Uncasville, Connecticut
Uncasville is an area in the town of Montville, Connecticut. The area traditionally known as Uncasville is a village in southeastern Montville, at the mouth of the Oxoboxo River. The name is now applied more generally to all of the east end of Montville, which is the area served by the Uncasville ZIP code, including the Mohegan reservation in northeastern Montville that is the site of the Mohegan Sun casino resort and the Mohegan Sun Arena.
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[edit] History
Uncasville takes its name from Uncas, the 17th-century Mohegan sachem. Uncas established a fortified village for defense against the Pequot, now known as Fort Shantok, on an elevated site next to the Thames River near what is now the Mohegan Sun resort. He later was to welcome English colonial settlers to the Mohegan lands.
The village of Uncasville was the site of the first woolen mill in the United States, established by brothers John and Arthur Schofield. Their carding and spinning mill was located at the outlet of the Oxoboxo River.[1]
In the 1950s the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation established a large manufacturing facility in the Sandy Desert section in northeastern Montville where Olin, and later the United Nuclear Corporation, produced nuclear reactor fuel components.[1][2] After United Nuclear ceased its operations in about 1990, the site was cleaned up and released for unrestricted use.[2] After the U.S. Department of the Interior granted federal recognition to the Mohegan tribe[3] and the U.S. Congress passed the Mohegan Nation (Connecticut) Land Claim Settlement Act in 1994, the United Nuclear site became Mohegan reservation lands, transferred to the United States in trust,[4] making the land available for Mohegan gaming operations. The Mohegan Sun casino opened there on October 12, 1996.
[edit] Geography
Uncasville village is located in southeastern Montville near the confluence of the Oxoboxo and Thames rivers. All of eastern Montville, located on the western shore of the Thames, is served by the Uncasville ZIP code, 06382, and therefore is known as Uncasville. The U.S. Census Bureau treats Uncasville village as part of the Oxoboxo River census-designated place. The Mohegan Sun resort is about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Uncasville village.
[edit] Mohegan Sun
The Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, established in 1996 by the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut, is one of the largest casinos in the world, with over 250,000 square feet (23,000 m2). The associated resort complex now includes a luxury hotel, entertainment theater, and more than 20 restaurants and stores. [5]
The Mohegan Sun Arena, located in the complex, hosts concerts and live sporting events. It is the home of the Women's National Basketball Association's Connecticut Sun.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Town of Montville Plan of Conservation and Development 2010, May 15, 2010
- ^ a b United Nuclear Corporation Naval Products Division, ColdWar-CT.com website, accessed June 11, 2011.
- ^ 59 Fed. Reg. 12140-01 (1994).
- ^ Mohegan Nation (Connecticut) Land Claim Settlement Act, Pub. L. No. 103-377, § 2, 108 Stat. 3501 (1994) (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 1775 (2006))
- ^ About, Mohegan Sun website, accessed June 11, 2011
Coordinates: 41°26′04″N 72°06′35″W / 41.4345426°N 72.1097996°W
