The river was a major traffic artery during the American Revolutionary War, and supplies traveled upriver daily.

[3] The Kickemuit River is classified as a Class A, Type II Waterway and open to both recreational activities and shell-fishing.

[citation needed] The river's source is in Rehoboth, Massachusetts in the swamps north of Locust Street in Swansea.

Since 1883, the river flowed due south to Swansea and into the Warren Reservoir, which drained approximately 2,300 acres (9.3 km2).

Heath Brook is the Kickemuit River's only named tributary, though it has many unnamed streams that also feed it.