The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing southward as far as 406 miles (653 km) through four states. It appears on the US border with Quebec, Canada, and exile on Long Island Sound. Its watersheds include five US states and one Canadian province, 11,260 square miles (29,200 km 2 ) through 148 tributaries, 38 of which are large rivers. This produces 70% of Long Island Sound's freshwater, usage at 19,600 cubic feet (560 m 3 ) per second.
The Connecticut River Valley is home to some of the most productive farmland in the northeastern United States, as well as a metropolitan area of ​​about two million people around Springfield, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut.
Video Connecticut River
Histori
The word "Connecticut" is the French corruption of the word Mohegan quinetucket which means "next to the long and tidal river". The word came into English in the early 1600s to name a river, also called the "Great River".
Pre-1614-1637: American Indian Population
Prior to the start of Dutch exploration in 1614, many indigenous tribes lived along the fertile Connecticut River valley. Information on how these tribes live and interact originated primarily from English accounts written during the 1630s.
Pequot dominates the region in the southernmost part of the Connecticut River valley, extending roughly from the mouth of the river in Old Saybrook, Connecticut to the north just below Big Bend in Middletown. They fought with and tried to subdue neighboring farm tribes like Western Niantika, while maintaining discomfort with their rivals Mohegans. The Mattabesset tribe (Tunxis) takes its name from the place where sachemnya reigns in the Big Bend River Connecticut in Middletown, in a village flanked between the aggressive Pequot territories south and the more peaceful Mohegan in the north.
The Mohegans dominated the area in the north, where Hartford and its suburbs sat, especially after allying with the Colonist against Pequot during the Pequot War of 1637. Their culture was similar to Pequot, since they had separated themselves from them and became their rivals shortly before the exploration Europeans in the region. The Pocomtuc farms live in unfortified villages along the Connecticut River north of Enfield Falls on rolling hills and lush pastures around Springfield, Massachusetts. The Pocomtuc village of Agawam eventually becomes Springfield, located on Bay Path where the Connecticut River meets the Westfield River and the eastern Chicopee River. The villagers of Pocomtuc in Agawam help the Puritan explorers settle on this site and remain friends with them for decades, unlike the far north and south tribes along the Connecticut River. The area that stretches from northern Springfield to New Hampshire and the Vermont state frontier fosters much of Pocomtuc and Nipmuc farmland, with the soil enhanced by sedimentary sediments. Sometimes, these villages have an invasion of the more aggressive confederate tribes living in New York, such as the Mohawk, Mahican, and Iroquois tribes.
The Pennacooks mediated much of the early strife between the colonizers and other Indian tribes, with territories stretching approximately from the Massachusetts border with Vermont and New Hampshire, northward until the rise of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. The Western Abenaki (Sokoki) tribe lives in the Green Mountains region of Vermont but winters as far south as the Northfield, Massachusetts area. They then joined other members of the Algonquin tribe who were displaced by war and famine.
1614-1636: Dutch and Puritan settlements
In 1614, the Dutch explorer, Adriaen Block, became the first European to map the Connecticut River, sailing north as far as Enfield Rapids. He called it the "Fresh River" and claimed it for the Netherlands as the northeastern border of the New Dutch colony. In 1623, Dutch merchants built a fortified trading post at the Hartford, Connecticut location called Fort Huys de Hoop ("Fortress of Hope").
Four independently led Puritan groups also settled in the fertile Connecticut River Valley, and they founded two major cities that continued to dominate the Valley today: Hartford (1635) and Springfield (about 1636). The first pioneer group left the Plymouth Colony in 1632 and eventually founded the Matianuck village (which became Windsor, Connecticut) a few miles to the north of the Dutch fort. A group left the Massachusetts Gulf Colony of Watertown, looking for a place where they could practice their religion more freely. With this in mind, they founded Wethersfield, Connecticut in 1633, a few miles south of the Dutch fort in Hartford.
