle near the site. It was privately owned for several years by former Freetown Selectman Ben Evans, who sold it to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to be used as a state park tourist attraction. In recent years, the site has been frequently vandalized with graffiti, despite an aggressive cleanup effort by the Bristol County Sheriff. On June 19, 2019, at approximately 9:22 a.m., the Freetown Police Department, along with the Freetown Fire Department, responded to the Freetown State Forest “Profile Rock” Park for a report of recent damages to the historic rock formation. First responders and park officials discovered that a large portion of the rock formation had broken off. State forest officials have closed the park until further notice due to the unsafe environment. The public is encouraged to stay away from the area.

The Assonet Burying Ground is the main public cemetery for Freetown, Massachusetts. Prior to becoming a cemetery, the land occupied by the Assonet Burying Ground was used as a military musterfield for the southeastern Massachusetts area. The cemetery is 25 acres (100,000 m2), the first 13 acres (53,000 m2) having been acquired by the town from Benedict and Thomas Andros in 1864, despite burials dating back to the late 18th century. The remaining 12 acres (49,000 m2) were acquired from the heirs of Wallace T. Reynolds in 1956. Remains from two other cemeteries were moved to the Assonet Burying Ground, one cemetery having been disestablished, and the other having been reduced in size. The entrance to the cemetery is on South Main Street, marked by two stone gates erected sometime prior to 1954. Near the entrance to the main cemetery is an abandoned receiving tomb, built of granite into the side of an earthen mound in 1892. East of the receiving tomb is a brick mausoleum, and on the northern edge of the cemetery is a tool shed built prior to 1910. The cemetery is bounded on the north by the Assonet River, on the south by a residential subdivision, on the east by MA 24, and on the west by MA 79. The cemetery is at the southern extreme of the Assonet Historic District.

Assonet Bay is a lake in Assonet, a village within the town of Freetown, Massachusetts. The Assonet River connects the waters of the bay with the Taunton River.

The Berkley State Forest is a small tract of forest land located near Route 24 in Berkley, Massachusetts in Dighton Rock State Park. It is owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and operated by the Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Freetown station is a future MBTA Commuter Rail station located in the Assonet village of Freetown, Massachusetts. It is planned to open in mid-2024 as part of the first phase of the South Coast Rail project. The station will have a single side platform on the west side of the Fall River Secondary, along with a park and ride lot. The Fall River Railroad opened through Freetown in 1845. Two stations on the line in Freetown were open until the 1930s. Freetown was announced as a potential South Coast Rail station in 2009. The planned station site was relocated slightly to the northeast in 2018. A construction contract was issued in 2020, and the station was substantially completed in December 2022.

The Freetown-Fall River State Forest (commonly shortened to Freetown State Forest) is a publicly owned forest covering more than 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) in the city of Fall River and the towns of Freetown and Lakeville in the state of Massachusetts. The forest lies mostly in the center of the town of Freetown (about a third of the town) dividing Assonet, East Freetown, and Fall River's northernmost boundary. The forest land includes Profile Rock, a granite outcropping which local Native Americans believe to be the image of Chief Massasoit, and a 227-acre (92 ha) Wampanoag reservation. The forest is owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and operated by the Department of Conservation and Recreation with headquarters in Assonet.

The Cedar Swamp River is a small river in Lakeville, Massachusetts that flows 4.6 miles (7.4 km) in a northwesterly direction through the western part of the town to where it forms the Assonet River near the Freetown line, just south of the village of Myricks. It is a tributary of the Taunton River.The river is crossed by a railroad line that was originally built as the Taunton and New Bedford Railroad in 1840. It is now operated by CSX.

Dighton Rock State Park is a public recreation area and historic preserve located on the eastern shore of the Taunton River in the town of Berkley, Massachusetts. The 98-acre (40 ha) state park is the site of a small museum that houses the Dighton Rock, an 11-foot-high (3.4 m) glacial erratic, covered with petroglyphs, that once sat on the banks of the river. It is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Freetown is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 9,206 at the 2020 census.Freetown is one of the oldest communities in the United States, having been settled by the Pilgrims and their descendants in the latter half of the 17th century. The town once included the city of Fall River (1659–1803), and a portion of Acushnet (1659–1815). The town celebrated its tricentennial in 1983. Freetown is currently divided into two villages, which historically developed almost entirely independent from one another: Assonet and East Freetown. Freetown lies on an old 18th century road and along old Indian trails from Freetown to Boston. Freetown is home to the Freetown-Fall River State Forest, and Profile Rock and is located approximately 50 miles (80 km) from Boston. Freetown is a part of the South Coast region of Massachusetts which encompasses the communities that surround Buzzards Bay (excluding the Elizabeth Islands, Bourne and Falmouth), Mount Hope Bay and the Sakonnet River. Freeown is currently home to two Historic Districts of the National Register of Historic Places: the Assonet Village Historic District, and the East Freetown Historic District.

The Dighton Rock is a 40-ton boulder, originally located in the riverbed of the Taunton River at Berkley, Massachusetts (formerly part of the town of Dighton). The rock is noted for its petroglyphs ("primarily lines, geometric shapes, and schematic drawings of people, along with writing, both verified and not."), carved designs of ancient and uncertain origin, and the controversy about their creators. In 1963, during construction of a coffer dam, state officials removed the rock from the river for preservation. It was installed in a museum in a nearby park, Dighton Rock State Park. In 1971, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).