| Local History 
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The New England Transportation Institute and Museum is developing an extensive timeline for this section. In the meantime, a few words on the transportation history of the Upper Connecticut River Valley:The importance of the Upper Valley as a transportation corridor dates from pre-Columbian times when Sokoki and Abenaki Indians relied on the river for hunting, fishing and trade. Early pioneer settlements following the French and Indian war gained cohesion for trade and security through use of the river. As settlements increased, north-south transport on the river was by ice sled, canoe, flatboat, log raft, and eventually steam boat. Before railroads and turnpikes opened east-west commerce in the 1850's and dramatically changed trade patterns, flatboats with square sails plied the river with goods and passengers. Canals and locks were operating as early as 1792, the Connecticut being the first river in America to be improved by canals. In fact, locks and canals were a part of the Upper Valley in Bellows Falls, New Hampshire and Hartland and Wilder, Vermont, by 1890.
Transportation has remained a dominant theme in the region's history. In 1790 Samuel Morey invented an early version of the steam boat in Orford, New Hampshire. The steamboat Ledyard traversed the entire Connecticut River valley as far north as Wells River in 1831.
Logging along the river began as early as 1761 with the cutting of large trees for English ship masts. In the decades that followed, millions of logs were cut and floated downstream on rafts to provide lumber for export and for the building of lower Connecticut River towns.
Railroad expansion began in 1847 with the bridging of the Connecticut River at White River Junction and Bellows Falls. Thanks in part to the commerce encouraged by the growing railway system, water powered mills for woolens, metalwork, grist, lumber, and tool making began to prosper. |
