page_title: Oyster River (New Hampshire)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Oyster River (New Hampshire) / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Old Mill &amp; Dam, Oyster River, Durham, NH; from a 1908 postcard.
context_page_description: The Oyster River is a 17-mile-long river in Strafford County, southeastern New Hampshire, United States. It rises in Barrington, flows southeast to Lee, then east-southeast in a serpentine course past Durham to meet the entrance of Great Bay into Little Bay. The bays are tidal inlets of the Atlantic Ocean, to which they are connected by a tidal estuary, the Piscataqua River. The freshwater portion of the river is 14.1 miles long, and the tidal river extends 2.9 miles from Durham to Great Bay.
  The Oyster River reaches tidewater at the base of a dam in the center of Durham, just west of the river's crossing by NH Route 108. Due to siltation, the river is only fully accessible to motorized boats west of the Durham Water Plant for approximately three hours on either side of high tide. Boaters have noticed the increasing effect of siltation on navigation since 1998.
context_section_description: The Oyster River valley, like the rest of New England, was entirely covered by ice during the last continental glaciation. Remnants from the Ice Age in the watershed include glacial erratics and kettle holes such as Spruce Hole Bog, 0.5 miles (0.8 km) south of the river in Durham.
  Ever since European settlers came to the Oyster River they have altered its flow and taken its resources.  In the 1600s, before people had a major effect on the river, Great Bay, into which the Oyster River flows, was a port where sturdy oceangoing ships could anchor at a place called Durham Landing. But as time passed, settlers built dams and cleared the forests for farmland. As forests diminished, soil usually held in place by tree roots started to wash into the river, causing its waters to fill with silt.  By the 1800s, oceangoing ships were unable to reach Durham Landing except at extremely high tides.
  The Oyster River community was one of the three original Dover settlements, which also included Hilton Point and the current Durham town center.  The population of this settlement is said to have peaked at around 300 people in the mid 17th century.  However, the population was reduced in 1694 after a Native American raid, commonly known as the Oyster River Massacre or the Raid on Oyster River.  In total around 94 inhabitants were either killed or taken hostage by the Native Americans under French command.
  The river passes over Mill Pond Dam, which dates to 1913 and is listed on the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places, near NH Route 108 in Durham where the river reaches tidewater. Prior wooden dams provided power to sawmills and gristmills dating back to the mid-1600s. As of February 2019, the dam is being considered for removal, due to the cost of potential repair work and water quality issues with the Mill Pond that the dam creates.
caption: Mill Pond Dam, as depicted on a 1908 postcard
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