Category: All Things Connecticut

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Simsbury Blossoming

Yankee Farmlands № 83 (Field of decorative flowers, Simsbury, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 83”
Field of decorative flowers, Simsbury, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Exotic blossoms invite vivid color into a dusty farm field in Northern Connecticut where decorative flowers have reached maturity. Blue skies and a leaf-dense woodline embody the warmth and vitality of late summer in New England.

I’ve recently finished shooting for my Yankee Farmlands project, an endeavor which I thought would require roughly a year of work. Well, here we are now… nearly two and half years after I shot Yankee Farmlands № 1 at a hayfield in East Granby. It’s been a far longer, and far more rewarding, journey than I could’ve anticipated.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be rolling out all of the final installments of the project, picking things back up where I left off in late summer, transitioning through this past autumn and concluding with pieces I produced recently this winter. I sincerely hope that you enjoy the visual story I’ve sought to tell about Connecticut’s agricultural landscapes; it’s certainly been a pleasure to create the final chapters.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Enders Frozen Cradle

Enders Frozen Cradle (Hoyt Hayes Swamp, Enders State Forest, Barkhamsted, Connecticut)
“Enders Frozen Cradle”
Hoyt Hayes Swamp at Enders State Forest, Barkhamsted, Connecticut
© 2017 J. G. Coleman

Ice-bound amidst the shallows of Hoyt Hayes Swamp (above), frosted tufts of sedge flutter gently with a frigid breeze that sweeps across the open wetlands. As we peer out over the shadowy expanse of ice towards the nearby woodline, we find leaf-bare trees gratefully embracing the warmth and auburn glow of the rising sun.

Nestled in the wild northern hills of Connecticut, Enders State Forest hosts a striking series of waterfalls which are undoubtedly among the state’s most famous. As Enders Brook courses through the woodlands, it plunges and tumbles over five cliffs in less than a quarter-mile. In fact, the waterfalls are so popular that folks are apt to forget entirely about the other 2,000 acres of land encompassed within the state forest!

My latest piece represents an effort to tell a fresh, often-overlooked story of this landscape by bringing us a mile west of the waterfalls to the tract of wetlands where Enders Brook is born. There could hardly be a starker contrast than that of the icy stillness of Hoyt Hayes Swamp and the swift, raucous waterfalls it nourishes downstream.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Ceaseless Waterfalls

Waterfalls of Connecticut
Graham's Secret (Carr Brook Falls, Portland, Connecticut)
“Graham’s Secret”
Carr Brook Falls, Portland, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

In “Graham’s Secret” (above), the latest installment in my Waterfalls of Connecticut project, the cool waters of Carr Brook slip over a forest-shaded cliff, descending into a ceaseless whirlpool at the bottom of a rugged ravine just a few miles east of the Connecticut River.

When I set about my “Connecticut Waterfalls” project back around 2010, eager to interpret the beauty of the Nutmeg State’s varied natural waterfalls, I’m not sure that I was thinking about how long it might take to see the endeavor through to its conclusion. And so here I am, after more than six years of work, and I’m still expanding the formal collection a couple times each year with imagery from new waterfalls.

Flume at Collins Hill (Carr Brook Falls, Portland, Connecticut)
“Flume at Collins Hill”
Carr Brook Falls, Portland, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Of course, the core of the project came together a couple years ago in the form a dedicated website, “Waterfalls of Connecticut”, which I invite you to visit. But even as I was busy pulling together the body of work that would premier in the collection, an effort which might customarily mark the end of a thematic project, I knew that waterfalls had earned an enduring place in my subject matter for years to come. I also knew that there was, and still remains, a great many stories of cascading water left to tell in the wilds of Connecticut.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

A Millstone and Main’s Saw

Millstone and Main's Saw (Ledyard Up-down Sawmill, Sawmill Park, Ledyard, Connecticut)
“Millstone and Main’s Saw”
Ledyard Up-down Sawmill at Sawmill Park, Ledyard, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Dark woodlands, growing ever more leaf-bare as October wanes, rise up behind an old, weather-beaten sawmill in southeastern Connecticut. Nearby, the keyed eye and carefully chiseled grooves of an ancient millstone serve to further recall the days when small, industrious, stream-side mills churned away at the heart of New England’s villages.

Perched beside the sluiceway of a two-acre millpond in the heart of Ledyard, the old Main Sawmill remarkably changed hands only twice since it was constructed in the 19th century. Built by the Brown family in 1877, it proved to be something of a financial failure and was transferred by foreclosure to the Main family in 1902. The Mains operated the mill occasionally until it was damaged by the Great Hurricane of 1938. By the 1960s, in recognition of its historical value, the antique sawmill was purchased by the town of Ledyard to be restored and preserved.

The mill saws logs by lifting and dropping a long, toothed blade along the cut axis, a system known colloquially as an “up-down” saw. Interestingly, the “up-down” design was considered outdated even when the mill was originally built in the 1870s! Why the Brown family neglected to build their mill with a more modern circular saw is anybody’s guess. In retrospect, though, that questionable decision has paid dividends by offering today’s generation a glimpse into sawmill technology that dates back even further than the mill itself!

