Overview
We're on a stretch of the Connecticut River between dams at Vernon, 14 miles upriver, and Turners Falls, 7 miles downstream. This cruise takes us on the section of the Connecticut River between Northfield Farms and Turners Falls, a trip of about seven miles each way. Scenic, natural, cultural, and historical attractions characterize this part of the river.
Click here to begin a tour right now, following the river on aerial images. Click the blue pins for information on each highlight.
Follow the distances on this cruise with the mileage table.
The River
The Connecticut River begins 285 miles upstream, a half mile above sea level. Its source is the Fourth Connecticut Lake, a small pond which lies less than a thousand feet from the Canadian border. To reach the lake from nearby Route 3, one must first cross into Canada and then return to the United States.
In its run to the sea, the river drains a watershed of 11,000 square miles and drops 2600 feet in its 409 miles, an average of 6.4 feet per mile. It loses 1600 feet in the first 30 miles of its course.
The Riverview dock is 124.5 miles from the Long Island Sound. The level at Northfield is about 180 feet above sea level. The depth of this stretch of the river, Vernon to Turners Falls, varies from 10 to 150 feet
This great stream flows through 4 states, dividing Vermont and New Hampshire, where the boundary runs down the west bank of the river. Northfield is the only town situated on both sides of the Connecticut.
The river generally flows north to south over its course, but on today's cruise, it twists and turns, heading northwest and even north at times.
The river plunges over several waterfalls between its source and the sound. Cascades or rapids occur downstream at Turners Falls, Holyoke, and Enfield. Bellows Falls and others north of here were likewise obstacles to passage.
The river level fluctuates several feet a day due to hydropower operations. Woe to the canoer who does not tie up overnight but simply beaches the craft or pitches camp on the sandy shore!
As late as the winter of 1972, the river still froze deep enough to permit snowmobiling. Vermont Yankee went online in the fall of that year, and the river has not frozen solid and completely since.
As we cruise the river, you'll notice the pristine cleanliness of the shores and the scarcity of buildings. Once a year, volunteers in the Source-to-Sea program scour and clean the riverbank. An enormous amount of trash is removed. Between Vernon and Turners Falls, approximately 90% of the riverbank is owned by the electrical utility. You will see houses which are privately owned but sit on land leased from the owners of Northfield Mountain.
In 1998 the Environmental Protection Agency designated the Connecticut an American Heritage River, one of 14 so recognized, because of its historical and scenic values.
Floods
Since records were first kept in 1692, The Connecticut River has frequently flooded its basin. In the last century, epic floods ravaged the valley in 1913, 1927, 1955, and 1936. Ed Klekowski's documentary film, The Great Flood of 1936 contains interviews with survivors and newsreel footage of the disaster. [more...]
Dams
Once a wild or natural river, only its first 4 and the last 64 miles still flow freely. Fifteen dams have turned the river into a series of pools or reservoirs. Before the construction of the dams was started around 1800, the Connecticut was much narrower, lower, and rockier. The river at Hartland Rapids (Sumner Falls) is closest to the natural state.
The river and the tributaries in its basin contain over 1,000 dams. The first powered mills or raised the water enough to permit navigation. Since 1900, many are used for flood control and electricity generation. The dams have impeded the migration of herring, shad, and salmon.
Old maps show many islands in the river which are now covered by impounded water or have been washed away by floods
Nine thousand years ago, the river in this area was about 80 feet higher. Even earlier, right after the glacier melted, immense Lake Hitchcock was higher and wider still.
Water Quality
Once called “America’s best-landscaped sewer", sewage, industrial waste, and agricultural runoff polluted the river. The Clean Water Act and its enforcement stimulated improvement of the water quality. The river has been upgraded from class D to class B, suitable for most purposes except drinking. There are still cautions regarding the consumption of fish caught here. [more...]
“Quinnetukut”
The name is said to mean “long, tidal river.” It is a French transliteration from the Abenaki language, pronounced “Kinn-é-tu-kút” with emphasis on the second and fourth syllables: “Connecticut.”
There is a Connetquot River on Long Island. The Quinnehtuk Company is Northeast Utilities’ real estate subsidiary which holds property in Massachusetts.
