The Connecticut River is a major river in the New England region of the United States. The region's longest, it flows roughly southward for through four states. Rising 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, it discharges into Long Island Sound between Old Saybrook and Old Lyme, Connecticut. Its watershed encompasses , covering parts of five U.S. states and one Canadian province, composed of 148 tributaries, 38 of which are major rivers. It produces 70% of Long Island Sound's fresh water,

The Connecticut River Valley is home to some of the northeastern United States' most productive farmland, as well as the Hartford–Springfield Knowledge Corridor, a metropolitan region of approximately two million people surrounding Springfield, Massachusetts, and Hartford, Connecticut.

History

The word "Connecticut" is a corruption of the Mohegan word quinetucket and Nipmuc word kwinitekw, which mean "beside the long, tidal river". The word came into English usage during the early 1600s to name the river, which was also called simply "The Great River". It was also known by New Netherlanders as Versche Rivier, or the fresh river.

Early spellings of the name by European explorers included "Cannitticutt" in French or in English.

left|225px|thumb|View of Springfield on the Connecticut River by [[Alvan Fisher (Brooklyn Museum)]]

left|225px|thumb|View of the City of Hartford, Connecticut by [[William Havell]]

Pre-1614: Native American populations

Archaeological digs reveal human habitation of the Connecticut River Valley for 6,000 years before present.

Numerous tribes lived throughout the fertile Connecticut River valley prior to Dutch exploration beginning in 1614. Information concerning how these tribes lived and interacted stems mostly from English accounts written during the 1630s.

The Pequots dominated a territory in the southern region of the Connecticut River valley, stretching roughly from the river's mouth at Old Saybrook, Connecticut, north to just below the Big Bend at Middletown, Connecticut. They warred with and attempted to subjugate neighboring agricultural tribes such as the Western Niantics, while maintaining an uneasy stand-off with their rivals the Mohegans.

The Mattabesset (Tunxis) tribe takes its name from the place where its sachems ruled at the Connecticut River's Big Bend at Middletown, in a village sandwiched between the territories of the aggressive Pequots to the south and the more peaceable Mohegans to the north.

The Mohegans dominated the region due north, where Hartford and its suburbs sit, particularly after allying themselves with the Colonists against the Pequots during the Pequot War of 1637. Their culture was similar to the Pequots, as they had split off from them and become their rivals some time prior to European exploration of the area. eventually became Springfield, situated on the Bay Path where the Connecticut River meets the western Westfield River and eastern Chicopee River. The Pocomtuc villagers at Agawam helped Puritan explorers settle this site and remained friendly with them for decades, unlike tribes farther north and south along the Connecticut River. The region stretching from Springfield north to the New Hampshire and Vermont state borders fostered many agricultural Pocomtuc and Nipmuc settlements, with its soil enhanced by sedimentary deposits. Occasionally, these villages endured invasions from more aggressive confederated tribes living in New York, such as the Mohawk, Mahican, and Iroquois. The Western Abenaki (Sokoki) tribe lived in the Green Mountains region of Vermont but wintered as far south as the Northfield, Massachusetts, area. The (Sokoki) tribe migrated to Odanak, Quebec following the epidemics and the wars with the settlers but returned to Vermont.

1614–1636: Dutch and Puritan settlement

In 1614, Dutch explorer Adriaen Block became the first European to chart the Connecticut River, sailing as far north as Enfield Rapids. He called it the "Fresh River" and claimed it for the Netherlands as the northeastern border of the New Netherland Colony. In 1623, Dutch traders constructed a fortified trading post at the site of Hartford, Connecticut, called the Fort Huys de Hoop ("Fort House of Hope").

Four separate Puritan-led groups also settled the fertile Connecticut River Valley, and they founded the two large cities that continue to dominate the Valley: Hartford (est. 1635) and Springfield (est. 1636). The first group of pioneers left the Plymouth Colony in 1632 and ultimately founded the village of Matianuck (which became Windsor, Connecticut) several miles north of the Dutch fort. A group left the Massachusetts Bay Colony from Watertown, seeking a site where they could practice their religion more freely. With this in mind, they founded Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1633, several miles south of the Dutch fort at Hartford.

left|thumb|View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow (1836) by [[Thomas Cole]]

In 1635, Reverend Thomas Hooker led settlers from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he had feuded with Reverend John Cotton, to the site in Connecticut of the Dutch Fort House of Hope, where he founded Newtowne.

