The Oxoboxo River, shown on federal maps as Oxoboxo Brook,
is a tributary of the
Thames River
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
in
New London County
New London County is in the southeastern corner of Connecticut and comprises the Norwich-New London, Connecticut Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Hartford-East Hartford, Connecticut Combined Statistical Area. There i ...
,
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
. It flows roughly in a southeasterly direction from its source at Oxoboxo Lake to its confluence with the Thames. It has a
watershed of , 87% of which is in the
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
of
Montville.
Town of Montville Plan of Conservation and Development 2010
'', May 15, 2010
The Oxoboxo was an important source of
water power
Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by converting the gravitational potential or kinetic energy of a wa ...
during English colonial settlement and 19th-century European-American industrial development in Montville. Colonists built the first
sawmill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
on the river in 1653. As of the 1880s, the river supplied power for 15 cotton, woolen, and paper mills, most of which had dams.
[ The river's source, Oxoboxo Lake, is a natural lake whose size and elevation have been increased by ]dam
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...
ming. The earliest dam at Oxoboxo Lake was constructed in the 17th century; it has been rebuilt and increased in height several times since, reaching its current elevation in the 1880s.[ A dam adjacent to ]Connecticut Route 32
Route 32 is a primary north–south state highway in the U.S. state of Connecticut, beginning in New London and continuing via Willimantic to the Massachusetts state line, where it continues as Route 32 in that state.
Route des ...
in Uncasville
Uncasville is an area in the town of Montville, Connecticut, United States. It is a village in southeastern Montville, at the mouth of the Oxoboxo River where it flows into the Thames River. The name is now applied more generally to all of the ...
was removed in 2020 during redevelopment of the Uncasville Mill, which it formerly powered.
The name was derived from Algonquian languages of the area, which had terms for the river and lake. Other historical names for the stream and alternative spellings of "Oxoboxo" include Abscubogset, Absubogsuck, Cochikuack Brook, Cokichiwake, Cokikuak, Cuchickuwock, Okeshoksee, Okseboksce, Oxopaugsuck, Oxyboxy, and Sawmill Brook. Many are transliterations of the feature name in the Mohegan
The Mohegan are an Algonquian Native American tribe historically based in present-day Connecticut. Today the majority of the people are associated with the Mohegan Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe living on a reservation in the easte ...
and other Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages ( or ; also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous American languages that include most languages in the Algic languages, Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language f ...
of historical Native American tribes in the area.[
]
See also
*List of rivers of Connecticut
Most of Connecticut's rivers flow into Long Island Sound and from there the waters mix into the Atlantic Ocean. A few extremely eastern rivers flow into Block Island Sound. The list is arranged by drainage basin from east to west, with respective t ...
References
{{authority control
Estuaries of Connecticut
Rivers of New London County, Connecticut
Montville, Connecticut
Rivers of Connecticut
Tributaries of the Thames River (Connecticut)