Squamscott River

The Squamscott River is a tidal river about 6 miles (9.6 kilometres) long in Rockingham County, southeastern New Hampshire, in the United States. [ [http://www.granit.sr.unh.edu New Hampshire GRANIT state geographic information system] ] It rises at Exeter, fed by the Exeter River. The Squamscott runs north between Newfields and Stratham to Great Bay, a tidal inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, to which it is connected by a tidal estuary, the Piscataqua River.

'Squamscott' (properly pronounced 'swamscott'-but not many do...) gets its name from the Squamscott Indians who called it Msquam-s-kook (or Msquamskek) translated as 'at the salmon place' or 'big water place.' Plentiful game, the marshes and lush river-fed vegetation, and an abundance of fish supported the northeast Native American Indians who were present in the region for thousands of years until English settlers displaced them in the early 1600s. The Native American tribes of New Hampshire were most likely from the Abenaki nation, but independent of the Maine-based tribes. The name “Abenaki” and its derivatives originated from a Montagnais (Algonquin) word meaning "people of the dawn" or "easterners". In the eastern part of New Hampshire were the Pequaquaukes (or Pequakets), the Ossipees, the Minnecometts, the Piscataquas and the Squamscotts (Msquamskek).

The Phillips Exeter Academy crew team holds its practices on the Squamscott River in Exeter.

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