Река Поукатук: История и Особенности

River in the U. S. states of Rhode Island and Connecticut

The Pawcatuck River is a river in the US states of Rhode Island and Connecticut flowing approximately 34 mile (55 km). There are eight dams along the river's length. Pawcatuck was named after the river.

The river was specified as the western boundary of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in the original charter of 1663. It was formerly called the Charles River between its source and the mouth of the Wood River near Bradford, Rhode Island. On April 20, 2006, an Atlantic white sided dolphin swam several miles up the river to Westerly, Rhode Island from Little Narragansett Bay at the east end of Fishers Island Sound. It spent several hours at Westerly Pawcatuck, near the bridge connecting Rhode Island and Connecticut, while several hundred spectators gathered to see it. According to the Mystic Aquarium, the dolphin may have become separated from its pod at sea and had been searching for it. It was captured and taken later that night to the aquarium, where it died; it had become sick, underweight, and bruised during its journey upriver. The Pawcatuck River flooded during a fierce rainstorm in New England on March 29, 2010, with waters overflowing into both Westerly and Pawcatuck. Both towns evacuated low lying areas, and some historic buildings were lost to flood damage along the course of the river, and its tributaries such as a 150 year old general store in North Stonington adjacent to the Shunock River.

The Pawcatuck River's source is Worden Pond in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. It proceeds generally west and southwest through the villages of Kenyon, Carolina, and Bradford, Rhode Island. It serves as the border between the towns of Charlestown and Richmond, Rhode Island, Charlestown and Hopkinton, Rhode Island, and Hopkinton and Westerly. It turns briefly northwest and west before resuming a southward course to flow past Potter Hill, Rhode Island and between the towns of Westerly, Rhode Island and the Pawcatuck section of Stonington, Connecticut; its mouth is on Little Narragansett Bay on Long Island Sound .