stuff in the merrimack & on the beach at Plum Island Point

Sooner or later the junk that gets dumped or washed into the Merrimack ends up on Plum Island. Like much of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Plum Island is still cleaning up from the "rain event of 2010" (not sure what the correct term for a violently windy northeast storm followed by two back to back hundred year floods). So here it is time for another "stuff in the Merrimack" entry.

This week:

• A dead pig, a rusted-out car door and 14 syringes, used and unused
  Think some farmer in New Hampshire has been looking for that pig for the past month? How far upriver do you think the syringes came from?
  

• A tree trunk mistaken for an overturned kayak - emergency response ensued
  Thankfully, it was a false alarm.
  

• Some champion rowers
  Go River Hawks
  

• An upgraded tour boat
  If you buy it a new engine, they will come.
  

Centuries ago:

• Vikings
  Did the Norsemen sail up and down the Merrimack? The article does some kind of mash-up of the Vikings with the Westford Knight. If the Vikings did cruise the Merrimack, it was well before the Westford Knight. The article makes no mention of the supposed Viking colony at the mouth of the Merrimack that was reported in 1948. Y'know, the explorers who passed by the Merrimack in search of the Northwest Passage should have taken a closer look. In those days they would have been unimpeded by the Lawrence Dam. Some of those Vikings from the 1948 story made it inland as far as Minnesota. They could easily have found routes west from the Great Lakes. (Note, if your irony and sarcasm meter is not registering, please have it re-calibrated.)