Historically, the river played an important role in small-scale manufacturing in towns along its course, but it is now mainly used for recreation and drinking water.

In the winter of 2019, the remains of the site were excavated in Avon, along with stone tools and artifacts constructed from materials in neighboring regions.

[3] The upper Connecticut and Farmington River valleys were the lands of the Native American indigenous people called the Massaco, a sub-tribe of the Tunxis, who were affiliated with the Wappinger.

The name Tunxis, a word in the Quiripi family of Eastern Algonquian languages, derives from the indigenous term Wuttunkshau for "the point where the river bends".

[4] When Europeans first arrived, the "Tunxis Sepus" territory consisted of a 165-mile square area bounded by Simsbury to the North, Wallingford to the South, to the northwest by Mohawk country, and on the east by the current towns of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield.

[5] A group of twenty wigwams existed in Farmington at the beginning of the eighteenth century, but only four or five families resided in the settlement by 1761[5] The land of the Massaco was subsequently purchased by the Dutch.

[15] The West Branch, in particular, has developed a reputation as one of the best trout streams in the Northeastern United States, owing largely to being a bottom-release tailwater which remains cold, well-oxygenated and especially conducive to sustaining coldwater fish species year-round.

316;113th Congress) would instruct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue licenses to the town of Canton, Connecticut, to restart two small power dams along the river.

[22] Most of the Farmington River main stem and the Salmon Brook tributary system, totalling 61.7 miles of additional water, were also designated Wild & Scenic in 2019.