The Moshassuck River is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

in the U.S. state of

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

. It flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed April 1, 2011 from the town of Lincoln to the city of

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

. There are six dams along the river's length.Governor's Task Force on Dam Safety and Maintenance – Final Report, January 2001
/ref>

History

In 1636

Roger Williams Roger Williams (21 September 1603between 27 January and 15 March 1683) was an English-born New England Puritan minister, theologian, and author who founded Providence Plantations, which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantatio ...

, founder of Rhode Island, settled on the east bank of the river and was told its name by the local

Narragansett Indians The Narragansett people are an Algonquian American Indian tribe from Rhode Island. Today, Narragansett people are enrolled in the federally recognized Narragansett Indian Tribe. They gained federal recognition in 1983. The tribe was nearly l ...

. The name "Moshassuck" means "river where moose watered".Friends of the Moshassuck
/ref> The river became very important during the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

, powering numerous mills and also connecting to the

Blackstone River The Blackstone River is a river in the U.S. states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It flows approximately 48 mi (80 km) and drains a watershed of approximately 540 sq. mi (1,400 km2). Its long history of industrial use has l ...

to function as the lower section of the

Blackstone Canal The Blackstone Canal was a waterway linking Worcester, Massachusetts, to Providence, Rhode Island (and Narragansett Bay) through the Blackstone Valley via a series of locks and canals during the early 19th century. History The initiative for t ...

. The southern end of the Moshassuck River was the center for the area's earliest mills in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries and the location of base-metal works and

textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, different #Fabric, fabric types, etc. At f ...

factories in the nineteenth century. Today it contains several industrial buildings, such as the Fletcher Building, now used for retail and office space. Further north on the Moshassuck are the few remaining early-and-late nineteenth-century buildings of the Allen Printworks, a textile-printing operation. In Pawtucket along the river are the remaining structures of the Hope Webbing Company and the Lorraine Mills.Providence Industrial Sites
issued in 1981 by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission. By the mid nineteenth century, the pollution in the Moshassuck River had become so bad from factories dumping both industrial and human waste into the water that Rhode Island's

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium '' Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting an ...

outbreaks of 1849 and 1854 were blamed on the state of the river. The first cleanup attempt on the river was started in 1897 by building sewers. During the twentieth century, the river steadily lost its functions as an industrial and transportation artery. When Interstate 95 was constructed during the 1960s, a ¾ mile (1.2 km) section of the river was paved over, leaving the river underneath the road in a narrow concrete channel. The loss of industry along the river over the years has also done much to improve the quality of the water in the river; however, as of 2005, it still has the second highest fecal coliform level (2,206 units per 100 mL) of all the monitored rivers in Rhode Island.

Course

The Moshassuck's source is an unnamed pond within the Lime Rock Preserve in Lincoln, Rhode Island, north and west of the intersection of Wilbur Road and Route 146. It flows southeastward through Lincoln and Pawtucket toward

, entering the city just east of

Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...

. It then proceeds southward to converge with the Woonasquatucket River at Steeple Street in Providence, south of Waterplace Park, to form the Providence River.

Crossings

Below is a list of all crossings over the Moshassuck River. The list starts at the headwaters and goes downstream. *Lincoln **Louisquisset Pike ( RI 246) ** Rhode Island State Route 146 **Wilbur Road (same crossing as RI 146) **Sherman Avenue **Breakneck Hill Road ( RI 123) **Great Road (RI 123) (Twice) **Manchester Print Works Road **Smithfield Avenue ( RI 126) **Walker Street **Conduit Street **Higginson Avenue *Pawtucket **Weeden Street **Mineral Spring Avenue ( RI 15) **Grotto Avenue **

**Grenville Street *Providence **Smithfield Avenue (RI 126) **Cemetery Road **Interstate 95 (River underneath the road) **Branch Avenue (As river surfaces from underneath I-95) **Ramp from Branch Avenue eastbound to I-95 Northbound **Ramp from I-95 northbound to Branch Avenue **Industrial Drive **Randall Street **Stevens Street **Charles Street (RI 246) **Smith Street (

U.S. 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...

/ 44) **Park Row **Steeple Street (U.S. 44 Eastbound)

Tributaries

The West River is the Moshassuck River's only named tributary, however it has many unnamed streams that also feed it.

References

External links

Our Rivers
from the Narragansett Bay Commission.
Water Use and Availability in the Woonasquatucket and Moshassuck River Basins, North-Central Rhode Island
by Mark T. Nimiroski and Emily C. Wild,

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

. {{authority control Rivers of Providence County, Rhode Island Geography of Providence, Rhode Island Rivers of Rhode Island Tributaries of Providence River