Native Peoples
This part of the river was occupied as far back as 10,000 years, soon after the glacier melted. At the time of settlement by Europeans (1600s), Squakheags inhabited this area. Evidence of their material culture abounds: stone tools and weapons, clay pottery, soapstone bowls, hearths, and grain storage pits. Many of the stone artifacts were made of chert, a material found in the Hudson Valley and in Maine and New Hampshire. This indicates travel and trade over great distances. The stone tools include arrowheads, spear points, knives, sharpening stones, awls, scrapers, hoes, gouges, hammer stones, spear weights, and fish net sinkers.
The Springfield Science Museum displays dioramas and exhibits of local native culture. Museums and libraries in Northfield, Montague, Deerfield, and Holyoke hold collections of artifacts.
These early inhabitants practiced agriculture in recent millennia, planting and cultivating crops. They periodically burned over fields to create suitable farmland. The European colonists who first arrived in the valley found these open plains, which they termed "intervales." The settlers gave these locales names like Enfield, Suffield, Springfield, Deerfield, Swampfield and Northfield, reflecting both their English heritage and the occurrence of flat, open areas. [more...]
European Settlement
Evidence of past human activity abounds in the woods and fields: stone walls, cellar holes, collapsed dams, old cemeteries, quarries, abandoned apple orchards, old roads, wells, barbed wire scars on trees, bottle dumps, and rusted buckets. Aerial photographs show differences in vegetation and tree cover – old hedgerows, property boundaries, fields, or paths.
Ferry Crossing
You probably came to Riverview by turning off Route 63 onto Ferry Road, so-called because this was the landing of Stacy’s Ferry. Long before Route 2 traversed the state, travelers crossed the Connecticut here and continued east on Poplar (Popple) Mountain Road. The landing on the Gill side can be seen across the river.
Stacy's (later Morgan's) Ferry was the southernmost of six ferries operating in Northfield, one as late as 1936. The Beers' Northfield map of 1871 shows three ferries.
River Commerce
Flatboats of shallow draft, 40 to 60 feet long, plied the river between the falls. It was necessary to unload freight at each falls, transfer the loads to wagons, drive them around the falls, and reload upon flatboats above.
As dams were built along the river, raising the water level and channeling passage around the falls, river commerce entered upon a period of great commercial activity from Hartford, Connecticut, to Wells River, Vermont. From the damming of the river to the coming of the railroads, 1800 to 1850, freight and passenger traffic flourished. Flatboats were built to fit through the locks of dams. Boatmen pushed them upstream with long poles, and square sails caught favorable winds. The Northfield Mountain Visitor Center exhibits a life-sized diorama of one of these. The Greenfield Historical Society displays a twenty-six-foot, 300-pound oar believed to have been used to steer a river flatboat. Bingham's The Jolly Flatboatmen (1846) celebrated the life of river workers.
As early as 1826, small steamboats also traveled the river as far north as Wells River, often towing freight barges behind them. However, the steamers were generally too large for the canal locks and of too great a draft. [more...]
Both kinds of boat carried sugar, molasses, rum, salt, and manufactured goods upstream and returned with furs, lumber and agricultural produce.
River transportation was slow and costly. The trip from the sound to Vermont might take twenty days. It was faster to ship goods from Hartford to Boston by water than it was to transport goods down the river from Vermont to Hartford. Commercial boating faded out with the advent of railroads.
George Sheldon presents details of canals and riverboats in his "History of Deerfield."
Railroad
Ferry Road passes under the tracks of the New England Central Railroad. Amtrak operates its daily Vermonter service between Washington, D.C., and St. Albans, Vermont, on this line with stops in Brattleboro and Amherst. This passenger train speeds through here southbound at 1:15 PM and northbound at 4:40 PM.
This railroad line began as the Vermont & Massachusetts around 1850. After several changes in ownership and name, it has been the New England Central Railroad since 1995.
Years ago, the Northfield Farms station stood just north of Ferry Road.
