Rock River (Lake Champlain)

The Rock River (French: Rivière de la Roche) is a tributary of Rock River Bay, an arm of Missisquoi Bay in the northern part of Lake Champlain. The river rises in the town of Franklin, in Franklin County, Vermont, United States, flows west into the town of Highgate, Vermont, and then north into Saint Armand, Quebec, in the Brome Missisquoi Regional County Municipality, administrative region of Montérégie, in the southwest of the province of Quebec, Canada. The river then turns south and re enters Highgate, flowing into Rock River Bay north of Highgate Springs. Besides the village area of Saint Armand, agriculture is the main economic activity in the river valley; recreational tourism is a secondary activity near Lake Champlain. The Rock River valley is crossed the following roads:
Franklin County (upper course): Hanna Road, Beaver Meadow Road, Barnum Road and Browns Corner Road;
Highgate (intermediate course): Bouchard Road, Cassidy Road, Gore Road (VT 207) Tarte Road, and Rollo Road;
Saint Armand (in Quebec): chemin Pelletier Sud, chemin de Saint Armand, chemin Bradley;
Highgate (lower course): Saint Armand Road, Interstate 89, and Spring Street (US 7). This confluence is located in Highgate Springs, Vermont.

According to the U. S. Geographic Names Information System, it is also known as "River Rocher" and "Riviere de La Roche". In Quebec, the river appears on the 1732 map of the surveyor Jean Baptiste Lefebvre, dit Anger, under the spelling "Rivière du Rocher". Formerly, in the English speaking community of Quebec, this watercourse was designated "Rock River", as in Vermont. The name is attributable to the presence of a large rock at the mouth of the stream on the east shore of Rock River Bay. In Quebec, the toponym "Rivière de la Roche" was approved on February 2, 1955, by the Geography Commission, later renamed the Commission de toponymie du Québec. The toponym "Rivière de la Roche" was formalized on December 5, 1968, at the Commission de toponymie du Québec.