Rocky Hill’s history has been closely tied to the Connecticut River, whose four-mile shoreline through the town and four hundred ten-mile course from northern New Hampshire to Long Island Sound shaped its growth as a commercial and recreational center over the last five centuries. The river, whose name means long tidal river, was used by Indigenous people in the seventeenth century for fishing and canoe travel to Long Island Sound, and its flooding created alluvial soil that made the Great Meadows well suited for crops. Colonial settlers also recognized the river’s value, and early sixteen hundreds European exploration saw strong trading potential. When the Connecticut River changed course around 1700, Rocky Hill became a maritime center, thriving as a river port from 1750 to 1820 through shipbuilding and commerce. Its first shipyard began in 1672, and five shipyards lined the riverfront, including the Shailer Shipyard at Dividend Brook, John Williams Shipyard, Seabury Belden Shipyard at Hog Brook, Town Shipyard at Ferry Park, and the Northern Shipyard at Goff Brook, producing ships used in commercial trade with the West Indies. In the mid-1800s, Rocky Hill’s role as a maritime center gave way to transportation by steam, motorized ships, and the railroad, and in the twentieth century the river through Rocky Hill became a recreation center. Flooding remained a constant part of life along the river, sometimes helpful and sometimes disastrous. In the early 1900s, dams, factories, and mills harmed water quality, and pollution from years of neglect drew the attention of environmentalists and legislators. Beginning in the 1950s, efforts to reclaim the river led to the prohibition of pollution in 1967, the creation of the CT DEEP, and regulation imposing penalties for industrial pollution, which enhanced recreational use of the river. Today Rocky Hill’s shoreline includes Ferry and Surwilo Parks, and the Rocky Hill - Glastonbury Ferry, the oldest continuously operating ferry service in the country, has provided transportation and entertainment since around 1650 through multiple forms of propulsion, from primitive poles to today’s diesel tugboat. The continuing evolution of the river shoreline remains central to quality of life in Rocky Hill.