The Peconic River

Head of the Peconic River at Riverhead, with Fish Net on Reel in Foreground, 1901. (Image from the Harry T. Tuthill Fullerton Collection of the Suffolk County Historical Society Library Archives. Copyright © Suffolk County Historical Society. All rights reserved.)

Few rivers in New York state rival Long Island’s Peconic in natural beauty, ecological diversity, and historical richness. The 15-mile-long river flows through lands located in the towns of Brookhaven, Riverhead, and Southampton, through swamps, bogs, and the woodlands of the Pine Barrens, alongside farmlands, and beneath roadways, until it empties into the Peconic Bay, the so-called “head” of the river that gave Riverhead its name.

For most of its length, the Peconic is a freshwater river, but at the hamlet of Riverhead it becomes a saltwater estuary subject to tidal action. Although the Peconic is quite wide in some places, it is shallow. Ecologically, the Peconic is among the most diverse rivers in the state, home to many different types of plants and animals.

Suggested Reading: “The Peconic River,” by David Newton (1983).

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