Category: The American Northeast

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Pequabuck Cauldron

Pequabuck Cauldron, Autumn (Pequabuck Falls on the Pequabuck River, Plymouth, Connecticut)

In my new piece “Pequabuck Cauldron, Autumn”, serene autumn woodlands crowd the Pequabuck River as it leaps over a relict dam which blushes with the magical glow of dawn. Perpetually in a state of discord, the cool waters are forever parting ways for delicate, orderly veils or furious, crashing whitewater.

Although Pequabuck Falls emerged as a purely natural waterfall after the withdrawal of ancient glaciers from Connecticut, a crescent-shaped dam constructed in 1851 dramatically altered their appearance. What we find here today is a “composite waterfall”, one which incorporates rocky tumbles from the original waterfall with orderly cascades over 160-year-old masonry.

Old Photograph of Pequabuck Falls
Pequabuck Falls is seen here in an old photograph dating back to sometime between 1890 and 1930. Although the old pony-truss bridge has long since been replaced, the falls themselves have actually changed very little despite the passage of a century.
© Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center,
University of Connecticut Libraries

Marvelously varied industries have harnessed water from Pequabuck Falls since the dam was constructed in the mid-19th century. Initially operating a clock factory, the falls later drove machinery which manufactured buckles for the uniforms of Union soldiers during the Civil War. For decades after the conflict, the site continued to turn out everything from mail bags to lumber to tool handles as enterprises came and went. It wasn’t until 1913 that the trusty waterwheel at Pequabuck Falls was finally retired.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

On the Outskirts of Bristol

Yankee Farmlands № 49 (Farm in Bristol, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 49”
Barn and farmland in Bristol, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Clouds glow like airy jewels in the early morning as they drift over a dormant farm on the outskirts of Bristol. Down below, light snow clings to a dirt access road which winds past hay bales and a bare shade tree before vanishing behind the barn.

The last installment of Yankee Farmlands brought us to Colebrook, a rural town which was largely reclaimed by sprawling woodlands as farming declined throughout the 1800s and 1900s. Bristol represents the opposite case: as old farmland there was abandoned, it was rapidly repurposed for city expansion and residences. So while Colebrook and Bristol encompass roughly the same amount of land, the population of Bristol has swelled to be about 40 times greater!

Remarkably, a handful of farms have endured on the periphery of the city and manage to feel a world apart from the nearby suburbs and the bustling streets less than two miles to the south.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Hiers’ Dream

Hiers' Dream (Mill in the Meadow, Granville, Massachusetts)
“Hiers’ Dream”
Mill in the Meadow, Granville, Massachusetts
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Amidst an open meadow bounded by gentle hills and autumn woodlands, a rustic old mill nestles beneath the wind-jostled canopy of a lofty willow tree.

At first glance, this weathered curiosity seems to be an authentic, water-driven mill which would’ve been typical of villages across early New England. Indeed, one could be forgiven for believing that the “Mill in the Meadow” is a meticulously-restored, historical grist mill. Look closer, though, and you’ll notice that one critical component is missing: a brook to turn the water wheel!

That wouldn’t have surprised Ralph Hiers, though, the man who built this peculiar mill in an open field back in the 1970s. Although it was apparently designed to look centuries-old, the Mill in the Meadow is a relatively modern work of unusual, outdoor art. It’s not entirely without functionality, though! An electric pump is capable of drawing water from a nearby pond to animate the water wheel, a fact which makes this oddity all the more bizarre and wondrous.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Remembering Pastoral Colebrook

Yankee Farmlands № 48 (Old Hale Farm, Colebrook, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 48”
Old Hale Farm, Colebrook, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

When author John Barber wrote of Colebrook in the 1830s, he described the land as “hilly and mountainous”, the soil as “generally stony” and the climate as “rather cold and wet”. It would be difficult to paint a bleaker picture of this village in Connecticut’s Northwest Hills. As if he felt obligated to offer at least one redeeming quality, Barber conceded that it “affords tolerable… grazing.”