In 1635, Reverend Thomas Hooker led settlers from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he fought with Reverend John Cotton, to a place in Connecticut Fort House of Hope of the Netherlands, where he founded Newtowne. Shortly after Hooker's arrival, Newtowne annexed Matianuck under the law articulated in the Connecticut settlement charter, Warwick Patent of 1631. The patent, however, has been physically lost, and the annexation is almost certainly illegal.
The fourth British settlement along the Connecticut River came out of a 1635 Scout party commissioned by William Pynchon to find the most profitable site for trade and agriculture, hoping to find a city there. Its spacecraft is located in the village of Pocumtuc in Agawam, where the Gulf Path trade route crosses the Connecticut River on its two main tributaries - the Chicopee River to the east and the Westfield River to the west - and lies north of Enfield Falls, the first waterfall untouched in the river. Pynchon suspects that traders using one of these routes must dock and replace the ship on its site, thus providing a commercial profit settlement. Originally named the Agawam Plantation and allied with a settlement in the southern state of Connecticut, but switched allegiance in 1641 and renamed Springfield to honor the original Pynchon town in England.
From these settlements, Hartford and Springfield quickly emerged as a force. In 1641, Springfield was split from Hartford Colony, based in Hartford, allied with the Massachusetts Bay Colony. For decades, Springfield remains the westernmost settlement of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, on the northern border of the Connecticut Colony. However, in 1654, the success of this British settlement made the Dutch position untenable on the Connecticut River. An agreement moved the boundary west between the Connecticut Colony and New Netherland Colony to a point near Greenwich, Connecticut. The treaty allowed the Dutch to retain their trading post on the Foot Huys de Hoop, which they did until the British takeover of 1664 in New Netherland.
Border dispute
The central location of the Connecticut River Valley, its fertile land, and abundant natural resources has made it subject to centuries of cross-border disputes, beginning with the Springfield defect of the Connecticut Colony in 1641, which brought the Massachusetts Colonies to the river. The royal treaty in 1764 sparked the eastern river to unite with Ethan Allen and the western side to the left against New York and England. The Treaty of 1783 Paris creates a disputed border with Canada from "northern upstream" in Connecticut. The US Supreme Court Decision of 1933 set a boundary dispute between Vermont and New Hampshire. History of the Connecticut River is characterized by political intrigue and technological innovation.
During 1640 and 1641, two controversies occurred that changed the political boundaries of the Lower Connecticut River region, preventing it from administration by a political body. The Connecticut colony hosted Springfield during the 1630s, in addition to Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor; However, in 1640, Springfield's favorable geography enabled him to be the most commercial settlement in the Connecticut Colony. The colony suffered from a crippling grain deficit during the spring of 1640 that caused many cattle to die of starvation. Grain shortage becomes a matter of survival for the Colonies but not for Springfield, because of its prosperity.
In response to the shortage, the citizens of Wethersfield and Hartford gave power to Pynchon, founder of Springfield, to buy corn for all Colony Connecticut settlements from Pocumtuc. The colonial leaders gave him the authority to offer large sums of money to the Indians, well above market prices; however, Indians refuse to sell at "reasonable" prices, and therefore he refuses to buy corn at all. Pynchon argues that it is best not to broadcast the weaknesses of the Colonists in Connecticut to the Indians, whom he believes might use them; also, he aims to keep the market value and trade with the Indians in the future.
The prominent citizens of Hartford are furious with Pynchon's willingness to endanger hungry settlements. With the approval of Windsor and Wethersfield, they commissioned Captain John Mason who had fought in the Pequot War to travel to Springfield with "money in one hand and a sword in the other" to make a deal with the Indians, and also to punish Pynchon. Upon reaching Springfield, Mason threatened the Indians with war if they did not sell their corn at reasonable prices. The Indians surrendered and eventually sold corn to the colonists. However, the approach of Masonic violence caused unbelief among the Pocumtuc tribe. Mason also raised Pynchon in public. This incident arose in part from differences of opinion on how to interact with Indians. Pynchon has achieved a mutual advantage by trading with Pocumtucs, while Mason has used force. However, it caused the Springfield settlers to gather around the humiliated Pynchon, and led to the settlement severing ties with the Connecticut Colonies.
