Turners Falls is an unincorporated village and census-designated place in the town of Montague in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States.

Crocker's vision was to attract industry to the town by offering cheap hydropower that was made by the harnessing of the Connecticut River, through the construction of a dam and canal.

In 1676, during King Philip's War, Captain Turner led a group of about 160 mounted soldiers from Hadley and made a surprise attack on an Indian encampment located near the falls.

The attack on a sleeping village of Native Americans on the Gill side of the Great Falls lasted several hours and resulted in the death of many people including many women and children.

The area by the falls was traditionally shared by the Pocumtuk Confederacy, the Nipmucs, and the Wabanaki tribes because of the abundance of salmon and shad available there.

Some, including the Chaplain, Reverend Hope Atherton[19][20][21] got separated from the main body and had to find their way alone; a few were successful while others never returned.

As the historian Russell Bourne points out, “After the Peskeompskut massacre, allied sachems openly discussed the strategy of King Phillip, the name given to the Native American leader Metacom, and sending his head to the English as a prelude to peace negotiations”.

In recognition of the tragic nature of the Turners Falls massacre, the Board of Selectmen and Town of Montague, as part of its 250th anniversary, joined with representatives of various Native American tribes on May 19, 2004, in a Reconciliation Day ceremony.