Category Archives: culture

In the last few weeks there has been a notable increase in the activity in the town focused on the water.  The trout season is open, with fishermen on the Dugway wall, in the Farmington, and fishing by boat in Lake McDonough (Compensating Reservoir) and in West Hill Lake.  One really knows that summer is not far, despite the weather, when one sees the buses for the Farmington River Tubing staged down by the Satan’s Kingdom bridge.  That business only dates from the 1970s.  But, swimming and water sports have been popular for much longer.  Until 1936, the Greenwoods Pond on the Farmington was an ideal place for yacht races and other such sports: formed by the power dam, it backed up a long sheet of water nearly to Pleasant Valley in Barkhamsted.  Equally popular was West Hill Pond, which in the late 1800’s had the sense of romantic wilderness which made the Hudson River and the Adirondacks beloved summer places.  Only, West Hill was much easier to get to.

Here is a summer scene from the late 1800’s:

Hunting racoon at night with hounds is something that most people firmly associate with the southern United States, perhaps as far north as Tennessee.  But usually New England does not come to mind.

However, northwest Connecticut had a strong tradition of running hounds on racoon trails well into the twentieth century.  One of the favored areas for the coon hunters was the East Branch of the Farmington River. At the top of the valley, in Hartland, the Newgate Coon Club flourished with dozens of members and a clubhouse.  The Newgate Coon Club primarily ran its hounds on the upper streams and steep hills of the East Branch in Hartland, Granby, Barkhamsted, and Granville (Mass).  Today its land is part of the Barkhamsted Reservoir watershed owned by the Metropolitan District Commission.

Farther down the valley, it was Ratlum Mountain that attracted the hunters. In particular, the Warner family, especially Harry and Lena, and the neighboring Bradley family were ardent coon hunters.  Their hounds ranged over the Ratlum mountain area, including the land that is now Ski Sundown; the hunters followed on foot scrambling over ledge and through laurel, their path lit by lantern and moonlight.

Today the baying of a hound is unlikely to be heard on the mountain, but the racoons remain.

The Greenwoods Dam, on the west branch of the Farmington, failed in 1936. But then what? The Metropolitan District Commission, then known as the Hartford Water company, purchased the water rights along with the land once inundated by Greenwoods Pond. In doing so they also inherited the question of whether the dam ought to be replaced.

But should the dam be rebuilt? While it seems self-evident today that the dam and pond had no real use beyond recreation and that was economically minor; this was not the feeling for several decades. Greenwoods Pond had been a valuable recreation spot for New Hartford and Barkhamsted even after it was no longer a vital power source. It was, arguably, as much an emotional argument as an economic one.  The MDC had no need of another dam, especially if it was one that could not provide clean drinking water. Their’s was an economic argument.

The upshot was several decades of discussion between the towns and the MDC about what, if anything, should replace the dam. The eventual agreement was that the MDC would help fund several recreations areas to compensate for not rebuilding the dam.  Among these areas are Brown’s Corner in New Hartford and Stanclift Cove in Barkhamsted. Today, the old Greenwoods Pond lake bed is open for hunting, fishing, and passive recreation.

A number of the larger houses in New Hartford were used as summer houses in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.  These houses would routinely host guests for a weeks or months.  They were close friends, family, and business acquaintances.  New Hartford was easily reached by train from New York City, Boston, and Washington D.C.

Tennis, swimming, croquet, card games, billiards, recitals, lectures, long walks, fishing in West Hill Pond, a wide variety of pursuits.

This photograph taken in 1880 shows that people did not dress for tennis the way we do today! Only a few people can be definitely identified in this photograph: the man seated on the right is Morris Smith, a businessman with interests in Hartford and New Orleans, the woman seated next to him in the dark dress is his daughter, Carlotta Norton Smith.  Beyond that it is difficult to say, though that particular event was attended by the noted actor William Gillette, so he may be in the photograph.