Editing Merrimack River (section)

== History ==
Prior to glaciation, the Merrimack continued its southward course far beyond the present day New Hampshire-Massachusetts border to enter the Gulf of Maine near [[Boston]]. Upon the glacier's retreat, debris deposited north of Boston filled the lower Merrimack Valley, redirecting the river into its current northeast bend at Lowell. The [[Neville archaeological site]] is located along the river's banks in New Hampshire.

On the Merrimack River's banks are a number of cities built to take advantage of water power in the 19th century, when [[textile mill]]s dominated the New England economy: [[Concord, New Hampshire|Concord]], [[Manchester, New Hampshire|Manchester]], and [[Nashua, New Hampshire|Nashua]] in New Hampshire, and [[Lowell, Massachusetts|Lowell]], [[Lawrence, Massachusetts|Lawrence]], and [[Haverhill, Massachusetts|Haverhill]] in Massachusetts.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal| last1=Murphy| first1=Cait| last2=Haggerty| first2=Roseanne| date=April–May 2003| url=http://www.americanheritage.com/content/reinventing-river| title=Reinventing a River| journal=[[American Heritage (magazine)|American Heritage]]| access-date=Aug 2, 2017}}</ref> At the mouth of the river is the small city of [[Newburyport, Massachusetts|Newburyport]]. Prior to the construction of the [[Middlesex Canal]], Newburyport was an important shipbuilding city, in a location to receive New Hampshire timber that had been floated downriver.