The
Connecticut River, Our Living Heritage.
Its Geologic History
The modern
Connecticut River spans millions of years. Its story unfolds from
the many types of bedrock that supports its sandy shores, to the creatures
that swim in its water and live along its banks. We can appreciate how
its cultural history shapes our lives today
There
are many fascinating aspects of the river and its valley that we can learn
about, if we take just a few minutes.
The
Connecticut Valley originated about 220 million years ago, late in the
Triassic Period. The Earth’s crust in southern New England was stretched,
creating a huge fault system that ran north and south. Over the next 40
million years, the land west of the faults sank slowly downward. Lava
erupting from deep fissures covered the valley floor three times. The
climate was very warm, but the amount of rainfall alternated between moist
and semiarid over periods extending for hundreds of years. During the
wet periods, in the early Jurassic, Luxuriant forests of conifers, cycads,
horsetails and ferns grew in the valley. Judging from the thousands of
fossil tracks found in the valley, dinosaurs and other more primitive
reptiles were common. The dinosaurs ranged from turkey-sized fabrosaurids
to 20 foot long predators related to Diophosaurus.
The
modern Connecticut River developed between 13,000 and 10,000 years ago,
after the receding of the last ice sheet, the late Wisconsin Glacier,
to cover New England. During the last glaciation (25,000 to 18,000 years
ago), a continental ice sheet gouged its way across the bedrock of the
Connecticut Valley and covered all of New England with ice more than a
mile thick. During the retreat of this great ice sheet through New England
(18,000 to 13,000 years ago), meltwater streams issuing from the waning
glacial ice deposited sands and gravels as temporary dams impounding glacial
lakes. Glacial Lake Hitcock occupied the Connecticut River Valley between
15,000 and 11,000 years ago. The lake was as much as 15 miles in width
and stretched from a glacial drift dam at Rocky Hill, Connecticut, for
about 140 miles northward in the valley to Lyme, New Hampshire. Eventually,
the dam broke, the lake waters drained southward to Long Island Sound,
and the modern Connecticut River was established on the drained bed of
glacial Lake Hitchcock. Today, varved glacial lake clays an be seen in
many places in the river banks, and in other places remnant delta and
beach deposits of the glacial lake lie more than 100 feet above the modern
river.
As
time passed and the Connecticut River cut down into the glacial lake bed,
linear stream sections changed to more meandering (curving) ones. In some
cases, oxbow lakes like the one at Northampton, Massachusetts, formed
as river meanders were abandoned during flood events.
Today’s
Connecticut River actually begins near the Canadian border in New Hampshire
and travels 410 miles to Long Island Sound.
Its Cultural History
The first
people to inhabit the Connecticut River Valley are called Paleo-Indians,
and are known to have camped across these regions more than 11,000 years
ago. At that time, the receding late Wisconsin Glacier, which had covered
New England, allowed them to hunt caribou, wooly mammoth, other smaller
animals, and to gather seasonal wild plant food. As the climate warmed,
the plants and animals gradually changed and diversified. These semi-nomadic
people adapted their lifestyle and food choices accordingly, hunting deer,
moose, bear, beaver, muskrat, rabbit, and fish. Varieties of edible nuts,
berries, seeds, roots and plant parts were also eaten.
Between
2,000 to 1,000 years ago, native populations bean cultivating vegetables
such as corn, beans, and squash. This more predictable food supply allowed
for the establishment of even more permanent settlements. Garden crops
were raised in the lower fertile flood plains of the river, where people
also gathered to fish and trade.
A
thriving trade business among native populations existed along the Connecticut
River well before European contact as Native Americans gathered to trade
furs, maple syrup and sugar, and to harvest wild rice, waterfowl, and
other water resources. Wampum beads, made from the shells of the quahog
clam and whelk, were a primary trading activity in this early river trade.
The Nehantics and other river tribes, members of the Algonquian federation,
called the Connecticut River "Quinatucquet" or "Quinnetukut,"
meaning "long tidal river," because the ocean tides influence
the river from its mouth on Long Island Sound as far north as the Enfield
Rapids.
The
first Europeans to explore the great river were traders, not settlers,
who brought furs from the Indians and sold them on the Old World. The
Dutch explorer Adriaen Block is credited with being the first European
to sail up river in the "restless." He called it the "de
Versche" or Fresh River because of the purity of its waters. In 1614,
he established a small trading post for beaver, deer, fox, muskrat, raccoon,
martin, mink, otter and other mammals at Saybrook Point. Later, in 1633,
the Dutch West India Company founded another trading post, House of Hope,
at the present site of Hartford.