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Waterville Echoes

Sheffield Revenant (Old Sheffield Street Iron Bridge, Mattatuck State Forest, Waterbury, Connecticut, USA)
“Sheffield Revenant”
Old Sheffield Street Iron Bridge,
Mattatuck State Forest, Waterbury, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

The year was 1884. The Waterville manufacturing district in the north of Waterbury had grown to be quite the industrial powerhouse, churning out a seemingly endless supply of brass and cutlery. But Hancock Brook, a tributary of the Naugatuck River which coursed through a steep ravine along Sheffield Street, was a routine impediment to the transport of goods eastward.

Iron Relic of Waterville (Old Sheffield Street Iron Bridge, Mattatuck State Forest, Waterbury, Connecticut)
“Iron Relic of Waterville”
Old Sheffield Street Iron Bridge,
Mattatuck State Forest, Waterbury, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

In an era when wooden covered bridges were still being phased out of mainstream construction in New England, the famous Berlin Iron Bridge Company was contracted to build a hefty iron bridge over Hancock Brook that would accommodate two lanes and exceptionally heavy loads. For years afterward, as countless tons of product fresh from the Waterville factories began their journey to distant destinations, they first cleared Hancock Brook over the Sheffield Street Bridge.

But that was then; this is now. As Waterbury’s golden age of manufacturing declined, the industrial landscape it occupied atrophied and eventually grew wilder than it had been in over a century. Today, the forgotten bridge off Sheffield rusts away in the forest near an isolated quarry. Much of the old wooden decking has long-since decayed, though stray planks sometimes still break free and plunge into the waters below. All that remains of the Sheffield Street Bridge is a haunting, iron skeleton hung high above Hancock Brook… an eerie, lonesome witness of bygone times marooned in a vastly different world from the one in which it was born.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Waking the Shadows of Mount Tom

Waking the Shadows of Mount Tom (Mount Tom State Park, Litchfield, Connecticut)
“Waking the Shadows of Mount Tom”
Mount Tom & Mount Tom Pond,
Mount Tom State Park, Litchfield, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

A flurry of shoots all over Connecticut and Massachusetts during this past autumn has left me with a backlog of some 2,000 photographs which I’ve been meticulously processing since mid-December. There’s so much new imagery that I’m eager to share over the coming year!

For now, I’d like to offer a couple pieces that I finished developing last night. In “Waking the Shadows of Mount Tom” (at top), we find ourselves amidst lily pads and grasses on the shores of Mount Tom Pond during mid-October. Sunlight breaks over mist-laden hills in the distance as dawn lends comforting warmth to the landscape. The same luminous morning offered a dreamy backdrop for “They Who Dwell in Reflections” (below), in which we find a solitary boat of fishermen amidst the the majesty of autumn forests, morning haze and the mirror-like waters of the pond.

They Who Dwell in Reflections (Mount Tom Pond, Mount Tom State Park, Litchfield, Connecticut)
“They Who Dwell in Reflections”
Fishermen on Mount Tom Pond,
Mount Tom State Park, Litchfield, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Despite being a fairly small lake, at only about 55 acres, Mount Tom Pond actually straddles a “tri-point” of town boundaries. So while the bulk of open water is in Litchfield, the southern end of the pond reaches into Washington and the eastern shore of the pond falls within in Morris.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Veiled Realm of Black Rock

Veiled Realm of Black Rock (Black Rock Pond at Black Rock State Park, Watertown, Connecticut)
“Veiled Realm of Black Rock”
Black Rock Pond at Black Rock State Park, Watertown, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Sublime mist drifts through the woodlands of Western Connecticut, rendering distant hills in hazy silhouette against an airy, cerulean sky. Deep in the basin below, still waters of Black Rock Pond yield unblemished reflections of a lakeside forest daubed with the lustrous light of dawn.

Connecticut’s Black Rock State Park encompasses over 400 acres of wildlands in the lower Litchfield Hills, its name hearkening back to an ancient history of graphite mining which is still largely shrouded in mystery. Legend holds that, long before European settlers arrived in the region, Native Americans living in these hills would collect graphite to make body paint for ceremonies and warfare.

Traditional stories go on, relating that the prospect of a large-scale graphite mine was among the earliest draws to these rugged forests for Connecticut Colony settlers in the 1600s. When historian Sarah Pritchard published an extensive history of the territory in 1896, she concluded that pioneering “explorers of the region reported the discovery of graphite, and samples of the mineral seem to have been carried away, but the location of the mine, if there was one, has been lost and never re-discovered.”

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Texas Longhorns in New England

Yankee Farmlands № 72 by J. G. Coleman (Texas Longhorns on feedlot, Watertown, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 72”
Texas Longhorns on feedlot, Watertown, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Enclosed by a mesh of chain-links, distinctive Texas Longhorns laze away the early morning on a feed lot in Connecticut’s Naugatuck Valley. Overnight rains have left droplets clinging to the gate and the humid air imparts a lingering haze to the sky and nearby grove of shade trees.

