In 1614, in hope of further developing the fur trade with Indigenous Peoples, Adriaen Block was the first European to sail up the Connecticut River. The journey ended just north of present-day Hartford, at the site of a large palisaded Native American fort on the east side of the River. This area, now referred to as the South Windsor meadows, was home to the Podunks (or Nowass), an important tribal nation within the close-knit group of “River Tribes.”
The rich, fertile soil of the flood-prone South Windsor meadows was the summer home of the Podunks, and used for thousands of years for agriculture, just as the meadows are still largely used today. The meadows have thus been the site of frequent archaeological “surface finds” – some 20,000 Indigenous artifacts are now displayed, cared for and used for educational purposes by the Friends of Wood Memorial Library & Museum.
In the years leading up to the Pequot War, the River Tribe sachem Wahginnacut asked for support from English settlers in Massachusetts to strengthen their position against the Pequots. Subsequently, Connecticut’s first European settlement was created in 1633 in present-day Windsor by members of the Plymouth Colony. Within a decade, the settlement had expanded across the River, utilizing the nation’s first ferry.
South Windsor’s Main Street runs parallel to the Connecticut River, on a knoll above the meadows. It was laid out nearly 350 years ago along the well-worn ancient Native American path, known as the Podunk Path, which intersected with others across all parts of Connecticut and beyond.