The fourth English settlement along the Connecticut River came out of a 1635 scouting party commissioned by William Pynchon to found a city on the river's most advantageous site for commerce and agriculture. Pynchon's Massachusetts scouts located the Pocomtuc village of Agawam, where the Bay Path trade route crossed the Connecticut River at two of its major tributaries—the Chicopee River to the east and the Westfield River to the west—and just north of Enfield Falls, the river's first unnavigable waterfall. Pynchon surmised that traders using any of these routes would have to dock and change vessels at his site, thereby granting the settlement a commercial advantage. It was initially named Agawam Plantation and was allied with the settlements to the south that became the state of Connecticut. Settlement of the Upper Connecticut River Valley increased quickly, with population assessments of 36,000 by 1790. New York protested these grants, and the Board of Trade decided in 1764 that the border between the provinces should be the western bank of the Connecticut River. Ethan Allen, the Green Mountain Boys, and other residents of the disputed area resisted attempts by New York to exercise authority there, which resulted in the establishment of the independent Vermont Republic in 1777 and its eventual accession to the United States in 1791 as the fourteenth state. Boundary disputes between Vermont and New Hampshire lasted for nearly 150 years. They were finally settled in 1933, when the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed King George's boundary as the ordinary low-water mark on the Vermont shore. In some places, the state line was inundated by the impoundments of dams built after this time.

The Enfield Falls Canal was opened in 1829 to circumvent shallows around Enfield Falls, and the locks built for this canal gave their name to the town of Windsor Locks, Connecticut. The Connecticut River Valley functioned as America's hub of technical innovation into the 20th century, particularly the cities of Springfield and Hartford, and thus attracted numerous railroad lines. The proliferation of the railroads in Springfield and Hartford greatly decreased the economic importance of the Connecticut River. Except for log drives that persisted into the early decades of the 20th century, the river has functioned largely as a center of wildlife and recreation since the late 1800s.

Log drives and the early 20th century

thumb|left|[[The Oxbow (Connecticut River)|The Oxbow, Connecticut River, at Northampton, Massachusetts ]]

Starting about 1865, (later submerged under Moore and Comerford reservoirs), and through Logan's Rips at Fitzdale, Mulligan's Lower Pitch, and Seven Islands. The White River from Vermont and the Ammonoosuc River from New Hampshire brought more logs into the Connecticut. A log boom was built between Wells River, Vermont, and Woodsville, New Hampshire, to hold the logs briefly and release them gradually to avoid jams in the Ox Bow section of river just downstream in Haverhill. Men detailed to this work utilized Woodsville's saloons and red-light district. Some of the logs were destined for mills in Wilder and Bellows Falls, Vermont, while others were sluiced over the Bellows Falls dam. North Walpole, New Hampshire, contained twelve to eighteen saloons, patronized by the log drivers. Mount Tom was the landmark the log drivers used to gauge the distance to the final mills near Holyoke, Massachusetts. These spring drives were stopped after 1915, when pleasure boat owners complained about the hazards to navigation. A final drive in 1918 conducted to meet World War I pulp demand consisted of 100,000 cords of four-foot logs controlled by 500 workers, representing 65 million feet of logs.

In Northampton, Massachusetts, looting during the flood became a problem, prompting the mayor to deputize citizen patrols to protect flooded areas. Over 3,000 refugees from the area were housed in Amherst College and the Massachusetts State Agricultural College (today the University of Massachusetts, Amherst).

Unprecedented ice jams compounded the problems created by the flood, diverting water into unusual channels and damming the river, further raising water levels. When the jam at Hadley, Massachusetts, gave way, the water crest overflowed the dam at Holyoke, overwhelming the sandbagging there. The village of South Hadley Falls was essentially destroyed, and the southern parts of Holyoke were severely damaged, with 500 refugees.

thumb|left|Downtown [[Hartford, Connecticut, during the 1936 flood]]

In Springfield, Massachusetts, , and of streets were flooded, and 20,000 people lost their homes. The city lost power, and nighttime looting caused the police to issue a "shoot on sight" edict; 800 National Guard troops were brought in to help maintain order. Rescue efforts using a flotilla of boats saved people trapped in upper stories of buildings, bringing them to local fraternal lodges, schools, churches, and monasteries for lodging, medical care, and food. The American Red Cross and local, state, and federal agencies, including the WPA and the CCC, contributed aid and workforce to the effort. Flooding of roads isolated the city for a time. When the water receded, it left behind silt-caused mud, which in places was thick; the recovery effort in Springfield, at the height of the American Great Depression, took approximately a decade.

