Tag: New England

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Remembering Alice

Woodland Remembrance (Alice Newton Street Memorial Park, Woodbridge, Connecticut)
“Woodland Remembrance”
Alice Newton Street Memorial Park, Woodbridge, Connecticut

In my newly-released piece, “Woodland Remembrance”, sunlight pierces the forest canopy in the heart of Woodbridge, transforming the understory into a blissfully verdant landscape fit for a fairytale.

Although Connecticut began building its state park system in the mid-1910s and town-owned parks had existed far earlier, nature preserves owned for the public good outside the realm of government were generally a slightly later phenomenon.

The Woodbridge Park Association, operating independently of Woodbridge’s town government, was among the earliest organizations in Connecticut to acquire and manage preserved land on a not-for-profit basis. The Association got its start back in 1928 when it was founded in order to fulfill the vision of philanphropist Newton Street who had decided to forever preserve over 80 acres of land in memory of his mother, Alice Street. The result, featured in this latest piece of mine, was the Alice Newton Street Memorial Park.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Naugatuck Eternal

Naugatuck Eternal (Naugatuck River, Thomaston, Connecticut)
“Naugatuck Eternal”
Naugatuck River, Thomaston, Connecticut
© 2017 J. G. Coleman

Coursing mightily after weeks of springtime rainfall, the Naugatuck River churns up wisps of whitewater as it snakes through mist-engulfed woodlands.

Over the course of a 39-mile journey from its headwaters in Northwestern Connecticut to its confluence with the Housatonic, the Naugatuck River descends more than 500 feet. Such fast-moving waters proved a boon for early industry, turning waterwheels and turbines that powered dozens of bustling factories during the 18th and 19th centuries. Of course, with that appropriation as a power source also came severe ecological decline.

Dams obstructed fish travel and decimated the fishery while factories channeled a foul stew of sewage and waste chemicals into the river on a daily basis right up until the 1960s. Mercifully, new regulations enacted in the 1970s ushered in a rejuvenating era for the Naugatuck characterized by dramatically improved water quality. Furthermore, five old dams have been removed entirely since 1999, reopening great lengths of the river to be traveled freely by rebounding fish populations.

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New Print Releases The American Northeast

152 Years and Counting

Randall Crossing at Lyndon (Randall Covered Bridge over the East Branch of the Passumpsic River, Lyndon, Vermont)
“Randall Crossing at Lyndon”
Randall Covered Bridge (a.ka. Old Burrington Bridge) over the East Branch Passumpsic River, Lyndon, Vermont
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Having spent more than a century and a half amidst the countryside of northeastern Vermont, the time-worn Randall Covered Bridge feels almost as natural a part of the scenery as the surrounding woodlands or the rushing waters of the Passumpsic’s East Branch below.

Randall Covered Bridge is truly a relic from a different era, its rough-hewn timbers assembled the same year that the Civil War came to a close at Appomattox some 600 miles to the south. Records don’t identify whoever was contracted to build the bridge, but the especially wide roof and open sides follow a distinctive pattern endemic to the township and surrounding area.

When the rigors of time and the unforgiving heft of automobiles finally rendered old Randall Bridge obsolete in the 1960s, the people of Lyndon had the foresight to keep the aged timber bridge intact. So, despite having been bypassed decades ago by a modern concrete crossing just 20 feet upstream, Randall Bridge quietly enjoys its 152nd anniversary this year. And with much care and a smidgeon of luck, it’ll be there for generations to come.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

The Clarks and The Creek

Clark Creek flits about in riffles and cascades as it snakes through old Tylerville en route to the Connecticut River. Springtime woodlands immerse the falls in shadow as soothing murmurs of tumbling water rise into the canopy.

Clark's Stairway (Clark Creek Falls on Clark Creek, Haddam, Connecticut)
“Clark’s Stairway”
Clark Creek Falls on Clark Creek, Haddam, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Sometimes a simple babbling brook can, through tangential association, lead us unexpectedly into topics of great historical importance. For example, one historian recalled in 1900 that “the Clarks of… Clark’s Creek in Tylverville are descended from Major John Clark… who is named as one of the patentees in the Charter of Charles II to Connecticut in 1662.” Sure, at face value that may seem to be an obscure reference, but it’s difficult to overstate the importance of that founding document to which the name of Clark Creek can be circuitously traced.

