Talk:Merrimack Valley

Proposal: Make Merrimack Valley a disambiguation page
Please look at the Merrimack Valley article. This article does not seem well named. In Massachusetts we use this specific term in one way, in New Hampshire we use it another way, and people familiar with geography and topography use it another way! Given the variety of ways in which this term is used, perhaps Merrimack Valley shouldn't be a regular article, but rather should be a disambiguation page. Perhaps the content of this disambiguation page should be something like this:


 * Merrimack River - A 110-mile (177 km)-long river in the northeastern United States. It rises in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Massachusetts, and then flows northeast until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport.


 * Merrimack Valley (geographical region) or perhaps Merrimack Valley (watershed area) - This article would be for the content of this current article, i.e. the graphic map, and the text:
 * The Merrimack Valley is a bi-state region along the Merrimack River in the states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, United States. The Merrimack is one of the larger waterways in the New England region and has helped define the livelihood of those along it since native times.


 * Please note that I do not know the naming convention for this type of article. Are either of the names I propose Ok, or is there a better name?


 * Merrimack Valley (Massachusetts) - A group of towns and cities in Massachusetts, surrounding the Merrimack River, near the New Hampshire border.


 * Merrimack Valley (New Hampshire) - An area of south-central New Hampshire, approximately 35 miles wide, named by the NH Division of Travel and Tourism Development. This area is centered on the Merrimack River, running from Canterbury south to the Massachusetts border. Henniker marks the western extent, and Nottingham the east. Notable towns and cities in the region include Concord, Nashua, Manchester, Merrimack, Salem and Derry.

What do people here think? RK (talk) 17:41, 4 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure there is a compelling reason to have two articles. I think the two article solution is a phenomenally bad idea.  The Merrimack Valley is a contiguous region which crosses a state border.  There's not enough content in either the New Hampshire or Massachusetts article to really support the split, and as a cohesive region there's much more importance to the Concord-Manchester-Nashua-Lowell-Lawrence region as a Textile mill region together than to consider these seperate regions.  They aren't really.  I mean, if we were comparing two different Merrimack Rivers, or something like that, maybe.  But we can easily deal with the way New Hampshire and Massachusetts each treat the region without introducing the falsehood that these are somehow unrelated or distinct in any way beyond the coincidence of the state border. --Jayron32. talk . contribs  17:57, 4 July 2009 (UTC)


 * So you're saying that we could merge this article Merrimack Valley with Merrimack Valley (New Hampshire) and with Merrimack Valley (Massachusetts)?
 * (And leave Merrimack River as a distinct article.)
 * I would be Ok with this. RK (talk) 18:18, 4 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I do think that would be the best way to handle it. Look at it this way; anyone coming here is not going to expect to find two different articles, and we really should not surprise the reader.  I'll put a merge notice on all three articles; lets leave it open for a few days to see what public comment is, and if there are no substantial objections, lets do the merge later in the week.  --Jayron32. talk . contribs  18:36, 4 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Sounds great! RK (talk) 18:51, 5 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I can agree as well - one article to rule them all. CSZero (talk) 07:37, 6 July 2009 (UTC)


 * The merge looks good. Some work should probably be done to put some prose into the article (there's GOBS of books out there), but the merge is a good place to start in improving this.  --Jayron32. talk . contribs  00:02, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20100428114936/http://www.visitnh.gov:80/welcome-to-new-hampshire/about-the-regions/towns-by-region.aspx to http://www.visitnh.gov/welcome-to-new-hampshire/about-the-regions/towns-by-region.aspx
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20130121064357/http://annebradstreet.org:80/ to http://www.annebradstreet.org
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20111007061513/http://www.lawrence.k12.ma.us/about_history.htm to http://www.lawrence.k12.ma.us/about_history.htm

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External links modified (January 2018)
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110820052053/http://lmi2.detma.org/lmi/Top_employer_list.asp?gstfips=25&areatype=27&gCountyCode=074804 to http://lmi2.detma.org/lmi/Top_employer_list.asp?gstfips=25&areatype=27&gCountyCode=074804
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110820052035/http://lmi2.detma.org/lmi/Top_employer_list.asp?gstfips=25&areatype=27&gCountyCode=074204 to http://lmi2.detma.org/lmi/Top_employer_list.asp?gstfips=25&areatype=27&gCountyCode=074204

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We need a source for which towns are part of the region
Has anyone noticed that the list of towns in the Massachusetts part of the region is not well-defined? The reference is to the "Cities & Towns" page at merrimackvalley.org, which is a mess. The page leads off by saying there are "21 cities and towns", then proceeds to list 38, without even including several towards the mouth of the river that have long been part of the list, such as Amesbury, Groveland, Haverhill, and Newburyport. Meanwhile, well-meaning editors keep adding towns one or two at a time as they see fit. We need a better source. (Or several sources, if there are varying definitions.) --Ken Gallager (talk) 12:26, 6 August 2019 (UTC)


 * Agreed, I'm confused, Littleton is on the list but not marked red on the map. Chadnibal (talk) 18:40, 6 April 2023 (UTC)