Overall, the flood caused 171 deaths and US$500 million (US$ with inflation) in damages. Across the northeast, over 430,000 people were made homeless or destitute by flooding that year.

The Connecticut River Flood Control Compact between the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont was established in 1953 to help prevent serious flooding.

1936–present: Water supply

The creation of the Quabbin Reservoir in the 1930s diverted the Swift River, which feeds the Chicopee River, a tributary of the Connecticut. This resulted in an unsuccessful lawsuit by the state of Connecticut against the diversion of its riparian waters.

Demand for drinking water in eastern Massachusetts passed the sustainable supply from the existing system in 1969. Diverting water from the Connecticut River was considered several times, but in 1986 the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority instead undertook a campaign of water conservation. Demand was reduced to sustainable levels by 1989, reaching approximately a 25% margin of safety by 2009.

Course

The Connecticut River is the largest river ecosystem in New England. Its watershed spans Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, small portions of Maine, and the Canadian province of Quebec. The river drops more than in elevation as it winds south to the border of Massachusetts where it sits above sea level.

The region along the river upstream and downstream from Lebanon, New Hampshire, and White River Junction, Vermont, is known as the "Upper Valley". The exact definition of the region varies, but it is generally considered to extend south to Windsor, Vermont, and Cornish, New Hampshire, and north to Bradford, Vermont, and Piermont, New Hampshire. In 2001, the Trust for Public Land purchased of land in New Hampshire from International Paper, allowing the Connecticut Lakes Headwaters Partnership Task Force to plan the future protection of the land. The property spans the towns of Pittsburg, Clarksville, and Stewartstown, New Hampshire, nearly 3 percent of the land in the state of New Hampshire. The Trust for Public Land worked in partnership with the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, The Nature Conservancy of New Hampshire, and others to raise around $42 million. In the Middle Connecticut region, the river reaches its maximum depth – – at Gill, Massachusetts, around the French King Bridge, and its maximum width – – at Longmeadow, directly across from the Six Flags New England amusement park. The Connecticut's largest falls – South Hadley Falls – features a vertical drop of . The region around the Connecticut River is known locally as the Pioneer Valley, and the name adorns many local civic organizations and local businesses. While the southern part of the valley in Massachusetts is heavily urbanized, the northern section is largely rural, and the local agriculture is well known for Connecticut shade tobacco.

The tides influence the Connecticut River as far north as Enfield Rapids in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, approximately north of the river's mouth. Two million residents live in the densely populated Hartford-Springfield region, which stretches roughly between the college towns of Amherst, Massachusetts, and Middletown, Connecticut. Hartford, the second-largest city and the only state capital on the river, is at the southern end of this region on an ancient floodplain that stretches to Middletown.

The Lower Connecticut River: Southern Connecticut to Long Island Sound

south of Hartford, at Middletown, the Lower Connecticut River section begins with a narrowing of the river, and then a sharp turn southeast. Throughout southern Connecticut, the Connecticut passes through a thinly populated, hilly, wooded region before again widening and discharging into Long Island Sound between Old Saybrook and Old Lyme in flat coastal marshlands. Due to the presence of large, shifting sandbars at its mouth, the Connecticut is the only major river in the Northeastern United States without a port at its mouth.

Mouth and tidelands

thumb|right|Satellite image of the Connecticut River depositing silt into [[Long Island Sound]]

The Connecticut River carries a heavy load of silt from as far north as Quebec, especially during spring snowmelt. This results in a large sandbar near the river's mouth, which is a formidable obstacle to navigation. The Connecticut is one of the few major rivers in the United States without a major city at its mouth because of this obstacle. Major cities on the Connecticut River are Hartford and Springfield, which lie upriver of each other.