Tylerville Cascades (Clark Creek Falls on Clark Creek, Haddam, Connecticut)
“Tylerville Cascades”
Clark Creek Falls on Clark Creek, Haddam, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

The Charter of 1662 gave legal blessing to the Connecticut Colony in the eyes of the English monarchy, ensuring an impressive measure of self-governance for what had previously amounted to little more than a loosely-associated series of Puritan settlements south of Massachusetts. Upon granting that early charter, it’s likely that Charles II couldn’t have imagined that Connecticut and its sibling colonies would be back just about a century later, demanding a far greater degree of self-governance that would change everything.

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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

Contemplating Massacoe

"Contemplating Massacoe" (Great Pond at Massacoe State Forest, Simsbury, Connecticut)
“Contemplating Massacoe”
Great Pond at Massacoe State Forest, Simsbury, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Tufts of parched marsh reeds catch stray sunlight as a welcoming March day comes to a close in Northern Connecticut. Snow may have vanished from the lake shore, but winter surreptitiously lingers forth in an icy glaze which grips the deepening shadows.

“Great Pond” seems a rather dramatic title for an ancient, marshy lake of just 25 acres in the north of Simsbury. But despite being carved by brooks and draped with several serpentine miles of the Farmington River, the town peculiarly lacks many standing bodies of water. Great Pond, as it would happen, is the largest lake in Simsbury.

"Beaver Country" (Great Pond at Massacoe State Forest, Simsbury, Connecticut)
“Beaver Country”
Great Pond at Massacoe State Forest, Simsbury, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

And while much can be said about its history, perhaps the most novel story of Great Pond arose in 1942 when a box turtle was discovered beside the lake with “C.E.B. 1877” etched into its shell. Lo and behold, local man Clayton E. Bacon, who was 83 years old at that time, got wind of the find and confirmed that he’d scratched his initials into the turtle’s shell as a teenager 65 years earlier! Having made the local news, the turtle was released alive, though it was never found again.

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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

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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New Print Releases The American Northeast Vermont

Creamery Crossing at Brattleboro

Creamery Crossing at Brattleboro (Creamery Covered Bridge over Whetstone Brook, Brattleboro, Vermont)
“Creamery Crossing at Brattleboro”
Creamery Covereed Bridge over Whetstone Brook, Brattleboro, Vermont
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

With at least a foot of snow descending upon most of New England right now, how about a throwback to the inviting warmth of this past spring?

When I arrived at the 137-year-old Creamery Covered Bridge in Brattleboro, it was early June. The surrounding woods were alive with jostling leaves and bird songs and I was serenaded by the murmur of a lively creek as it meandered through the shallow gorge below.

Whetstone Dusk (Creamery Covered Bridge over Whetstone Brook, Brattleboro, Vermont)
“Whetstone Dusk”
Creamery Covered Bridge over Whetstone Brook, Brattleboro, Vermont
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

The view from the road didn’t strike me at first, so I made my way down beside the water. “This still won’t do,” I determined, unable to get a clear view of the bridge from the forest-crowded riverbank. Off came my shoes and socks and, with pant legs rolled up, I waded into the cool waters of Whetstone Brook where I found the vista I had envisioned!

Ahhh, those warm days will be back soon enough, folks! Until then, stay warm and avoid wading barefoot in any streams…

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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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New Print Releases The American Northeast

Abiding Guardian of Newport Harbor

Abiding Guardian of Newport Harbor (Newport Harbor Lighthouse, Newport, Rhode Island)
“Abiding Guardian of Newport Harbor”
Newport Harbor Lighthouse (aka Goat Island Light), On Goat Island in Newport Harbor, Newport, Rhode Island
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

The rough-cut granite trunk of the Newport Harbor Light, its white paint besieged by the elements, climbs steeply above the waters of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay. Dawn casts warm, revealing light upon the weathered slab foundation and worn, white-picket fence: it seems that every facet of this old beacon carries the scars of a long, hard-earned life on the New England coast.

Of the exquisite array of lighthouses along Rhode Island’s shores, the relatively plain and diminutive Newport Harbor Light is often overlooked. But this humble beacon, now over 170 years old, has faithfully kept watch over seven generations of mariners and Rhode Islanders alike. If these enduring walls of granite could talk, they would surely tell boundless tales of places long-changed and people long-forgotten.

One of the most unusual stories surrounding the Newport Harbor Lighthouse –perhaps any lighthouse, for that matter– came about in 1921. On November 9 of that year, in an incident that sounds almost unbelievable, a 150-foot-long submarine accidentally rammed into the breakwater upon which the lighthouse and keeper’s cabin stood. The keeper’s cabin was a loss, being demolished shortly afterwards, but the lighthouse thankfully survived and continues guiding vessels to this very day.

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