Site History:

The name comes an Algonquian phrase for "long water land", and the name given to the river and the area around its mouth.

The Quinnipiac River is in New England. It flows southward into New Haven Harbor. It's length is 38 square miles and it's name comes from the Algonguin name; long water land. In the 19th and 20th centuries the river had many pollution problems because of heavy industry and population centers in it's watershed. In 1886 the state prohibited the City of Meriden from discarding pollution raw sewage into the river. Even then, the State Board of Health reported that the fish and plant life had disappeared from the river.  However, the pollution was somewhat abated by the passage of the Connecticut Clean Water Act of 1967, and the Water Pollution Act of 1972 provided the legal authority to clean up the river's watershed. The measures included building advanced waste management facilities for the river's well being. Levels of copper in the river have decreased by 70% since the 1980s but sewer overflows from the City of New Haven are still a big problem to the river. The Quinnipiac Tribe was an Algonquian Tribe that lived near the Quinnipiac River. It was a branch of the Algonquian Tribe and followed the same basic rituals and worshipped the same gods. They were hunters, fishers and squaws. The husbands went out and hunted and the wives (also known as "squaws") cooked and took care of the house and children.  They lived in south and central Connecticut. The tribe's territory covered over 300 square miles which is almost half the area that the present day New Haven County.

Adrian Block was said to be the first person to discover the Quinnipiac Algonquians. He was European. He sailed to Connecticut in 1614. He did not settle in Connecticut but he did start the trade between the Dutch and the Quinnipiac Algonquians. In 1638 many   Englishmen came to Connecticut to settle. There were about several hundred people in the group that were led by Reverend John Davenport. He named what is now called by us New Haven; 'Quinnipiak'. In 1640 they named it New Haven.

Quinnipiac Algonquian Hunters prayed to the spirits of animals they had killed in the hunt to make sure there were good hunts in the future. All Quinnipiac Algonquians believed that there were gods of fire, the sun, the moon, and the sea. Most Algonquian Tribes shared religious beliefs in a supreme creator, a spirit of the elements like wind and water, and a hero who taught the Quinnipiac Algonquians skills like hunting and cooking. Every Quinnipiac Algonquian feared witchcraft. Quinnipiac Algonquians hunted for food with arrows and spears. Women, who where also called squaws, tended the crops. When the corn started to get ripe, the squaws put it outside in the sun to dry. After the corn dried, it was placed in a basket and the basket was placed underground. Corn that was called yokeag was put in to hot ashes and hit with rocks until it was turned in to powder. The Quinnipiac Algonquians lived in different houses during the summer and the winter. In the summer it was very hot so they lived in longhouses. The longhouses where thirty to one hundred feet long.   They   were twenty feet long and 15 feet high. In the winter, Algonquians moved in to winter hunting camps where they could follow the herds of different animals.

Paralleling the west bank of the Quinnipiac River through the entire length of Quinnipiac River State Park in North Haven is the Quinnipiac Trail.

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the river suffered from severe pollution problems because of the presence of heavy industry and population centers in its watershed. The Quinnipiac was the subject of the first ever pollution control measure in the state of Connecticut. In 1886, the state general assembly passed a measure prohibiting the City of Meriden from discharging raw sewage into the river. In 1891, the act resulted in the building of state's first sewage treatment plant.

Nevertheless, by 1914, the State Board of Health reported that the major fish life had largely disappeared from its mouth. The pollution has been somewhat abated by the passage of the Connecticut Clean Water Act of 1967, and by the Water Pollution Control Act of 1972, which provided the legal authority to take measures to clean up the river's watershed. The measures included the construction of advanced waste management facilities for sewage and industrial waste. Levels of copper in the river have decreased 70% since the 1980s and are now comparable to other reference streams in Connecticut. Combined sewer overflows from the City of New Haven are still regarded as a major problem for the estuary.