As the controversy heats up, the Massachusetts Bay Colonists see an opportunity to gain a foothold along the fertile Connecticut River Basin. In 1640, Boston asserted claims to jurisdiction over land around the river; However, Springfield remained politically independent until the tension with the Connecticut Colonies was exacerbated by the latest confrontation by the end of the year.
Hartford kept a fortress at the mouth of the Connecticut River at Old Saybrook for protection against Pequots, Wampanoags, Mohegans, and New Netherland Colony. After Springfield severed ties with Colony, the remaining Connecticut settlements demanded that Springfield vessels pay the toll as it passes through the mouth of the river. The ships refused to pay this tax without representation at the Connecticut stronghold, but Hartford refused to grant it. In response, Massachusetts Bay Colony established a friendship with Springfield by charging at Connecticut Colony ships entering Boston Harbor. Connecticut was largely dependent on maritime trade with Boston and therefore permanently dropped its taxes on Springfield, but Springfield allied with Boston nonetheless, drawing the country's first border across the Connecticut River.
Fortress at Number 4 in Charlestown, New Hampshire was the northernmost British settlement on the Connecticut River until the end of the French and Indian Wars in 1763. The Abenaki Indians rejected the British effort in colonization, but the colony began to settle north of Brattleboro, Vermont following the war. The Upper River Connecticut River settlement increased rapidly, with a population assessment of 36,000 in 1790.
The area that is now Vermont claimed by New Hampshire and New York, and settled mainly through the issuance of land grants by New Hampshire Governor Benning Wentworth began in the 1740s. New York protested this grant, and King George III decided in 1764 that the border between the provinces should be the western edge of the Connecticut River. Ethan Allen, Green Mountain Boys, and other residents of the disputed territories rejected attempts by New York to exercise authority over the territory, resulting in the formation of an independent Vermont Republic in 1777 and its final accession to the United States in 1791 as a fourteenth state. The border dispute between Vermont and New Hampshire lasted for nearly 150 years and was finally settled in 1933, when the US Supreme Court reaffirmed King George's border as an ordinary low water mark on the Vermont coast. In some places, the line of the country is now flooded with dam dams built after this time.
Treaty of Paris and the 19th century
The Treaty of Paris (1783) ending the American Revolutionary War created a new international frontier between New Hampshire and the Canadian Province in "the hottest northwest of Connecticut." Several streams fit this description, and thus boundary disputes led to the short-lived Indian Flow Republic, which existed from 1832 to 1835.
The vast and fertile Connecticut River Valley attracts agricultural settlers and colonial merchants to Hartford, Springfield, and the surrounding area. The high volume and fall of many rivers led to the emergence of industry along its banks during the Industrial Revolution. The cities of Springfield and Hartford in particular became the center of innovation and "intense and concentrated prosperity."
The Enfield Waterfall channel opened in 1829 to avoid shallow water around Enfield Falls, and the keys built for this channel gave their name to the town of Windsor Locks, Connecticut. The Connecticut River Valley serves as the center of American technical innovation into the 20th century, especially the cities of Springfield and Hartford, and thus attracts many railroad lines. The proliferation of railroads in Springfield and Hartford greatly diminish the economic significance of the Connecticut River. From the late 1800s to the present day, it has functioned largely as a center for wildlife and recreation.
