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Before the Quechee Gorge was formed, the Ottauquechee River made a slow turn south about a mile east of the present Gorge. When our climate cooled about 100,000 years ago, the Laurentide Ice Sheet formed in Canada and covered New England. This buried the Ottauquechee River under many feet of ice.
About 13,000 years ago, the climate started to warm up again and the ice sheet began to melt. As the ice melted, it left behind a lot of rocks that formed the Rocky Hill Dam and blocked the Ottauquechee River from flowing into the Connecticut River like it did before the ice sheet. Instead, the Ottauquechee River flowed into a lake called Glacial Lake Hitchcock.
As the ice continued to melt, the Rocky Hill Dam broke. The breaking of the Rocky Hill Dam made it possible for the Glacial Lake Hitchcock to flow into the Connecticut River. The Ottauquechee River followed the draining water of the Glacial Lake Hitchcock into the Connecticut River. Over the past 13,000 years the Ottauquechee River has worn away at the rock and mud that the ice sheet left behind, forming the Gorge as it is today.
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