|
Deerfield River is a river that runs for 73 miles from southern Vermont through northwestern Massachusetts to the Connecticut River. The Deerfield was historically influential in the settlement of western Franklin County, Massachusetts, and its namesake town, where it joins the Connecticut, downstream of Turners Falls. In Shelburne Falls, the glacial potholes and the Bridge of Flowers are popular tourist attractions around the river.
Dams There are 10 dams on the Deerfield, owned by three different electric ultilities. TransCanada owns the Somerset, Searsburg, Harriman, and Sherman In 1994 an agreement on relicensing the various dams with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Massachusetts and Vermont state authorities that regulate water quality led to comprehensive coordinated water release and power generation schedules to enable more recreational use of the river, with minimum water flow measures to mitigate the dam impact on riverine habitat. Recreation The Deerfield has several key places for whitewater kayaking, canoeing, tubing, swimming, camping, and jumping off the cliffs (that scale upwards to about forty feet) that surround it. A spot by the Stillwater Bridge in Deerfield is a popular swimming area, where jumping off the aforementioned cliffs is condoned but not advised. There are two sections of the river for whitewater paddling: the Fife Brook section for class 2 and 3 paddlers, and the Dryway for class 4 paddlers. This is also an excellent Trout fishery, great for fly fishing. Two sections between the Fife Brook dam and the Route 2 bridge are catch and release. History The third commercial nuclear reactor in the United States was built in the town of Rowe, Massachusetts on the banks of the Deerfield River. Know as "Yankee Rowe" it generated electricity for New England from 1960 to 1992. The eastern entrance of the Hoosac Tunnel is located on the river in the town of Florida, Massachetts. It is a railroad tunnel, still in use, started in 1851 and completed in 1875. The Burleigh Rock Drill, one of the first pneumatic drills, was used in its construction. Construction also featured the first large-scale commercial use of nitroglycerine and electric blasting caps. The American Society of Civil Engineers made the tunnel a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1975. See also Further reading | ||||||||
|
| |||||||||
 |
|
| |