Connecticut Water Trails Association
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Connecticut Water Trails Association |
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Connecticut Water Trails Program Connecticut Rivers Pequonnock River
Site
Location: Basic Information: The Pequonnock River is a waterway in eastern Fairfield County, Connecticut. The river has a penchant for flooding, particularly in spring since the removal of a retention dam in Trumbull in the 1950s. There seems to be a sharp difference of opinion among historians as to just what the Indian word Pequonnock signifies. Some insist it meant cleared field or open ground; others are sure it meant broken ground; while a third group is certain it meant place of slaughter or place of destruction. The eastern branch river flows southernly from Monroe through Trumbull past the Old Mine Park Archeological Site and continues to the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, merging at the mouth of Bridgeport Harbor with Long Island Sound at the Bridgeport Harbor Light. The river is dammed in Bridgeport by the Bunnell's Pond Dam, forming Bunnell's Pond (Longitude 73.1113°W Latitude 41.1229°N) near the Beardsley Zoo. The western branch of the river flows southeasterly in a wide "S" pattern from near the Monroe border with Newtown, Connecticut. The two branches link in Monroe east of the intersection of Route 25 and Purdy Hill Road (Longitude 73.144″°W Latitude 41.1801°N). Less than a mile south of that point in Trumbull, a tributary called North Farrars Brook also joins the Pequonnock. Belden Brook in Trumbull flows into the river southwest of the intersection of Route 25 and Daniels Farm Road. The third tributary is the Booth Hill Brook, also in Trumbull. It merges northeast of the Route 25 interchange with Route 15 (Longitude 73.1109°W Latitude 41.1423°N). The fourth and final tributary is the Island Brook, which joins the river in Bridgeport south of Bunnell Pond and north of the River Street Bridge (Longitude 73.1112°W Latitude 41.1149°N). Island Brook is dammed in Bridgeport by the Forest Lake Dam, forming Forest Lake (Longitude 73.1225°W Latitude 41.1312°N )
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Season: Site Contact Information: Site Coordinates:
Longitude 73.17773699999999
°W
USGS Quadrangles: Driving Directions: Directions Map: ITouch Map: Pequonnock River Boat Launch Information: ADA Access: Site Description: Environment: Additional Info: Paddling The Pequonnock River: Site History: Pequonnock Village Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the
Pequannocks Indians of the
Paugussett nation lived on the banks of the river.
One village on the west bank of the Pequonnock consisted of about five
or six hundred inhabitants in approximately 150 lodgings. The first
English settlement on the west bank of the mouth of the Pequonnock was
made in about 1665 and was called Pequonnock. This village was renamed
Newfield sometime before 1777. During the American Revolution, Newfield
was a center of privateering. In 1800, Newfield village was chartered as
the borough of Bridgeport, forming the nucleus for the city of
Bridgeport. Trumbull National Guard Unit Co. C 8th Reg. of
the Connecticut National Guard, Commanded by Capt. Charles E. Plumb,
circa 1867. The Grist Mill in the background was built by Gideon and
Ephraim Hawley in 1722 at White Plains Trumbull. In January 1722, Gideon
and Ephraim Hawley agreed to build or rebuild a mill or mills on the
stream of the Pequonnock River at the narrows by White Plain just east
of White Plains Road. In the mid-18th century, Daniel Hawley built a
mill at the spring on the Pequonnock River along White Plains Road just
north of Daniels Farm Road in Trumbull Center near. Daniel, who resided
just northeast of the present bridge, was a grand nephew of Gideon and
Ephraim Hawley. Reuben Fairchild and his brothers, Daniel and
Eben built the Fairchild Paper Mill in 1826 at a place commonly called
since 1674 as the Falls of the Pequonnock River. They were guided in
their endeavors by Andrew Tait (1836: Andrew Tait built a
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