Besides the village area of Saint-Armand, agriculture is the main economic activity in this valley; recreotourism, second, near Lake Champlain. The valley of this watercourse is served by the following roads:
The surface of the Roche river is generally frozen from mid-December to the beginning of March, but the safe circulation on the ice is generally made from the end of December to the end of February. The water level of the river varies with the seasons and the precipitation; the spring flood generally occurs in March.
Geography
Via Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River, it is part of the watershed of the St. Lawrence River. The Roche River originates from a swamp area in Franklin County, on the edge of the Highgate. This source is located between Jones Road and Hanna Road, at the West of Lake Carmi, Vermont. The Roche Plate river flows over including in Vermont and in Quebec, with a drop of, according to the following segments:
in the upper part entirely in agricultural area: first on northwesterly to the Hanna Road bridge; then west, first forming a hook towards the north, then a large curve towards the south, crossing the Browns Corner Road, collecting a stream, up to the city limit Franklin and Highgate;
in the intermediate part entirely in agricultural area: first on towards the southwest, until a river bend; then north crossing the Bullis Pond and crossing the Gore Road, to the Canada-US border;
in the intermediate part : first on towards the northwest in the forest and agricultural zone, forming a loop to the northeast where it intersects Chemin Pelletier Sud, forming a loop to the west, collecting Brook Brandy, crossing Chemin de Saint-Armand, to a river bend; then on towards the southwest passing by the East side of the village of Saint-Armand, and meandering in agricultural area to the Canada-US border;
in the lower part : south-west from the Canada-US border, forming a few loops west and east, before heading southwesterly in an agricultural plain passing under the Saint Armand Road bridge, under the highway 189 bridge and under the Spring Street bridge, then flows onto the east bank of Rock River Bay in the northern part of Lake Champlain.
The Roche river flows on the east shore of Rock River Bay, in the southern part of Missisquoi Bay, an appendage north of Lake Champlain. This confluence is located in Highgate Springs, Vermont.
Toponymy
According to the Geographic Names Information System, it is also known as "River Rocher" and "Riviere de La Roche." In Quebec, this river appears on the 1732 map of the surveyor Jean-Baptiste Lefebvre, dit Anger, under the spelling "Rivière du Rocher". Formerly, in the English-speaking community of Quebec, this watercourse was designated "Rock River", as in Vermont. The origin of this acronym is attributable to the presence of a large rock at the mouth of the stream on the east shore of Rock River Bay, Lake Champlain, Vermont. In Quebec, the toponym "Rivière de la Roche" was approved on February 2, 1955, by the Geography Commission, which was renamed "Commission de toponymie du Québec". The toponym "Rivière de la Roche" was formalized on December 5, 1968, at the Commission de toponymie du Québec.