The Nature Conservancy named the Connecticut River's tidelands one of the Western Hemisphere's "40 Last Great Places", while the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands listed its estuary and tidal wetlands as one of 1,759 wetlands of international importance. In 1997, the Connecticut River was designated one of only 14 American Heritage Rivers, which recognized its "distinctive natural, economic, agricultural, scenic, historic, cultural, and recreational qualities." In May 2012, the Connecticut River was designated America's first National Blueway in recognition of the restoration and preservation efforts on the river. The Cabot and Turners Falls hydroelectric stations generate up to 68 MW. The Holyoke Canal System and Hadley Falls Station at Holyoke Dam are rated a combined 48 MW.

Tributaries

The Connecticut River watershed encompasses and connects 148 tributaries, including 38 major rivers and numerous lakes and ponds. In the southernmost portions of southern Connecticut near Long Island Sound, dolphins are spotted on occasion.

There are 12 species of freshwater mussels. Eleven of them occur in the mainstem of the Connecticut; the brook floater is found only in small streams and rivers. Species diversity is higher in the southern part of the watershed (Connecticut and Massachusetts) than in the northern part (Vermont and New Hampshire), largely due to differences in stream gradient and substrate. Eight of the 12 species in the watershed are listed as endangered, threatened, or of special concern in one or more of the watershed's states.

Fish

thumb|left|Drift boat fishing guide working the river near [[Colebrook, New Hampshire]]

There are several species of anadromous and catadromous fish, including brook trout, winter flounder, blueback herring, alewife, rainbow trout, large brown trout, American shad (Alosa sapidissima), hickory shad, smallmouth bass, Atlantic sturgeon, striped bass (Morone saxatilis), American eel, sea lamprey, and endangered shortnose sturgeon and dwarf wedgemussels. Additionally, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has repopulated the river with another species of migratory fish, the Atlantic salmon, which for more than 200 years had been extinct from the river due to damming.

Much of the beginning of the river's course in the town of Pittsburg is occupied by the Connecticut Lakes, which contain lake trout and landlocked salmon. Landlocked salmon make their way into the river during spring spawning runs of bait fish and during their fall spawn. The river has fly-fishing-only regulations on of river. Most of the river from Lake Francis south is open to both lures and bait. Two tailwater dams provide cold river water for miles downstream, making for bountiful summer fishing on the Connecticut.

After the first major dam was built near Turners Falls, Massachusetts, thirteen additional dams have ended the Connecticut River's great anadromous fish runs. Salmon restoration efforts began in 1967, and fish ladders at a fish elevator at Hadley Falls have since enabled migrating fish to return to some of their former spawning grounds. In addition to dams, warm water discharges between 1978 and 1992 from Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Vernon, Vermont, released water up to degrees, with the thermal plume reaching downstream as far as Holyoke. This thermal pollution appears to be associated with an 80% decline in American shad fish numbers from 1992 to 2005 at Holyoke Dam. This decline may have been exacerbated by over-fishing in the mid-Atlantic and predation from resurging striped bass populations. The nuclear plant was closed at the end of 2014, after which the shad population has increased.

Economy

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A countless number of rivers have been used to transport people, goods, etc., and are still used today. All such information should be described here. Stylistically, this can be a good segue from history, connecting past uses of the river to present-day uses.

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Boating

The mouth of the river up to Essex is thought to be one of the busiest stretches of waterway in Connecticut. Some local police departments and the state Environmental Conservation Police patrol the area a few times a week. Some towns keep boats available if needed. In Massachusetts, the most active stretch of the Connecticut River is centered on the Oxbow, north of Springfield in the college town of Northampton.

Camping is available along much of the river, for non-motorized boats, via the Connecticut River Paddlers' Trail. The Paddlers' Trail currently includes campsites on over of the river.

Pollution and cleanup

thumb|right|[[Stream restoration|Riverbank restoration project in Fairlee, Vermont]]

The Water Quality Act of 1965 had a major impact on controlling water pollution in the Connecticut River and its tributaries.

