Milton, Massachusetts

Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and an immediate southern suburb of Boston. The population was 28,630 at the 2020 census.

Milton is located in the relatively hilly area between the Neponset River and Blue Hills, bounded by Brush Hill to the west, Milton Hill to the east, Blue Hills to the south and the Neponset River to the north. It is also bordered by Boston's Dorchester and Mattapan district to the north and its Hyde Park district to the west, with the neighboring Massachusetts city of Quincy to the east and the towns of Randolph to the south, and Canton to the west.

History

Indigenous peoples

The area now known as Milton was inhabited for more than ten thousand years prior to European colonization. The Paleo-Indian archaeological site Fowl Meadows lies within the bounds of present-day Milton, with charcoal remains dated to 10,210±60 years before present in 1994, later calibrated to 12,140 years before present.

At the time of European exploration and settlement in the early 1600s, the area was inhabited by the Neponset tribe of the Massachusett, an Algonquian people, who referred to the area that would become Milton as 'Unquatiquisset,' meaning 'Lower Falls', denoting the place where the rapids of the Neponset River meet Massachusetts Bay.

According to local traditions and 19th-century accounts, several Native American graves and ceremonial pits may have been uncovered during construction along Canton Avenue in Milton. These discoveries, which were reported in local newsletters and oral histories, are believed to have belonged to members of the Ponkapoag tribe, who historically inhabited the area. Graves found during roadwork were said to have been oriented east to west, potentially reflecting cultural or religious practices of the tribe.