"The Great River" Known today as the Connecticut River

The “Great River” of New England   Connecticut came from the Indian name “Quoneehtacut, Quniatucquet or Quenticut” meaning long tidal river or “long estuary”.     The source of the river starts in Vermont not far from the Canadian border. The river is the “state line” between Vermont and New Hampshire. The river runs down through Massachusetts and then into Connecticut.   Once in Connecticut it pass down through rich farmlands then to dams and rapids of Enfield Falls at Windsor Locks. Windsor Locks was settled very rapidly due to the river cargoes. As you travel the river south, you pass Dinosaur State Park where over 1,000 footprints are displayed. They were discovered during construction of a state highway as recently as 1966.   In Haddam and East Haddam, the Salmon River joins it. The Connecticut flows past Hamburg Cove, Lyme forming a number of marshlands along its banks through Lyme, Essex and Old Saybrook. The Connecticut River flows into the sound at Montauk Point, Long Island.   Due to the length of the Connecticut River it was easy for steamboats to haul cargo up and down the river to towns north and south of East Haddam. This making it very easy, got the industry era to boom in Moodus and bringing us to the “Industries of East Haddam and Moodus.”