Log drive and early 20th century
Beginning around 1865, the river was used for the massive raids of the Third Lake of Keikatan to a water-powered sawmill near Enfield Falls. Trees cut next to the stream include Perry Stream and Indian Stream in Pittsburg, New Hampshire, Halls Stream on the border of Quebec-New Hampshire, the Simms Stream, the Mohawk River, and the Nulhegan River valley in Essex County, Vermont, will be watered by the main river with the release of water seized behind a spark dam. Some dead wood drivers try to move logs through Perry Falls in Pittsburg. The men's teams will wait in Canaan, Vermont, to protect the bridge from stuck. The men guided the wood piercing as high as 400 feet (120 m) along the Fifteen-Mile Falls (now submerged beneath the reservoirs of Moore and Comerford), and through Logan's Rips at Fitzdale, Pitch Lower Mulligan, and Seven Islands. The White River from Vermont and the Ammonoosuc River from New Hampshire bring more wood to Connecticut. The boom log is built between Wells River, Vermont, and Woodsville, New Hampshire, to hold the logs briefly and release them gradually to avoid jam at the Ox Bow. The detailed man for this job takes advantage of the salons and the red light district of Woodsville. Some logs are destined for factories in Wilder and Bellows Falls, Vermont, while others are dampened over the Bellow Falls dam. North Walpole, New Hampshire, contains 12 to 18 saloons, protected by wood drivers. Mount Tom is a landmark used by wood drivers to measure the distance to the final factory near Holyoke, Massachusetts. The spring drive was discontinued after 1915, when yacht owners complained about the dangers to navigation. The last movers included 500 workers who controlled 65 million feet of logs. A final slurry drive consisted of 100,000 four-foot rods in 1918. This was to take advantage of wartime demand.
Flood 1936
In March 1936, due to winter with heavy snowfall, early spring and heavy rain, the Connecticut River flooded, overflowed its banks, destroyed many bridges and isolated hundreds of people who had to be rescued by boat.
The dam in Vernon, Vermont, topped 19 feet (5.8 m). Sandbags by the National Guard and local volunteers help prevent the dam's power center unencumbered, though ice blocks penetrate the upstream wall.
In Northampton, Massachusetts, looting during the floods was a problem, causing city mayors to represent patrols to protect the flooded areas. More than 3,000 refugees from the area are housed at Amherst College and Massachusetts State Agricultural College (now UMass Amherst).
The unprecedented ice jam adds to the problems caused by flooding, diverting water into unusual channels and blocking rivers, increasing water levels further. When jam in Hadley, Massachusetts, gave way, the top of the water flooded the dam at Holyoke, flooding the sandbags there. The village of South Hadley Falls is basically destroyed, and the southern part of Holyoke is heavily damaged, with 500 refugees.
In Springfield, Massachusetts, 5 m² (13 km 2 ), and 18 miles (29 km) of streets, floods, and 20,000 people lost their homes. The city lost power, and looting at night caused the police to issue a "shoot at sight" edict; 800 National Guard troops were brought in to help maintain order. Rescue efforts using boat fleets rescued people trapped in the upstairs of the building, taking them to local fraternal huts, schools, churches and convents for lodging, medical care, and food. The American Red Cross and local, state and federal agencies, including the WPA and the CCC, contribute help and effort to the effort. The road floods alienate the city for a while. When the water recedes, it leaves mud caused by mud that is in places as thick as 3 feet (1 m); recovery efforts in Springfield, at the height of the Great Depression of America, take about a decade.
Overall, the floods caused 171 deaths and US $ 500 million (US $ 8.800 million with inflation) in damages. Across the northeast, more than 430,000 people became homeless or poor by the floods 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-current: Water supply
The creation of the Quabbin Reservoir in the 1930s diverted the Swift River, feeding the Chicopee River, tributary of Connecticut. This resulted in unsuccessful claims by the state of Connecticut against the riparian of riparian waters.
Demand for drinking water in eastern Massachusetts passed the sustainable supply of the existing system in 1969. Redirecting water from the Connecticut River was considered several times, but in 1986, the Massachusetts water resources authority undertook a water conservation campaign. Demand decreased to a sustainable level in 1989, accounting for about 25% of safety margins in 2009.
Maps Connecticut River
Course
By far the largest river ecosystem in New England, the Connecticut River Basin covers five of the six New England states - New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, as well as a small section of Maine and the Canadian province of Quebec.
