From thirty-five thousand to fifteen thousand years ago, the end of the Ice Age brought receding glaciers; about fifteen thousand years ago Lake Connecticut drained and Long Island Sound formed; from thirteen thousand five hundred to nine thousand years ago sea level rise slowed; from ten thousand to nine thousand years ago early human habitation by Paleo-Indian cultures used the marsh for hunting and fishing; from two thousand to one thousand five hundred years ago tidal wetlands emerged; by 1000 AD Native American settlements used the marsh for clay for pottery, hunting, fishing, shellfish, transportation, and grasses for basketry; in 1638 the New Haven Colony was established; from 1600 to 1860, during European settlements and the Early Republic, marsh grasses were used for livestock fodder and bedding and for roofing and thatch, wildlife harvest included shad fishing, transportation used canoes and small skiffs, and industry included brickyards; from 1860 to 1945, during industrialization, marsh grasses continued to be used for fodder and bedding for livestock, wildlife harvest included recreational fishing, the oyster industry, game hunting, and muskrat trapping, transportation changed as the marsh was filled in by the Cedar Hill Railroad yard, one of the largest transfer points east of the Mississippi, and industry included brickyards; from 1945 to the present, marsh grasses have been marked by spreading Phragmites, wildlife harvest has included recreational fishing, the oyster industry, game hunting, and muskrat trapping, transportation has included Interstates 1-91 and 1-95, industry has included chemicals, steel, metal, firearms, cotton mills, printing, electronics, and oil storage, municipal landfills have operated in North Haven and New Haven, sewage treatment has been in North Haven, private landfills have included more than 20 million tires, shredded metal, auto junkyards, shredding facilities, and wood composting, and public lands have included 900 acres purchased by the DEP for the Quinnipiac Meadows Wildlife Area.