River Road
Between the railroad overpass and Riverview, Ferry Road crosses Pine Meadow Road which, a mile south, becomes River Road in Erving. By either name, this is an ancient route of travel, used by both native peoples and European settlers. It extends from Northfield south to Sunderland, formerly known as “Swampfield.” In Montague it becomes Old Northfield Road and then Old Sunderland Road.
Following this road south a few miles takes you along the river bank, under the French King Bridge, and onto Route 2.
Richard Ewald presents a concise and informed summary of the history of transportation in the river valley in Technology and Transportation: 1790-1870.
River Bank Restoration
Erosion has caused riverbank collapse and loss of land along the river. In this stretch, First Light Power has been stabilizing the river bank. In addition to re-shaping the shoreline in threatened areas, aims include the protection of rare species habitat, farm land, and archaeological sites. After massive earth moving, native vegetation has been restored.
Archaeologists from the University of Massachusetts have surveyed restoration areas before construction and have found evidence of occupation by early Native Americans.
French King Rock
One mile downstream from the dock sits French King Rock, a conglomerate, glacial erratic which was carried here by the ice sheet. An old photograph shows it to be much higher than it now appears. At times of high water, the boulder is completely submerged. The boundaries of Gill, Northfield, and Erving meet at the rock.
Stacy Mountain
To the west of the rock rises Stacy Mountain in Gill, where the Nature Conservancy maintains a 169-acre, scenic mountain preserve. Its rich forest, cliffs, and vernal pools provide habitat for rare and threatened species of plants and wildlife.
French King Bridge
As we enter the French King Gorge, the French King Bridge towers 180 feet above us. Almost 800 feet long, it spans the river between Gill and Erving. Built in 1932, it was reconstructed in 1992. Parking at both ends and a raised walkway permit safe viewing of the spectacular river landscape, a great photo opportunity. Conservation easements protect the land around the bridge from development.
Millers River Confluence
Here the Millers River marks the boundary between the towns of Erving and Montague. It is called a “barbed tributary,” entering the main river in an upstream direction instead of pointing downstream. Geologists believe that the Connecticut River once flowed into the present Millers' valley.
Erving’s River Road crosses the Millers on a bridge near its mouth. This ancient path once forded the stream; the river was much lower before the dams. Later, a ferry operated between the banks and was followed by a wooden bridge. Today the Franklin County Bikeway crosses the iron bridge to continue south on East Mineral Road in Montague.
No later than 1799, a dam drew water from the Millers to power a sawmill on the Montague side. The channel from the dam to the waterwheel can still be seen, carved into the rock.
Cabot Camp
Located at the end of East Mineral Road (formerly Old Stage Road) in Montague, the original building at Cabot Camp served as a toll house and a ferryman’s house. A tavern and inn accommodated travelers along this road and on the Connecticut River. This junction served as a major interstate trade route. What appears to be a stone wall on the beach is the foundation of a sawmill. [more...]
Opposite Cabot Camp, on the right-hand side of the river, the ruined foundation of a hotel lies hidden in the woods before the cliffs. Here the river hides the remains of a stone dock under water.
Water over the Dam
The Quinnetukut soon passes over a submerged dam built in 1805 to raise the water and enable boats to navigate the French King Rapids. The locks at Whale Rock by-passed the dam. Hoyt's 1832 map calls these the "Upper Locks." A later map shows new locks on the Gill side of the dam.
Montague Plains
On the left and above the river stretches the expanse of the Montague Plains, a sandy, post-glacial delta deposit from a river entering Lake Hitchcock. This is the largest pine barrens in the valley and the second largest in the state, after Cape Cod. Predominant plants are huckleberry, blueberry, pitch pine, and scrub oak. The sandy soil rapidly absorbs rainfall, recharging aquifers. Wildfires periodically ravage the plains. Controlled burning in recent years has attempted to abate combustion.
The Montague Plains is an important birding area. Several rare species are found here.
Traces of early man are found here, including a paleolithic site at least 10,000 years old, near Turners Falls.
In colonial times, cattle were driven to Boston markets from the west along the Albany Road, crossing the Deerfield and Connecticut Rivers, across the plains, over Dry Hill Road and on to Brighton.