Not all of Connecticut’s livestock farms are situated on grassy, rolling hills and sprawling countryside. Feedlots such this one in Western Connecticut are able to fatten up cattle more quickly than could be achieved if they were grazing on open pastures. The faster they pack on the pounds, the faster they can be sent off to market to turn a profit. Not to mention that, for a given herd, a feedlot can be much more compact than a comparable pasture.

Indeed, the economic advantage of using feedlots over pastures is indisputable and this model has proven useful for some Connecticut farmers. All of that increased productivity translates to more affordable meat for you and I. On the opposite side of the coin, purveyors of more expensive, grass-fed beef are quick to extoll the culinary virtues of raising livestock on pastureland. Older, grass-fed cattle produce more flavorful meat, they insist.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Square Bales and Summertime

Yankee Farmlands № 71 (Square bales and windrows in hay field, Bloomfield, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 71”
Square bales and windrows in hay field, Bloomfield, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Summertime sunlight beats down on a warm field dotted with freshly-bound hay bales. Looking toward the wooded field edge in the distance, we find windrows of drying hay awaiting the baler once the tractor arrives for a new day’s work.

Despite their rectangular shape, bales of hay such as these are typically referred to as “square bales”. Weighing in at only about 50 pounds, they offer the convenience of being easily moved by hand. That’s something which certainly can’t be said for larger, round bales which can weigh up to a ton and must be moved with a tractor.

But while square bales are easy to handle, you’ll generally find them only at smaller farms. Large operations produce and use so much hay that juggling all those tiny bundles would prove overwhelming. For all of the labor involved in loading, hauling and stacking a dozen square bales, it tends to be far more practical to fire up the tractor and move just one half-ton, round bale.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Hopewell Relics

Hopewell Relics (Matson Hill Open Space, Glastonbury, Connecticut, USA)
“Hopewell Relics”
Matson Hill Open Space, Glastonbury, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

A towering smokestack rises above derelict masonry walls and empty window frames, all that’s left of the 19th-century Hopewell Woolen Mill. Morning light accentuates the angular ruins, imparting a subtle glow to the quiet meadows within where workers once busied about nearly 180 years earlier.

But while the Hopewell mill was built in the 1830s, these portions of its architecture weren’t visible quite like this until just a few years ago. The site was further developed by the mid-1800s just in time to begin turning out Civil War uniforms. Garments seem to have been the chief product for over a century until the old mill changed direction once again in 1956 in favor of manufacturing precision tools and jet engine components.

Despite storied, industrial successes at this old mill site on Roaring Brook, the property went vacant and was purchased by the town of Glastonbury in 2007. When it was slated to become a park, most all of the more recent factory additions were razed. Only the modest masonry and smokestack from the 1830s was left in place, skillfully carved out as if the site had been abandoned generations ago.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

Yankee Farmlands № 69 (Windrows in hayfield, Bloomfield, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 69”
Windrows in hayfield, Bloomfield, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Windrows of freshly-cut hay snake through the corner of a quiet field bounded by woodlands as hazy morning clouds drift over the humid landscape.

Although hay may seem like a rather simple farm product, there’s a fairly involved series of steps and machinery that go into producing those tidy bales. Hay must first be cut and raked, usually with a tractor, into long piles known as “windrows” which are left to sun-dry in the field. Fair weather is a necessity, as excessive rains at this stage could drench the hay crop, causing it to spoil before it’s even gathered.

Once the windrows have sufficiently dried, a tractor equipped with a baler scoops up the hay, compressing it into round or rectangular forms before firmly tying the bundle. Finished bales are dropped upon the field so the next bale can be started. Thus, the final step in the process involves gathering the bales from the field for storage.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Empty Barns & Fields of Daisies

Yankee Farmlands № 68 (Tobacco sheds & wildflowers, Windsor, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 68”
Tobacco sheds & wildflowers, Windsor, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Beside creaky, derelict tobacco sheds besieged by prying vines, a brilliant mosaic of ox-eye daises, cow vetch, wheat and field grasses blankets an overgrown field in Central Connecticut’s waning Tobacco Valley.

By the mid-1800s, Connecticut had reached its peak level of deforestation in human history. As much as 70% to 80% of the state had been clear-cut, with a good deal of that acreage ultimately finding use as pastures, hayfields and croplands. But agriculture began a steady a decline from that point forward. Enormous swaths of farmland were abandoned as folks sought work in flourishing industrial cities or headed out west in search of new opportunities. Many towns throughout Connecticut had lost half of their population before 1900.

It’s no surprise that scenes such as this one, with fields and pastures growing wild and barns left to decay, would have been a familiar sight to folks living in Southern New England during the latter half of the 1800s. Most all of Connecticut’s modern forests, which now cover more than half the state, grew upon the deserted soil of those long-vanished farms.

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