The Mill River is a river in the U.S. state of Connecticut.
The river starts in the town of Cheshire, flows through Hamden and New Haven, and discharges into New Haven Harbor on Long Island Sound. The river's length is 17.4 miles (28.0 km). The river is dammed in southern Hamden to form Lake Whitney, which is operated as a reservoir by the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority.
A mill for grinding corn was built on a Quinnipiack ford near East Rock in 1642. By 1780 there were eight mills. In time the river provided power for Eli Whitney's gun factory, now the Eli Whitney Museum.
Mill River passes through Sleeping Giant State Park in northern Hamden and East Rock Park below Lake Whitney in Hamden. These are among the river's reaches that remain undeveloped and are popular spots for fishing and hiking.
English Station, an abandoned power plant, lies on Ball Island in the New Haven terminus of the river.
Famous quotes containing the words mill and/or river:
“My temptation is quiet.
Here at life’s end
Neither loose imagination,
Nor the mill of the mind
Consuming its rag and bone,
Can make the truth known.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Up a lazy river by the old mill run, that lazy, lazy river in the noonday sun.”
—Sidney Arodin, U.S. songwriter. “Lazy River,” Peer International Corp. (1931)