The river had long been inhabited by people, as evident from numerous
Neolithic and
Bronze Age settlements found on the river banks. The 15th Century chronicler
Giacomo Filippo Foresti (a.k.a. Jacobus Philippus Foresti da Bergamo) mentioned a river in the area named the
Thisageta, and the 19th Century archaeologist Sir
Ellis Minns proposed that the Chusovaya may originally have been named after the
Thyssagetae, a little-known steppe tribe who apparently lived in the area. In the Middle Ages, the river basin was mostly populated by
Bashkirs,
Mansi and
Komi-Permyaks. It is assumed that the Battle of Chulmandore, in which Komi-Permyaks defeated
Mongols, occurred near the river mouth. The Chusovaya River was first mentioned in 1396 in the Novgorod chronicles. Russians started active explorations of the Urals in the early 16th century, and the first Russian settlement Nizhnechusovskie Gorodki appeared on Chusovaya in 1568. From 1579, the garrison of this settlement was headed by the Russian explorer
Ermak. The entire river basin was then owned by merchants
Stroganov. Subsequently, the vast lands beyond the Urals, including the upper Chusovaya, were given to
Demidov, and the border between the possessions of Stroganov and Demidov was at the river Mezhevaya Utka. Demidov was actively exploring the rich local deposits in his lands and built several iron works, including Polevskoy (1722), Vasilyevo-Shaitansky (1732), Sredneuralskiy (1734) and Seversky (1735). Before construction of the railway across the Urals, the river served as an important route for transporting metals and fur from the Urals to the western Russia. The first port for this purpose was built in the mouth of the Utka tributary in 1703 by the orders of
Peter the Great. Massive efforts were spent from the 17th through 19th centuries to improve the navigation conditions on Chusovaya. The most dangerous shore cliffs were blown up with dynamite, including the Brigand (this was one of the world's first controlled underwater explosions. The barges used on Chusovaya were sturdy wooden boats long and wide that could carry up to 200 tonnes. Some barges were reinforced inside with metal stripes and could sustain up to 10 navigation seasons. As a result, many settlements along the river bank have been abandoned. However, the ironworks remained and provided the Soviet Army with metal during World War II. == Commercial use ==