Mount Hope Bay is a tidal
estuary located at the mouth of the
Taunton River on the
Massachusetts and
Rhode Island border. It is an arm of
Narragansett Bay. The bay is named after
Mount Hope, a small hill located on its western shore in what is now
Bristol, Rhode Island. It flows into the East Passage of Narragansett Bay and also the
Sakonnet River. Mount Hope Bay has played an important role to the history of the area, from pre-colonial times to the present. While many years of sewage and industrial pollution have severely degraded the quality of the shallow waters of the bay, there are currently major efforts underway to clean up and restore it.