The Metropolitan Water Board selected the south branch of the Nashua River in Clinton as the best site for Boston's new water supply over New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee, Maine's Sebago Lake, and the Merrimack River.

Roads and rail lines had to be relocated; a railroad tunnel and trestle had to be built in order to relocate the Central Massachusetts Railroad, and over four thousand bodies had to be dug up and moved in the local Catholic cemetery.

[citation needed] The project brought thousands of immigrants to the area for work.

[citation needed] A static liquefaction flow failure occurred in the upstream slope of the North Dike of Wachusett Dam near Clinton, Massachusetts on April 11, 1907 during the first reservoir filling.

The fine sands of the upstream dike shell liquefied and flowed approximately 100 meters horizontally into the reservoir.