Pioneer Valley - History

History

Native American history in the Pioneer Valley stretches back thousands of years; its recorded history begins in 1635, when Roxbury magistrate William Pynchon commissioned land scouts John Cable and John Woodcock to look for the Connecticut River Valley's best site for both conducting trade and farming. The first 16 years of the history of the European settlement of the Pioneer Valley, before 1652, when Northampton, Massachusetts was established, are coterminous with the history of Springfield, Massachusetts, as it was Pioneer Valley's only settlement. From 1633-1635, there had been three English settlements in the Connecticut River Valley: Wethersfield, Connecticut; Windsor, Connecticut; and the best situated of the three (because of its two rivers:) Hartford, Connecticut. Cable and Woodcock continued northward until they came upon a spot that they agreed was the best situated of them all: modern-day Springfield, Massachusetts.

Springfield sits at a natural crossroads, at the confluence of four rivers: to the west, the 78.1 mile Westfield River, (the Connecticut River's longest tributary river in Massachusetts;) in the middle, the 418.0 mile Connecticut River, then known as "The Great River;" and to the east two smaller rivers: the 18.0 mile Chicopee River, which featured the fast moving and the Connecticut River's largest water basin; and also, the Mill River, which would become very important approximately 150 years later after George Washington's foundation of the U.S. Armory at Springfield.