Eunice Williams Covered Bridge

On February 29, 1704, during Queen Anne's War, a force of roughly 300 French soldiers and their Abenaki, Mohawk, and other Native allies attacked the frontier settlement of Deerfield, Massachusetts. The raiders killed dozens of residents and took more than 100 captives, including the Reverend John Williams, the town's minister, along with his wife Eunice and several of their children. The captives were forced to march north toward Canada in deep winter.

Eunice Williams had given birth only days before the attack and was physically unable to keep pace on the grueling march. According to the accounts later recorded by her husband, the war party's standing order was to strike down any captive who could not continue. While crossing the Green River in present-day Greenfield, Eunice fell, and she was killed there, not far from her husband and surviving children. Her death became one of the most widely remembered episodes of the Deerfield Raid, recounted in Reverend Williams' captivity narrative.

The site near the river crossing was later marked with a stone and plaque memorializing Eunice Williams. A wooden covered bridge was eventually built across the Green River nearby. The structure is officially known as the Pumping Station Covered Bridge but is widely called the Eunice Williams Covered Bridge by locals.

The original 19th-century covered bridge that stood at the site for roughly a century was destroyed by an arson fire set by vandals on Halloween night in 1969. The current covered bridge was constructed in 1972 as a replacement. It sustained significant damage during Hurricane Irene in 2011 and underwent major repairs around 2014. Today it remains a recognizable local landmark on Eunice Williams Drive, with the adjacent Green River used as a seasonal swimming area.