Rock River (Lake Champlain) Explained

Rock River
Subdivision Type1:Country
Subdivision Name1:Canada, United States
Subdivision Type2:Province and State
Subdivision Name2:Quebec, Vermont
Subdivision Type3:Region
Subdivision Name3:Montérégie and Franklin County, Vermont
Subdivision Type4:Regional County Municipality
Subdivision Name4:Le Haut-Richelieu Regional County Municipality
Subdivision Type5:Municipality
Subdivision Name5:Franklin, Highgate and Saint-Armand
Length:40.8km (25.4miles)
Source1:Marsh zone
Source1 Location:Franklin
Source1 Coordinates:44.9446°N -72.9556°W
Source1 Elevation:NaNm (-2,147,483,648feet)
Mouth:Rock River Bay in northern lake Champlain
Mouth Location:Highgate
Mouth Coordinates:44.9889°N -73.0881°W
Mouth Elevation:31m (102feet)
Progression:Missisquoi Bay, Lake Champlain, Richelieu River, Saint Lawrence River
Tributaries Left:(Upstream) Unidentified stream, unidentified stream, unidentified stream, unidentified stream.
Tributaries Right:(Upstream) Swennen Creek, Brandy Creek, Unidentified Creek, Unidentified Creek, Unidentified Creek.

The Rock River (French: Rivière de la Roche) is a tributary of Rock River Bay, an arm of Missisquoi Bay in the northern part of Lake Champlain. The river rises in the town of Franklin, in Franklin County, Vermont, United States, flows west into the town of Highgate, Vermont, and then north into Saint-Armand, Quebec, in the Brome-Missisquoi Regional County Municipality, administrative region of Montérégie, in the southwest of the province of Quebec, Canada. The river then turns south and re-enters Highgate, flowing into Rock River Bay north of Highgate Springs.

Besides the village area of Saint-Armand, agriculture is the main economic activity in the river valley; recreational tourism is a secondary activity near Lake Champlain.[1] [2]

The Rock River valley is crossed the following roads:

The surface of the Rock River (except the rapids zones) is generally frozen from mid-December to the beginning of March, but the safe circulation on the ice is generally made from the end of December to the end of February. The water level of the river varies with the seasons and the precipitation; the spring flood generally occurs in March.

Geography

Via Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River, it is part of the watershed of the St. Lawrence River.

The Rock River originates from a swamp area in Franklin County, on the edge of the town of Highgate. This source is located between Jones Road and Hanna Road, to the west of Lake Carmi, Vermont.

The river flows over including in Vermont and in Quebec, with a drop of, according to the following segments:

Toponymy

According to the U.S. Geographic Names Information System, it is also known as "River Rocher" and "Riviere de La Roche".

In Quebec, the river appears on the 1732 map of the surveyor Jean-Baptiste Lefebvre, dit Anger, under the spelling "Rivière du Rocher". Formerly, in the English-speaking community of Quebec, this watercourse was designated "Rock River", as in Vermont. The name is attributable to the presence of a large rock at the mouth of the stream on the east shore of Rock River Bay. In Quebec, the toponym "Rivière de la Roche" was approved on February 2, 1955, by the Geography Commission, later renamed the Commission de toponymie du Québec.[4]

The toponym "Rivière de la Roche" was formalized on December 5, 1968, at the Commission de toponymie du Québec.[5]

See also

Notes and References

  1. https://atlas.gc.ca/toporama/en/index.html Atlas of Canada - Department of Natural Resources Canada - Rivière de la Roche
  2. https://tools.wmflabs.org/osm4wiki/cgi-bin/wiki/wiki-osm.pl?project=en&article=Rivi%25C3 % 25A8re_de_la_Roche OpenStreetMap.
  3. [DeLorme]
  4. Pelletier, J-Roland, Arpenteurs de la Nouvelle-France, S. l., Order of Land Surveyors, 1982, p. 277-281.
  5. http://www.toponymie.gouv.qc.ca/ct/ToposWeb/fiche.aspx?no_seq=53882 Commission de toponymie du Québec - Bank of Place Names - Toponym "Rivière de la Roche".