Missisquoi River

The Missisquoi River is a tributary of Lake Champlain, approximately 80 mi (130 km) long, in northern Vermont in the United States and southern Quebec in Canada. It drains a rural area of the northern Green Mountains along the US-Canada border northeast of Lake Champlain, and an area of Quebec's Eastern Townships. The South Branch rises in Vermont and runs generally from Southeast to Northwest; the North Branch rises in Lake Eastman, Quebec, and runs from North to South. The North Branch and the South Branch join at Highwater, Quebec, just downriver from North Troy, VT. The river then runs in Quebec for approximately 15 miles (24 km), re-entering Vermont at Richford and thence to Lake Champlain's Mississquoi Bay.

Etymology

The name of the river is derived from an Algonquian Abenaki word meaning "lots of waterfowl".

Course

The South Branch of the MIssissquoi rises in western Orleans County, Vermont southwest of Lowell near Belvidere Mountain, then flows north past Troy and North Troy entering Quebec at Highwater, where it joins the North Branch. The North Branch of the Missisquoi rises in Lake Eastman Quebec, and runs about 25 miles (40 km) through Eastman, Bolton Centre, East Bolton, South Bolton, and Mansonville, Quebec, before joining the South Branch at Highwater, Quebec. The Mississquoi then loops to the southwest through Dunkin and Glen Sutton Quebec, to reenter Vermont at East Richford in northeastern Franklin County.

It flows west through northern Franklin County approximately 10 miles (16 km) south of the Canadian border, past the small communities of Richford, East Berkshire, Enosburg Falls, and Sheldon Springs. On the west side of Interstate 89 in northwestern Franklin County, it turns to the north, passing through Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge in its lower 5 miles (8 km) before entering the south end of Missisquoi Bay, an arm of Lake Champlain that straddles the Canadian-Vermont border.

Natural history

The river contains 56 of Vermont's 92 fish species.^[1]

History

The river was an Abenaki canoe route from the Lake Champlain drainage to the St. Francis River drainage. The river supports canoe traffic from Lake Champlain to Mansonville, Quebec, where there is a falls. From there, an ancient portage (carrying place) runs 6 miles to Perkins Landing on Lake Memphremagog. Abenaki groups met seasonally on the bluffs at Eagle Point in Newport, VT to catch and dry whitefish.

The Mississquoi Valley was among the first areas of Southern Quebec's Eastern Townships to be settled by Loyalist refugees who came upriver from camps on Missiquoi Bay.

Notes

1. ^ Gresser, Joseph (24 November 2010). "How all those fish got to Vermont". Barton, Vermont: the chronicle. pp. 17. 

Coordinates: 45°0′40.3″N 72°35′19.2″W / 45.011194°N 72.588667°W / 45.011194; -72.588667