Upper Hulu River: New Hampshire and Vermont
The Connecticut River rises from Connecticut Fourth Lake, a small pond located 300 yards (270 m) south of the US national border with Chartierville, Quebec, Canada, in the town of Pittsburg, New Hampshire, USA. Starting at an altitude of 2,670 feet (810 m) above sea level, the Connecticut River flows through the remaining Connecticut Lake and Lake Francis - for 14 miles (23 km), all within the town of Pittsburg - and then widen as described 255-miles 410Ã, km) from the border between New Hampshire and Vermont. The Connecticut descends over 2,480 feet (760 m) in height due to the southerly winds to the Massachusetts border, at which point it sits 190 feet (58 m) above sea level.
The region along the upstream and downstream rivers of Lebanon, New Hampshire and the White River Crossing, Vermont, is known locally as the "Upper Valley". The exact definition of the region varies, but is generally thought to extend southward into Windsor, Vermont, and Cornish, New Hampshire, and north to Bradford, Vermont, and Piermont, New Hampshire.
Connecticut River Central: Massachusetts via Connecticut center
After the newest ice age, the Connecticut River Valley Central sits at the base of Lake Hitchcock. The lush green soil and rich and almost rockless soil are derived from sedimentary sediments of primordial lakes. In the Central Connecticut region, the river reaches a maximum depth - 130 feet (40 m) - in Gill, Massachusetts, around the King of the French Bridge, and its maximum width - 2,100 feet (640 m) - in Longmeadow, just opposite Six Flags New amusement Park England. The largest waterfall in Connecticut - South Hadley Falls - has a height of 58 feet (18 m). The lush green forests and dot farms dot the center of the Connecticut River; However, the area is well-known for its many college towns, such as Northampton, South Hadley, and Amherst, as well as the most populous river city of Springfield. It is located on a cliff beside the Connecticut meeting with two tributaries, the Chicopee River to the east and the Westfield River in the west.
The Connecticut River is influenced by ocean waves as far as Enfield Rapids in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, about 58 miles (93 km) north of the river mouth. Two million people live in the heavily populated Hartford-Springfield area, which runs roughly between Amherst, Massachusetts, and Middletown, Connecticut colleges. Hartford, the second largest city in the Connecticut River and the only state capital, is located at the southern end of this region on an ancient floodplain that runs into Middletown.
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15 miles (24 km) south of Hartford, in Middletown, the Lower Connecticut River begins with a narrowing of the river, and then turns sharply to the southeast. Along the southern Connecticut, Connecticut passes through densely populated, hilly, rocky areas before it is widened and dumped into Long Island Sound between Old Saybrook and Old Lyme. Due to a large sand dune that shifted in its mouth, Connecticut was the only major river in the Northeast United without a harbor in its mouth.
Mouth and tidelands
The Connecticut River carries a lot of mud, especially during the spring snow melt, from as far north of Quebec. The concentration of this dense mud manifests in a large sand dune near the mouth of Connecticut, which, historically, provides a strong barrier to navigation. Since the difficulty was present for the ship, Connecticut was one of the few major rivers in the United States without a big city in its mouth. The major cities of Connecticut - Hartford and Springfield - span 45 and 69 miles respectively (70 and 110 km).
The Nature Conservancy named Connecticut River's tidelands of one of the "40 Last Great Places" in the Western Hemisphere, while the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands lists wetland and wetland tidal complexes as one of the world's most important 1,759 wetlands.
In 1997, the Connecticut River was designated as one of only 14 American Heritage Rivers, recognizing "distinctive natural, economic, agricultural, scenic, historical, cultural, and recreational qualities." In May 2012, the Connecticut River was designated the first National Highway in America, in recognition of its recovery and conservation efforts in the river.
Dams
The Connecticut River was slowed by the mother dam, which created a series of slow streams from Lake Francis Dam in Pittsburg, New Hampshire, to Dam Holyoke in South Hadley Falls in Massachusetts. Among the most dammed rivers in the United States, Connecticut will soon flow at a more natural rate, according to scientists at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who have designed a computer that - "in an effort to balance human and natural needs." - Coordinate containment and release of water among the 54 largest river dams.
