Gales Ferry

Gails Ferry; the Ferry

41.4300° N, 72.0928° W

"History of the Town of Ledyard." Ledyard Historical Society, 2015. Web. http://ledyardhistory.org/history-before-ledyard; "Tribal History." The Mashantucket (Western) Pequot Tribal Nation, 2015. Web. http://www.mashantucket.com/tribalhistory.aspx; Geo coordinates at https://www.google.com/#q=geographic+coordinates+of+gales+ferry

Gales Ferry is a village in the town of Ledyard in Connecticut's New London County, located on the eastern bank of the Thames River in the southeastern corner of the state. The area was originally inhabited by Pequot Indians, but at the end of the Pequot War in 1638, English colonists assumed control of the region. The group of Pequots who inhabited the area surrounding Gales Ferry were brought under rule of the Mohegans, who allied with the English during the War, and became known as the Mashantucket, or Western, Pequots. Their reservation is located in Ledyard today, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied Indian reservations in the US. The first English settlers of Gales Ferry were mostly farmers, who in the 1700s established a small community around the ferry on the Thames River. Gales Ferry derives its name from Roger Gale, who was ferry master in the village from 1759-1764. The village benefited from its location on an east-to-west Mohegan trail, which spurred the growth of local shops during the second half of the 18th century. Occom visited Gales Ferry several times in the 1780s during his preaching tours, often preaching in the village itself. Today, Gales Ferry is known for its Harvard-Yale Regatta, which began in 1878 near the village's namesake ferry.