In truth, Colebrook proved to be a productive area of the state for dairy farming, even if agriculture mostly vanished from its hills over the last century. Unlike many of Connecticut’s towns, which became densely populated with suburbs after farming declined, Colebrook’s abandoned pastures and hayfields were largely covered over by expansive forests. Today, less than 1,500 people make their home among its 30 square miles of remote woodlands. This barn, built in the late 1700s, and the surrounding pastureland is preserved by a local land trust and stands as something of a memorial to generations of hard-scrabble farmers that settled Colebrook long ago.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Farmington River Monochrome

Angry Farmington (Farmington River at Tariffville Gorge, Simsbury, Connecticut)
“Angry Farmington”
Farmington River at Tariffville Gorge, Simsbury, Connecticut
© 2015 J. G. Coleman

The Farmington River thunders through a dark gorge in Northern Connecticut, its swift waters boiling angrily over submerged boulders. Stark skeletons of leaf-bare trees reach skywards from the riverbank amidst dense veils of drifting fog.

This foreboding interpretation of the Farmington Valley hearkens back to early, uncertain days in the history of Simsbury. A loose confederation of Native American tribes, angered over the relentless advance of colonial settlements upon their ancestral territory, began launching attacks on the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1675. With news that entire towns were being destroyed, the people of Simsbury felt it was best to retreat from their remote frontier village until the emerging conflict subsided. They escaped eastward to Windsor and stayed for two years, a wise decision in retrospect. Upon returning after the war, it was discovered that Native forces had burnt the empty village of Simsbury to the ground.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

First Light at Stonington Harbor

First Light at Stonington Harbor (Stonington Harbor Lighthouse, Stonington, Connecticut)
“First Light at Stonington Harbor Lighthouse”
Stonington Harbor Lighthouse, Stonington, Connecticut
© 2015 J. G. Coleman

Happy New Year to All!

Author William McLean once wrote,” At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear.”

Likewise, at the dawn of a new year, we go forth with a renewed optimism and resolve even if we are uncertain of what the coming months will bring.

Here’s to welcoming 2016 with an inner light that glows brighter than the grandest of sunrises!

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Corn Cribs and… Broccoli?

Yankee Farmlands № 47 (Old Corn Cribs beside broccoli field, Bloomfield, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 47”
Old corn cribs beside broccoli field, Bloomfield, Connecticut
© 2015 J. G. Coleman

Rows of broccoli wave flowery, yellow crowns beneath a December sky marbled with sunset clouds. Atop the nearby hill, an aging flat-bed farm truck sits parked amidst the wiry frames of vacant corn cribs.

Store-bought broccoli is actually clusters of flower buds that are cut from the plant just before they begin to bloom. If the buds were left alone, they would burst into bouquets of tiny, yellow flowers. The broccoli plants seen here were probably harvested in mid-autumn; residual flower stalks began blooming in November and December thanks to unseasonably warm weather.

The corn cribs on the horizon are wire-mesh towers in which the farmer could air-dry corn on the cob for use as livestock feed (back when corn was grown in this field instead of broccoli). Although corn cribs of various designs were once widely-used, they became rather obsolete after the mid-1900s when advances in equipment made air-drying unnecessary. Relatively few corn cribs remain in Connecticut these days and clusters of this particular design are quite rare.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Northfield December

Northfield December (Knife Shop Falls, Litchfield, Connecticut)
“Northfield December”
Knife Shop Falls, Litchfield, Connecticut
© 2015 J. G. Coleman

Frigid waters leap eagerly over the precipice of Knife Shop Falls amidst an otherwise quiescent, snow-laden forest in the Litchfield Hills.

This forgotten gorge in the sleepy, old village of Northfield was once the site of a prominent knife factory which arose in the 19th-century, its machinery driven by the falling waters of this very brook. After opening in the 1850s, the aptly-named Northfield Knife Company gained worldwide renown for its superlative cutlery in just a few decades. But in spite of this promising reputation, changing times saw the factory shuttered in the 1920s and quiet woodlands eventually reclaimed the ravine.

