Otter Creek

The Indians called it Wonakake-took or Pecouktook. They mean otter river or crooked river. The river starts in the hills above Dorset. From there it flows north for about 100 miles draining an area of about 1,000 miles square. A very large river. This river provided just about everything for the Indians living near it. As it works it's way to Lake Champlain the Indians get fish, game, water and more from it.

This river was very important to the Indians. Out of 1,000 Indian sites in Vermont 400 of them were along a one hundred mile long river, Otter Creek. It is also believed that the Paleo-Indians arrived before the Lake Champlain Sea receded around 8,500 B.C.. Imagine back then when nobody was around. The fish and game would be plentiful.

The time period between 7,000 B.C. and 4,000 B.C. was believed that the New England area was uninhabited then, but artifacts were found that carbon tests put around the 6,100 B.C. The change in the habitat was caused by the glaciers receding . Therefore the Indians had to adapt to hunt the animals.

It is believed that the first white man to set eyes on Otter Creek was Samuel de Champlain. On June 18th, Champlain set off from Quebec with 60 Algonquin Indians and 2 Canadian settlers. About a month later on July 29, Champlain met an Iriquois war party on the west shore. He switched shores and is thought to have switched back to look at Otter Creeks tributary.

There is uncertainty if Samuel de Champlain was the first to actually travel Otter Creek from its mountain top run off to the very end, its delta. There may have been someone else such as these people, a black robed Jesuit priest who was risking the fate of Father Isaac Jogues who was trying to convert the Iriquois. He was tortured and then killed. Then there is a strong Canadian hunter hunting for more beaver. Or maybe it was a rebel colonist from New England's colonies "gone Indian." He is said to have joined a tribe and crisscrossed the otter valley region. One other person is Arendt Van Corlaer, from a post at Albany. He traded with the Iriquois a lot and finally drowned in the delta of Otter Creek in 1667. Out of all these people Samuel de Champlain is said to have named Otter Creek. He named it do to all the otters on the river. They were trapped and hunted so much that they were virtually extinct but have made a come back over the years but not as successfully as the beaver.

In my opinion I think the reason Samuel de Champlain is been the person told to give Otter Creek it's name is because he is all most famous and heard of a lot in history. People found it easier to associate the name of the river with him because he was referred to the most in this region and was here first, but then we all have opinions.

by Richard Krayewsky

Sources: Photograph and information from Otter Creek "The Indian Road", by James E. Peterson