Stream
The Connecticut basin covers 11,260 square miles (29,200 km 2 ), linking 148 tributaries, including 38 major rivers and numerous lakes and ponds. The main tributaries include (from north to south) Passumpsic, Ammonoosuc, White, Black, West, Ashuelot, Millers, Deerfield, Chicopee, Westfield, and Farmington rivers. The Swift River, the Chicopee River, has been dammed and largely replaced by the Quabbin Reservoir that provides water to the Massachusetts District of Water Resources Authority in eastern Massachusetts, including Boston and its metropolitan area.
Fish
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 a stunted shortnose sturgeon and dwarf wedgemussels. In addition, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has replenished the river with other migratory fish species, Atlantic salmon, which for more than 200 years has been extinct from the river due to containment. Some fish ladders and fish elevators have been built to allow fish to continue their natural migration upstream each spring.
Residents of fresh water and brackets from main branches and tributaries include goldfish, white catfish, brown bullhead, fallfish, yellow hawks, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, northern spear, chain pickerel, bluegill sunfish, sunfish pumpkins, gold shiner, and rock bass..
Many of the early river rides in Pittsburg are occupied by Connecticut Lake, which contains trout and terrestrial salmon. The landlocked salmon enter the river during the spring fishing bait and during the fall they lay their eggs. This river has a special rule to catch fish in rivers along the 5 miles (8 km). Most of the rivers from southern Lake Francis open for lure and bait as well. Two sea water dams provide cold river water for miles downstream, making for an abundant summer fishing trip in Connecticut.
After the first large dam was built near Turners Falls, Massachusetts, thirteen additional dams have ended the great Connecticut River Anadromous fishing trip. The fish ladder, built since the first fish line in 1980 at Turners Falls, has allowed the migration of fish to return to some of their former spawning grounds. In addition to the dam, warm water discharges between 1978 and 1992 from the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Vernon, Vermont released water up to 105 ° F (41 ° C) degrees and a heat wave reaching 55 miles (89 km) downstream to Holyoke. This thermal pollution appears to be associated with an 80% decline in the number of American shark fish from 1992 to 2005 at the Holyoke dam. This decline may have been exacerbated by over-fishing in mid-Atlantic and the predation of resurging bass striped populations. The nuclear plant closes by the end of 2014 but the 2015 shad runs in Vernon for only 42,000 shad.
There are 12 species of freshwater mussels. Of them, 11 occur in the mainstem of Connecticut, all but the river buoy, which is found only in small rivers and rivers. The species diversity is higher in the southern part of the river basin (Connecticut and Massachusetts) than in the northern part (Vermont and New Hampshire), largely due to differences in flow and substrate gradients. Eight of the 12 species in the watershed are listed as endangered, threatened, or special attention in one or more watershed states.
Economy
Boating
The mouth of the river to Essex is considered one of the busiest waterways in Connecticut. Several local police departments and the country's Environmental Conservation Police patrol the area several times a week. Some towns provide boats if needed. In Massachusetts, the most active Connecticut River stretch is based in Oxbow, 14 miles (23 km) north of Springfield in the city of Northampton campus.
Primitive camping is available along many rivers, for non-motorized boats, through the River River Connecticut Trail. The Paddlers' Trail currently includes campsites at over 300 miles (480 km) from the river.
Pollution and cleaning
The Water Quality Act of 1965 had a major impact on the control of water pollution on the Connecticut River and its tributaries.
Since then, the river has been restored from Class D to Class B (retractable and can swim). Many cities along the Lower Connecticut River have imposed restrictions on further development along the banks, so no buildings can be built except on the foundations. Currently, a website provides twice-weekly water quality reports, indicating whether the various parts of the river are safe for swimming, boating and fishing.
List
Place of resident
Tributary
Listed from south to north based on location of mouth:
Crossing
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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