Tag: Connecticut

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Hermit

Hermit (Great Mountain Forest, Norfolk, Connecticut)
“Hermit”
Great Mountain Forest, Norfolk, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

A solitary tree trunk whorled with spindly branches stands tall amidst open meadows like some somber monument. Surrounding woodlands veiled in drifting mist offer an airy, pastel backdrop for the stark, ghostly silhouette.

Bristling with some 6,000 acres of woodlands in Norfolk and Canaan, Great Mountain Forest is a unique expanse of wildlands within Connecticut’s Northwest Hills. It’s not a state-owned park, as might be expected with such a large forest, nor is it a “preserve” in the sense of a natural place that is generally left entirely to the devices of nature.

Instead, Great Mountain Forest is a “multi-use” forest where a range of seemingly contradictory uses are expertly coalesced under private, non-profit management. Safeguarding of wilds and wildlife, education and recreation go hand in hand with sustainable management that promotes sensible harvest and conservation-minded administration.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Pumpkins by the Thousands

"Yankee Farmlands № 88" (Pumpkin patch in Enfield, Connecticut)

 “Yankee Farmlands № 88”
Enfield, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

With the color-rich forests of Northern Connecticut having reached a kaleidoscopic peak in mid-October, pumpkin patches yield the year’s final crop amidst a tangle of withering vines.

Pumpkins are a crop which is uniquely associated with autumn in the United States, whether it’s being called upon to fill pies or serve as decoration. Given that the treasured Connecticut Field Pumpkin is America’s traditional variety, it’s only fitting that they would enjoy a strong foothold in the Nutmeg State.

In fact, upwards of a million pumpkins are grown across Connecticut each year, an impressive annual haul which keeps the state well-stocked as leaves change and Halloween gives way to Thanksgiving. But when it comes to growing pumpkins on a massive scale, Illinois is the undisputed leader, producing over 300 million pounds of pumpkins on 15,000 acres of farmland in 2015 alone!

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

The Broadleaf Harvest

"Yankee Farmlands № 87" (Tobacco shed in Windsor, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 87”
Windsor, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Beside radiant autumn forests flush with an October palette, shadows embrace a rickety old tobacco shed freshly divested of its cured crop. Bare tobacco stalks, having been stripped of their leaves, lay piled upon a trailer ready to be carted away.

“Connecticut broadleaf tobacco is the Dangerfield of the cigar industry, a rumpled everyman tobacco that gets little respect,” wrote one journalist, kicking off a piece in a Cigar Aficionado magazine. And there’s truth to that assessment: broadleaf lives in the proverbial shadow of world-famous Connecticut shade tobacco, the two varieties forever vying for turf in the same fertile soils of the Connecticut Valley.

But while Connecticut broadleaf may not enjoy the same mystique as its shade-grown counterpart, its bold taste –described as a “heavy, muscular flavor” in the same Aficionado article– nonetheless earns it a spot in everything from machine-made Backwoods cigars to premium, hand-crafted maduros.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Bull’s Lattice

"Bull’s Lattice" (Bull's Bridge, Kent, Connecticut)
“Bull’s Lattice”
Bull’s Bridge, Kent, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

The timber-framed covered bridges which have become such beloved emblems of historical New England are few and far between in Connecticut these days. Only three such bridges remain of the several dozen that once spanned rivers and streams from one corner of the state to the other during the 1800s.

Of course, from a practical standpoint, everyone benefited from the phasing out of timber bridges. Compared to the iron and reinforced concrete designs that followed, timber bridges tended to be rather short-lived. If they weren’t being washed away in floods or burning down, they were lucky to last two decades before wear and rot compelled a full rebuild.

But over the course of their roughly 75-year reign during the 19th century, the timber-truss covered bridge represented the zenith in bridge technology. And for what it’s worth, there was something inherently beautiful about those old timber trusses that has simply been lost to the austere I-beams and textured concrete of today’s crossings.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Corn & The Litchfield Hills

Yankee Farmlands № 86 (Roxbury, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 86”
Roxbury, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Crowded stalks of corn reach skyward from a humid field, the crops abruptly giving way to misty woodlands and the dreamy silhouettes of Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills.

While the crops grown throughout New England these days span a broad range from apples and blueberries to green beans and pumpkins, there’s no question that corn still reigns supreme. Whether for grain or silage, corn occupies tens of thousands of acres throughout the state. The only crop more common is one that would never make it to our dinner plates: hay and other forage crops that generally feed farm animals.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

October & Tomatoes

Yankee Farmlands № 85 (Field of tomatoes, Cheshire, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 85”
Field of tomatoes, Cheshire, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

As dawn breaks over the Naugatuck Valley in early October, thousands of stakes still dot a rolling field of tomato plants and bear the weight of the season’s waning crop. Barns peer down over the land from atop the farm as woodlands beyond climb ever higher toward a cerulean sky daubed with airy clouds.

Although the English were experimenting in their gardens with an exotic fruit known as the tomato as early as the 1500s, it would be a long time before they grew popular. Perhaps because the plant’s blossoms bore resemblance to poisonous wildflowers known as deadly nightshades, the tomato was widely believed to be toxic.

In fact, tomatoes were unheard of in the British colonies of North America for quite some time, with the earliest record of their cultivation appearing in the Carolinas in the early 1700s. Despite some lingering suspicions of the plant in America, tomato recipes began emerging en masse during the early 19th century. By the mid-1800s, it seems that the fallacy of the poison tomato, honored as common knowledge for two centuries, had finally been put to rest.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Bulkeley’s Millstream

Bulkeley's Millstream (Upper Dividend Falls on Dividend Brook, Dividend Pond Park & Archaeological Site, Rocky Hill, Connecticut)
“Bulkeley’s Millstream”
Upper Dividend Falls on Dividend Brook, Dividend Pond Park & Archaeological Site, Rocky Hill, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

In a shady gorge beneath the dense canopy of summertime woodlands, Dividend Brook leaps eagerly from a jagged cliff before meandering a half-mile eastward to unite with the vast Connecticut River.

