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The Piscataqua River, in the northeastern United States, is a 12 mile (19 km) long tidal estuary formed by the confluence of the Salmon Falls and Cochecho rivers. The drainage basin of the river is approximately 1,495 square miles, creating the third fastest-flowing navigable river in the world. It runs southeastward, determining part of the boundary between the states of New Hampshire and Maine, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean below Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Here, it forms one of the finest harbors in the northeastern United States. Named by the area's original Abenaki inhabitants, "Piscataqua" combines "peske" (branch) with "tegwe" (a river with a strong current, possibly tidal). "Peske-tegwe", then, describes a place where a river separates into two or three parts, or literally, "a place where boats or canoes ascending the river together from its mouth were compelled to separate according to their several destinations" -- for example, at Dover Point. The first known European to explore the river was Martin Pring in 1603. Captain John Smith placed a spelling similar to "Piscataqua" for the region on his map of 1614. The river was site of the first sawmill in the colonies in 1623, the same year the contemporary spelling "Piscataqua" was first recorded. The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is located on Seavey's Island in Kittery, Maine near the Piscataqua's mouth. There has been dispute between New Hampshire and Maine over ownership of Seavey's Island, recently settled by the U.S. Supreme Court, which supported location of the state border at the center of the river's channel.
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