The
relationship between the Indians and the traders was mutually beneficial
and mostly 10,000 beaver skins annually. However, when permanent English
settlement began in the 1630s, disputes arose among the Indians, Dutch
and English. Unfortunately, between encroachment upon Native homelands
by European settlers, changing stewardship of the land, warfare and European
diseases, the Native American population was greatly reduced and dislocated.
As
the English settlement grew in places like Windsor, Wethersfield, Hartford,
and Saybrook, the Connecticut River became an important source of travel
and trade, beginning as early as 1650. In addition to the fur trade, logging
of timber became an important industry. The first log drive occurred in
1761, and continued until 1949 in northern New England. Huge trees were
cut and located down river to mills for making furniture, boxes for shipping
materials west, paper, and houses.
Fertile
glacial terraces and floodplains created prime agricultural lands that
inspired settlement and the establishment of a permanent society. The
earliest settlers practiced subsistence farming, growing what they could
for their own use. They quickly developed cash crops for export, such
as tobacco, wool, butter, milk, and maple syrup. Today, diversified and
specialty agriculture, and farmstands and farmers’ markets, all contribute
to the economy and the Atlantic seaboard and as far as the Carribbean.
The rich soil adjacent to the river grew grains, onions and other crops.
Livestock and salter fish added to the value of their cargoes. On return,
they carries rum, molasses and sugar. Brownstone rock was another important
product of the valley, and was often shipped to Hartford, Boston, and
New York. (Please note: The best and largest quantity of brownstone was
from the Portland Quarries – web-manager.)
Hartford
and Middletown were the two largest river ports. With the introduction
of steam power around 1815, river traffic increased, and the small shipyards
between Only Lyme and Windsor prospered. There was regular steamboat service
between Hartford and New York until 1931.
The
Connecticut was America’s first major river to be improved for transportation.
A system of dams and canals opened the river to steamboats and flatboats
for more than half its length, encouraging settlement, trade, and travel.
As
the population increased, it is estimated that three-quarters of the Valley
was cleared for agriculture and grazing of livestock before the Civil
War. Because of this habitat change, many wildlife species disappeared
or were greatly reduced in numbers. The gray squirrel might have been
considered an "endangered species" in the mid-1800s.
Small
acre farming, however, suffered from competition as western lands were
opened to settlement and from the lack of more fertile soil as the population
grew. Young people moved north and west to seek an easier life. Again,
the land use changed. Native trees, through a successional pattern, began
to grown back. Slowly animals returned. Today, the regrowth of the woodlands
has brought back the bald eagle, the beaver, the bear, the bobcat, the
moose, and others.
Manufacturing and Water Power
In addition
to travel and shipping, the Connecticut River has also been used to
provide water power since the mid-1800s.
In
1848, Samuel Colt, producing revolvers in Hartford, and Robbins and Lawrence,
making rifles in Windsor, Vermont, were among the first manufacturers
in America to produce goods using interchangeable parts.
Holyoke
Massachusetts became the first planned city using a dam and a series of
canals to harness water power, and prospered, producing goods needed for
the Civil War. Turner Falls, Massachusetts, was also developed in the
later 1800s after the war, with the help of a dam and water power. Many
manufacturing plants used falling water as a source of energy.
Mills
in Bellows Falls, Vermont, and Claremont, New Hampshire, produced paper
and textiles. Other mills sawed lumber, ground grain, and powered various
woodworking and metal-working machinery.
However,
these dams, built about 200 years ago, dealt a significant blow to anadromous
fish, such as the salmon and shad, which spawned in the Connecticut River,
but returned to the sea to live. The salmon was the hardest hit, and was
completely eliminated because these fish must travel to the feeder streams
or tributaries to lay their eggs. Shad spawning habitat, on the other
hand, exists downstream of the dams; thus, shad were never completely
eliminated.
In
the late 1800s, technology for converting water power into electricity
arrived in the valley. Dams were improved and efficiency increased. Industrial
development, however, caused pollution of our waterways. This, along with
pesticides and population growth, put stress on many remaining species
of fish and wildlife.