On an unrelated note, I produced this particular piece in mid-December last year. While it seems that we’ve mostly dodged any significant snowfall this December, I’ve no doubt that 2016 will pull a few punches right out of the gate.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Holiday Season in the Litchfield Hills

Holiday Season in the Litchfield Hills (Litchfield Town Green, Litchfield, Connecticut)
“Holiday Season in the Litchfield Hills”
Litchfield Town Green, Litchfield, Connecticut
© 2015 J. G. Coleman

With this unseasonably warm weather, it may not feel quite like December here in New England… but things are looking beautiful nonetheless!

As I was headed out to New Preston for a shoot in the early morning a few days ago, I noticed all of the beautiful, lighted storefronts lining the town green in Litchfield. Although I didn’t have much time to spare if I was going to get to my destination before dawn, I simply had to stop and work with a few compositions. I was so pleased to review the results later in the day; the warm feel of this decorated streets certainly embodies some of the more nuanced feelings of that elusive “Christmas spirit”.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Orchard in the Mist

Yankee Farmlands № 46 (Peach orchard, Southington, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 46”
Peach orchard in the fog, Southington, Connecticut
© 2015 J. G. Coleman

Heavy fog engulfs the orchards of Central Connecticut during a curious warm streak in mid-December. Rows of slumbering peach trees recede into the distance, eventually rendered in silhouette with pines and bare hardwoods at the grove’s edge.

Peaches were introduced by European settlers throughout much of the Mid-Atlantic and Southern colonies in the New World as early as the 1600s. “In fact,” recalled one 19th-century author,“ peaches were growing so widely in eastern North America by the time of the American Revolution that many assumed the fruit to be an American native.”

New England was a bit slower to truly embrace the peach, instead relying heavily upon apple and pear trees which could better tolerate the harsh northern climate. While scatterings of peach trees may have been planted here or there for a century or more prior, commercial-scale peach orchards in Connecticut didn’t emerge until the early 1900s.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Secret of the Autumn Hills

Secret of the Autumn Hills (Hills of the Housatonic Valley, Bridgewater & New Milford, Connecticut)
“Secret of the Autumn Hills”
Hills of the Housatonic Valley, Bridgewater & New Milford, Connecticut
© 2015 J. G. Coleman

Ethereal mist rises from the deep, rolling hills of the Housatonic River Valley as autumn tightens its grip upon the dark forests.

Bristling with wooded mountains and carved by scenic valleys, the northwest of Connecticut is perhaps an unlikely vestige of remote –even romantic– natural splendor in an otherwise crowded state which is increasingly consumed by the sprawl of civilization.

Connecticut’s Northwest Hills weren’t always so quiet, though. Mills and factories once clustered along its rushing rivers, iron ore was wrested from its mountains, vast forests were felled to fuel blast furnaces and make way for pastureland. But over the last two centuries or so, most of those industries vanished and agriculture deeply declined. Nature was obliged to beautify the resulting vacancies and did so with masterful skill.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Sunset on the Christmas Trees

Yankee Farmlands № 45 (Christmas tree farm, Ellington, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 45”
Christmas tree farm, Ellington, Connecticut
© 2015 J. G. Coleman

Cold winds of December rake through acres of Christmas trees and howl as they reach the distant woodlands. Across the countryside, the setting sun casts rich, molten light which imparts the illusion of warmth in a land that aches for snow.

The custom of decorating Christmas trees was originally brought to North America by German settlers in the 1700s, but didn’t really begin catching on until the mid-1800s. By 1901, the first Christmas tree farm in the USA was established, though it was a rarity in its day. In fact, nine out of every ten Christmas trees were cut from forests right up until the 50s. That changed dramatically over the past several decades as tree plantations rapidly expanded; now almost all Christmas trees are farm-grown.

Many different evergreens such as firs, spruces and pines may be cultivated for use as Christmas trees and an 8-foot specimen generally grows in 6 to 10 years. Farmers oftentimes plant new trees every year or two, ensuring that a new generation is reaching maturity every December. The trees seen on this plantation are of mixed heights –between 2 to 4 feet– so it will likely be another couple years before any of them are ready to be harvested and decorated.

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Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 45” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

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Be sure to check out all of the work from my on-going Yankee Farmlands project, a journey through Connecticut’s magnificent countryside in celebration of New England’s agricultural heritage.