Forests/Woodlands
New England was completely covered with virgin forests before European settlement. Native people are believed to have set small fires to clear the forest floor of brush and weeds, facilitating movement and removing insect pests through smoke and flame.
Colonists quickly cleared land of trees for planting fields. Many of the felled trees became lumber for buildings, fences, furniture, vehicles, and fuel. Heating and cooking consumed an enormous amount of energy. Other trees were simply burned where they fell, and the ashes used for charcoal, fertilizer, and potash. Settlement quickly deforested the landscape. By 1790, Hadley had run out of trees. By 1830, only 20% of Massachusetts was still forested. Wood became so scarce that its price soared, and stone walls replaced split-rail fences.
Deforestation had a detrimental environmental impact. Clear-cutting caused erosion, flooding, and loss of habitat for wildlife.
Harvard University's Fisher Museum in Petersham has an excellent series of dioramas depicting the changes in the landscape over three hundred years.
Log Drives
From 1870 to 1915, great log drives ran spruce and pine down the river to mills at Gill, Turners Falls, Northampton, and Holyoke. Trees were felled as far north as the Canadian border and floated down streams swollen by spring freshets.
Read the fascinating history in Bill Gove’s Log Drives on the Connecticut River and Robert Pike’s Tall Trees, Tough Men and Spiked Boots. Ed Klekowski’s film, Dynamite, Whiskey and Wood, documents the drives with vintage and modern footage, including underwater scenes.
Visit the page, "Log Drives on the River."
Quinnetukut Narrows
This is the most constricted section of the Connecticut in its lower 300 miles. A natural rock wall, the Lily Pond Barrier, once blocked the river here and impounded the upstream water, which was 80 feet higher. The river poured over the top of this "dam" in three waterfalls which eroded the rock. Two plunge pools can be seen in Barton's Cove. The third cascade broke through the barrier, creating the present narrows. The fall of the water at this spot wore a 130-foot deep hole in the river's bottom.
During the log drives, chains of logs, called "booms", channeled the timber into the narrows. The iron bolts securing the cables and chains can be seen in the rock shores at low water. Logs often jammed in this chokepoint.
The rocky point of land on the right is the tip of Barton's peninsula, a mile-long neck of land almost entirely surrounded by water. Northfield Mountain maintains a public camping area here.
As we pass through the Quinnetukut Narrows, the river turns north, and we enter Barton's Cove.
Barton's Cove
The river widens as it enters Barton's Cove. This was Barton's Meadow until the raising of the Turners Falls dam further impounded the river and flooded the area. The islands to our right once were small hills on the field. An 1830 map shows a much smaller Barton's Cove.
Barton's Cove freezes deep enough to allow ice fishing. In the past, ice was harvested here for home and commercial cooling.
The Riverside Archaeological District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, stretches from the Quinnetukut Narrows to Greenfield beyond the falls. The area has been continuously occupied for ten thousand years. Archaeological investigations have found abundant evidence of the earlier culture, including miniature ears of charred corn.
The houses on the right-hand shore belong to the community of Riverside in Gill. The Turners Falls Lumber Company stood here during the days of the log drives.
Riverside was the location of Captain Turner's attack in 1676. A monument marks the site.
On both sides of the river rise the abutments of the Red or Upper Bridge, a suspension bridge which crossed here from 1878 to 1938. The Roebling Company furnished wire and cable for its construction and was involved in the design. The bridge was closed to motor traffic when the Gill-Montague Bridge above the falls was built and then later torn down for scrap during the Second World War. Even earlier, a ferry crossed here. Ferry Street in Riverside became Bridge Street and finally Riverview Drive.
Beyond the buoys ahead of us, the waterfalls and dam lie under the bridge. The first log dam was built here in 1797. That and successive dams raised the river level for twenty miles upstream. A fishway allows migrating fish to swim around the dam. From mid-may to late June, the public may view the fish through underwater windows.
To the left of the dam and bridge, a canal once carried boats around the falls. Later, another canal was built to furnish water power to the mills. About a hundred years ago, this canal was rebuilt to furnish water to a hydroelectric power station.
Here the Quinnetukut turns around, retracing its course upriver.