A
successful fish lift (elevator) was built in Holyoke and began operating
in 1955. The Turner Falls fish ladders were completed in 1980. Additional
fishways have been built in Vernon (1981), Bellows Falls (1984) and Wilder,
Vermont (1987), to help restore salmon and shad.
Today,
these valuable species are making a comeback, and conversation efforts
are also underway to help conserve such unique species as the shortnose
sturgeon and other fishes. The river now supports a large population of
sport fish including largemouth and smallmouth bass, brook trout, northern
pike, and channel catfish. Efforts supported by taxpayers and anglers
have turned the Connecticut River into a premier recreational resource
enjoyed by thousands of boaters, anglers, birders and the general public.
Today,
our environment contains a diverse mix of land uses and our challenge
is to maintain a healthy ecosystem while still allowing for sustained
economic growth. There are 50,000 business employing over 640,000 people
in the 99 cities and towns that touch the river.
The
Connecticut River Compact has been signed by many of the groups involved
with river projects who have agreed to work together "for the betterment
of the River Valley," a shared vision that includes economic development,
protection of the river ecosystem, farmland preservation, reduction of
river pollution, and public recreational usage. One typical project is
the creation of a tri-state Connecticut River Scenic Byway that would
promote heritage tourism in rural areas in Vermont, New Hampshire and
Massachusetts. Other projects include Riverfront Recapture in Hartford
and the Riverfront Development Program in the Springfield, Massachusetts,
area.
What You Can Do
As you have
seen, our beautiful Connecticut Valley has experienced vast changes
over time. We’ve seen both the positive and negative environmental
impacts of our human activities. Our challenge is to maintain a balance
between economic growth and a healthy ecosystem.
In
addition to learning about and appreciating the Connecticut River, here
are a few things you can do to preserve it:
Join
a watershed organization or land trust. Read and support conservation
efforts.
Storm
drains in the street (also called sewer inlets) are for water only. Water
flows into storm drains, many of which empty into local creeks and the
Connecticut River. You can help make our waterways safer for drinking,
fishing and boating by keeping pollution and trash out of storm drains.
Service your car regularly to prevent oils and other fluids from leaking
onto the pavement and being washed down storm drains. Always recycle your
used motor oil and other fluids from leaking onto the pavement and being
washed down the storm drains. Always recycle your used motor oil and antifreeze.
Manage your painting projects by choosing water-based paints and washing
brushes in your sink with water. Reuse and recycle paint thinner, which
is a hazardous material. Don’t pour it down the sink or storm drain.
Compost
leaves and grass clippings. This will provide you with rich compost next
year that can be used to enhance your garden soil. If you don’t compost,
carefully bag your leaves and grass clippings. Leaves and grass clippings
placed in the street unbagged will clog storm drains.
Minimize
use of toxic chemicals on your lawn and garden and use only when necessary.
These include fertilizers, used to make grass and flowers grow, and herbicides,
used to kill weeds such as crabgrass. Use alternatives, non-chemical techniques
– and save some money in the process! If upi must use chemicals,
follow the directions carefully.
Minimize
the use of household toxic substances. These include mothballs, drain
and oven cleaners, insect sprays and many other products. Substitute with
products that use natural ingredients whenever possible.
Expand
your garden, plant shrubs for wildlife and cut down on the size of your
lawn. Maintaining a garden without chemicals is easier that maintaining
a lawn with chemicals. Use native plants and mulch, and plant densely
to decrease the need for water, reduce erosion, discourage weeds, and
encourage birds and other animals. Set your lawn mower height to 3 inches
to encourage a deep root system.
Landscape
with nature. Use native plants and grasses that are well-suited to our
region’s climate and soils. Native plants usually require less maintenance
and irrigation and less fertilizer. They also require fewer chemical pesticides.
The result is that the water that runs off your lawn and garden into storm
drains will carry fewer pollutants. Consult your local garden center for
suitable native plants and grasses.
Place
dog waste in the toilet or a trash can, not in the street or down the
storm drain. Dog waste introduces disease-causing bacteria into our water
supply.
Keep
litter off the street. Thins includes cigarette butts, fast food containers
and other wastes. Put trash in trash cans and clean up street litter so
it doesn’t get washed or blown into the storm drains.
(These
tips were adapted from the Hartford Storm Drain Stenciling Project and
the Philadelphia Water Department.)
(This article was
published on this web-site courtesy
of the Connecticut Light & Power Company.)
