The pond is a natural feature, a "kettle pond" it was formed by glacial recession during the last Ice Age. It is also a park, making up a piece of the "Emerald Necklace". It is approximately a mile around and that makes its circular path a favorite place for walkers and runners. The Jamaica Pond was a habitat for Neponset Indians for part of the year in the era before English settlers arrived. In the 1790s it became a water supply for Boston. The ranger station under the bandstand has one of the high tech waterpipes from that time on display (a hollowed out log). Later, the Pond became a player in the ice industry, with cutters taking the ice, storing it in ice houses on the banks and shipping it far and wide. Nowadays, the Jamaica Pond is an idyllic enclave in a bustling world (that is, if you can ignore the cars zipping by on the roads that surround it!)