About Sluice Pond
The bustle of urban strife fades quickly in the sunlit sparkles of pure, transparent water at this 55+ acre pond. Only 10 miles north of Boston and 2 miles northwest of the center of Lynn, Sluice Pond is fairly secluded. Buffered from traffic and commuters by the homes and businesses that face Rt 129, this recreational gem may be the best kept secret in Lynn. Sluice Pond lies across the road from two public recreational neighbors, Gannon Municipal Golf Club and Lynn Woods, the nation's 2nd largest urban park. Sluice Pond is a residential dream come true.
The 165 households that hug the shoreline and nestle beneath towering oaks, maples and elms form a true waterland community. Members meet and celebrate through activities sponsored by the Sluice Pond Association. Some large properties along the shoreline are multi-family homes while others are single family dwellings or small former camp bungalows converted to year-round housing. Across the street neighbors join the festivities and can join the Association the same as pond abutters.
The SPA encourages celebrations of major holidays with simple traditions like the lighting of shoreline flares to celebrate the 4th of July. During the winter, ice fishing continues and young people clear areas for hockey games and figure skating. Fishing tournaments are held regularly throughout the season.
In the late 1800s, there was an assessment of the ponds fed by Cedar Brook and forming the “Strawberry Chain” of ponds that flow to the Atlantic Ocean through Lynn. It showed that Sluice Pond had the purest water and the pond was considered for the town water supply. A decision was made instead to create the largely manmade ponds within the Lynn Woods Reservation: Walden’s Pond, Breed's Pond, and Birch Pond to be used as water supply sources in Lynn and surrounding communities. Naturally formed ponds from the Cedar Brook (Cedar Pond, Sluice Pond, Flax Pond, Goldfish Pond and the Floating Bridge Pond) are maintained for recreational purposes by abutters and the City of Lynn.
Sluice Pond, as one of the few glacially formed ponds in the Northeast, is frequently studied by geologists at Salem State University. Because of its depth (60 feet in the center) and depth of sediment at the bottom (around 18 feet), it stores a record of historic and pre-historic events and animals.