Since then, the river has<!-- Really need to link or describe what classes D and B are. Couldn't find template to flat there. --> been restored from Class D to Class B (fishable and swimmable). Many towns along the Lower Connecticut River have enacted a cap on further development along the banks, so that no buildings may be constructed except on existing foundations. Currently, a website provides water quality reports twice a week, indicating whether various portions of the river are safe for swimming, boating, and fishing.

Lists

Populated places

Tributaries

Listed from south to north by location of mouth:

  • Black Hall River (Old Lyme, CT)
  • Falls River (Essex, CT)
  • Eightmile River (Hamburg, CT)
  • Deep River (Deep River, CT)
  • Salmon River (Moodus, CT)
  • Mattabesset River (Middletown, CT)
  • Hockanum River (East Hartford and Hartford, CT)
  • Park River (Hartford, CT)
  • Farmington River (Windsor, CT)
  • Scantic River (South Windsor, CT)
  • Westfield River (West Springfield and Springfield, MA)
  • Mill River (Springfield, MA)
  • Chicopee River (Chicopee and Springfield, MA)
  • Manhan River (The Oxbow of Northampton, MA)
  • Mill River (Northampton, MA)
  • Fort River (Hadley, MA)
  • Mill River (Hatfield, MA)
  • Mill River (Amherst, MA)
  • Sawmill River (Montague, MA)
  • Deerfield River (Deerfield and Greenfield, MA)
  • Fall River (Greenfield and Gill, MA)
  • Millers River (Millers Falls, MA)
  • Ashuelot River (Hinsdale, NH)
  • Whetstone Brook (Brattleboro, VT)
  • West River (Brattleboro, VT)
  • Partridge Brook (Westmoreland, NH)
  • Cold River (Walpole, NH)
  • Saxtons River (Westminster, VT)
  • Williams River (Rockingham, VT)
  • Black River (Springfield, VT)
  • Little Sugar River (Charlestown, NH)
  • Sugar River (Claremont, NH)
  • Blow-me-down Brook (Cornish, NH)
  • Ottauquechee River (Hartland, VT)
  • Mascoma River (West Lebanon, NH)
  • White River (White River Junction, VT)
  • Mink Brook (Hanover, NH)
  • Ompompanoosuc River (Norwich, VT)
  • Waits River (Bradford, VT)
  • Oliverian Brook (Haverhill, NH)
  • Wells River (Wells River, VT)
  • Ammonoosuc River (Woodsville, NH)
  • Stevens River (Barnet, VT)
  • Passumpsic River (Barnet, VT)
  • Johns River (Dalton, NH)
  • Israel River (Lancaster, NH)
  • Upper Ammonoosuc River (Northumberland, NH)
  • Paul Stream (Brunswick, VT)
  • Nulhegan River (Bloomfield, VT)
  • Simms Stream (Columbia, NH)
  • Mohawk River (Colebrook, NH)
  • Halls Stream (Beecher Falls, VT)
  • Indian Stream (Pittsburg, NH)
  • Perry Stream (Pittsburg, NH)

Crossings

The Connecticut River is a barrier to travel between western and eastern New England. Several major transportation corridors cross the river including Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, Interstate 95 (Connecticut Turnpike), Interstate 90 (Massachusetts Turnpike), Interstate 89, Interstate 93, and Interstate 84. In addition, Interstate 91, whose route largely follows the river, crosses it twice – once in Connecticut and once in Massachusetts.

In literature

Lydia Sigourney's poem "Connecticut River" was first published in her 1834 poetry collection. A later poem, "Passage up the Connecticut", was published in 1845, together with a description of a journey along the river.

See also

  • Equivalent Lands
  • The Great Attack, the burning of American ships on the Connecticut River at Essex in 1814
  • History of Connecticut
  • Lake Connecticut, post-glacial predecessor to Lake Hitchcock
  • Lake Hitchcock, post-glacial predecessor to the Connecticut River
  • List of rivers of Connecticut
  • List of rivers of Massachusetts
  • List of rivers of New Hampshire
  • List of rivers of Vermont

References

Further reading

  • Connecticut River Watershed Council
  • Connecticut River Valley Flood Control Commission
  • Connecticut River Museum
  • Connecticut Riverfest
  • Upper Valley Trails Alliance
  • Connecticut River Joint Commissions
  • Tri-state Connecticut River Watershed Initiative