Although industry has largely been divorced from a need for water power in modern times, there are few natural waterfalls in Connecticut that didn’t serve as mill sites at some point over the past four centuries. In many cases, these waterfalls drove streamside manufactories for several generations and churned out everything from flour to hand tools as the economy shifted and society’s needs changed. The falls on Dividend Brook are a perfect example, having been granted to Reverend Gershom Bulkeley for a grist mill back in 1665, only about 20 years after colonists settled in the Connecticut River Valley.

Dividend Downrush (Upper Dividend Falls on Dividend Brook, Dividend Pond Park & Archaeological Site, Rocky Hill, Connecticut)
“Dividend Downrush”
Upper Dividend Falls on Dividend Brook, Dividend Pond Park & Archaeological Site, Rocky Hill, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

The Reverend and his descendants operated mills at Dividend Brook for nearly 150 years, mostly churning out flour from the grain crops of community farmers. By 1830, when the millstream left the family’s hands, a new breed of industrialized millworkers were only just getting started. Axes, chisels, saws, horseshoes, flour, lumber, shears, firearms and bulk iron were produced along the stream during the remainder of the 19th century.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Bloomfield’s Farm Fresh Eggplant

Yankee Farmlands № 84 (Field of eggplant and produce box, Bloomfield, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 84”
Field of eggplant and produce box, Bloomfield, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

As the final days of September approach, this leafy field of eggplant rears its final crop of ripened vegetables. A waxy produce box, honest in its “farm fresh” claim, lays beside the field in wait for the harvest.

It’s not uncommon that farm fields might be planted with dramatically different crops from one season or year to the next. For one thing, this practice ensures that the nutrients important to a given type of crop aren’t exhausted from the soil disproportionately. Sometimes, the motivation may be purely monetary: the old crop just isn’t fetching the same profit as it once did.

This particular field had been dedicated to shade tobacco for years before being planted with eggplant instead. And, although it surely had no bearing on the decision to switch crops, it’s interesting to note that eggplant contains more nicotine than any other vegetable. Strange, right? But no worries, you’d need to eat nearly 30 pounds of eggplant parmesan to consume the same amount of nicotine found in just one cigarette.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

To the Memory of Saville

To the Memory of Saville (Saville Dam & Barkhamsted Reservoir, Barkhamsted, Connecticut)
“To the Memory of Saville”
Saville Dam & Barkhamsted Reservoir, Barkhamsted, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

The Saville Dam represents one of the more ambitious civil engineering projects in Connecticut’s history; certainly one of the largest efforts aimed at securing drinking water. Spanning the east branch of the Farmington River in the northwestern hills, it impounds the watercourse for more than 8 miles in the Barkhamsted Reservoir and holds over 35 billion gallons of water.

Saville's Tower (Saville Dam & Barkhamsted Reservoir, Barkhamsted, Connecticut)
“Saville’s Tower”
Saville Dam & Barkhamsted Reservoir, Barkhamsted, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

At the planning stage in the 1920s, it was determined the village of Barkhamsted Hollow sat squarely in the footprint of the future reservoir and the earliest buy-outs began in 1927. Despite fervent outcry from the community, almost a decade of pressure left the township empty. Building of the dam itself commenced in 1936 under the direction of brilliant chief engineer, Caleb Saville. Saville Dam was completed in 1940 but, remarkably, it would take another 8 years before the Farmington could completely fill such a massive reservoir.

Kindling the Hills (Hills beside Barkhamsted Reservoir, Barkhamsted, Connecticut)
“Kindling the Hills”
Hills beside Barkhamsted Reservoir, Barkhamsted, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

As for the long-lost village of Barkhamsted Hollow, it’s been entirely wiped from the map. Community cemeteries, which were moved from the hamlet before dam-building began, can be found orphaned in the hills nearby. Old dirt roads that once led into the village abruptly terminate at the water’s edge. And although accounts suggest that most of the community was torn down prior to flooding, divers are said to have discovered everything from Ford Model Ts to old covered bridges on the bottom of the reservoir.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Arise McDonough

Arise McDonough (Lake McDonough, Barkhamsted, Connecticut)
“Arise McDonough”
Lake McDonough, Barkhamsted, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Nestled amidst a sprawling evergreen forest, the mirror-smooth waters of Lake McDonough lay in shadow even as the first searing beams of morning light break over nearby hilltops and cast a fiery glow upon the woodlands at the water’s edge.

"McDonough Daydream (Lake McDonough, Barkhamsted, Connecticut)
“McDonough Daydream”
Lake McDonough, Barkhamsted, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

“Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.” So said the celebrated Mark Twain, whose words echo the bitterness which surrounded Connecticut’s hundred-year quest to build enough reservoirs to satisfy the water needs of its crowded capital region. Lake McDonough, at 400 acres, is among the more modest components of that system. Between the 1850s and 1960s, several dams were constructed in the hills west of the metropolitan area, completing a network of reservoirs that collects water from 90 square miles and provides for hundreds of thousands of people in Central Connecticut.

Interestingly, the dark side of this otherwise admirable accomplishment is nowhere in sight. That’s because rural towns and valley farms that found themselves in the path of these impoundments were buried without a trace in watery graves, sacrificed without ceremony in the struggle to secure mankind’s oldest necessity.

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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

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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