As the 1778-79 winter quarters for a division of the Continental army, Putnam Memorial State Park is sometimes referred to as “Connecticut’s Valley Forge.”
ReadThe discovery of Lyme disease, and its transmission through ticks, got its start around Lyme, Connecticut in 1975.
ReadOn March 27, 1877, the Staffordville Reservoir Company’s dam burst, flooding the valley for a distance of five miles and causing the loss of two lives.
ReadThe changing nature of Foss Hill (on the campus of Wesleyan University) tells the story of evolving cultural influences that altered the landscapes of universities across the country.
ReadOn February 7, 1978, the US Postal Service was unable to deliver mail to many Connecticut residents for the first time in almost 40 years.
ReadDesigners of the Van Vleck Observatory overcame numerous environmental and geographical challenges to help Wesleyan University make an impact on the world’s understanding of the universe.
ReadAlmost every Connecticut town has an Elm Street, named for the popular trees that grew in abundance until a fungal infestation greatly diminished their numbers.
ReadPanoramic prints of growing cities and towns became popular in the late 1800s as Connecticut transformed from an agricultural to an industrial state.
ReadThe Laurel Brook and Mount Higby Reservoirs helped provide reliable sources of water that drove the growth of Middletown.
ReadPachaug State Forest is the largest state forest in Connecticut and covers approximately 24,000 acres and crossing the borders of numerous towns.
ReadThe layout of New Haven’s nine-square grid, though not the plan itself, is attributed to the original settlers’ surveyor, John Brockett.
ReadThis Avon-born man not only put his talents on the map, literally, he also went west to secure Kansas as a free state.
ReadFor nearly 30 years the Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company operated a nuclear power plant in Haddam Neck, Connecticut.
ReadA Westport physician named Morton Biskind became one of the first to warn the world about the dangers of DDT. His work ultimately helped inspire the writings of Rachel Carson.
ReadFar from being a mere recreational hotspot, however, Peter’s Rock is a formation with an extensive history of service to the surrounding area.
ReadSome 200 million years ago, carnivorous dinosaurs roamed Rocky Hill leaving the three-toed tracks that would become our state fossil.
ReadWhile maps serve a utilitarian function at the time of their production, they become snapshots in time of the memories of those who designed them.
ReadWords of thanks on a stone marker in Litchfield highlight contributions of a brother and sister to land preservation.
ReadThe Talcott Mountain range lies in the northeastern section of Avon and is arguably the town’s most prominent geographic feature.
ReadSherwood Island, Mount Tom, Macedonia Brook, and Kent Falls are among the earliest lands set aside as the parks movement took hold in the state.
ReadAfter decades as historic family property and summer camp, Sessions Woods became a park after local residents organized to save it from private developers.
ReadThe Elizabeth Park Rose Garden in Hartford is the oldest municipally operated rose garden in the country.
ReadReligious mandates, the difficulties of colonial-era travel, and industrialization are a few of the forces that gave rise to the proliferation of towns in our state.
ReadFrom indigenous practices to Progressive-era projects, changing attitudes toward natural resources have shaped and reshaped the state’s landscape.
ReadAfter some 350 years, the matter of where exactly some of the state’s boundaries lie continues to be debated.
ReadThe brownstone quarries in Portland, Connecticut, owe their existence to millions of years of prehistoric sediments accumulating in the Connecticut River.
ReadConnecticut’s Reverend Birdsey Grant Northrop popularized Arbor Day celebrations in schools across the country.
ReadThe seemingly contradictory calls to use or preserve the state’s natural resources are, in fact, closely related efforts that increasingly work in tandem—but not without conflict.
ReadThe Hartford City Parks Collection comprises a rich archive, documenting Hartford’s pioneering effort to establish and maintain a viable system of municipal parks and connecting parkways between them.
ReadSome Connecticut River towns continue to hold an annual shad festival, replete with a “Shad Queen” and a feast known as a “shad planking.”
ReadConnecticut has a complex and compelling geologic legacy with substantial mineral riches, including pegmatite that has historically been a boon to industry.
ReadFrom 1927 to 1948, the Metropolitan District Commission built the Saville Dam and flooded the valley to create the Barkhamsted Reservoir, displacing over a thousand people.
ReadEvidence of early Native land use is etched into the landscape and preserved in oral tradition as well as the historical and archaeological records.
ReadConnecticut has experienced thousands of earthquakes since European settled the area, the most active site being the village of Moodus in East Haddam.
ReadThe building of Andrus Field on the campus of Wesleyan University demonstrates changes made to the built environment to meet the changing needs of a local community.
ReadIn the 1930s, skiing became a popular pastime at Mohawk State Park in Cornwall and became famous for documenting the first artificial snow.
ReadBy overcoming the limitation of distance, transportation makes possible the many economic and social interactions that allow a community, a people, an entire culture, to thrive
ReadThe British government made it illegal for colonials to cut down white pine trees over 24 inches in diameter—preserving the trees for use as masts on British naval ships.
ReadShallow waterways and shifting sandbars made water navigation hazardous and prevented Old Saybrook from ever becoming a major port city.
ReadA few minutes before 11:00 pm on October 15, 1955, Greenwich officials pulled the alarm signal and declared a state of emergency.
ReadHartford place names, such as Dutch Point, Huyshope Avenue, and Adriaen’s Landing, are reminders of a time when Connecticut was part of New Netherlands.
ReadThe Colony’s first settlers produced wine and spirits, but it would not be until the 1970s that Connecticut could grow and sell its harvest.
ReadOn August 21, 1856, the Charter Oak, a noted landmark and symbol of Hartford and Connecticut, fell during a severe wind and rain storm.
ReadEast Hampton is home to one of Connecticut’s largest inland bodies of water, Lake Pocotopaug.
ReadArtist, author, and influential conservationist Roger Tory Peterson pioneered the modern age of bird watching with his 1934 book, A Field Guide to the Birds.
ReadIn 1850, this educator, prominent abolitionist, and outdoorsman founded The Gunnery, a school in Washington, Connecticut.
ReadCandlewood Lake was the first large-scale project in the United States to employ the concept of a pumped-water storage facility.
ReadThis article is part of the digital exhibit “Brass City/Grass Roots: The Persistence of Farming in Waterbury, Connecticut”
ReadThis article is part of the digital exhibit “Brass City/Grass Roots: The Persistence of Farming in Waterbury, Connecticut”
ReadThis article is part of the digital exhibit “Brass City/Grass Roots: The Persistence of Farming in Waterbury, Connecticut”
ReadThe history of the Eightmile River illustrates the vital and changing roles that such waterways have played in Connecticut’s development.
ReadConsisting of 710 acres of camping and recreational areas, Rocky Neck State Park is located on Long Island Sound in East Lyme.
ReadBoasting 15,000 bushes and about 800 varieties of roses, it is the oldest municipally operated rose garden in the country.
ReadConnecticut-born Gifford Pinochet oversaw the rapid expansion of national forest land holdings in the early 1900s.
ReadIn 1902, the Daughters of the American Revolution celebrated Arbor Day by planting a tree on the Litchfield Green to commemorate the town’s Revolutionary War soldiers.
ReadWhile initially uninhabited because of their rocky soil, the Thimble Islands in Branford evolved into both a popular tourist destination and an exclusive residential community.
ReadThe aquatic inhabitant, shad, has a long history of influencing foodways, income, and culture in the region.
ReadIn 1968 the prospect of nuclear power energized those hoping to find an alternative to coal, oil, and other fossil fuels.
ReadPollution of Connecticut’s waters by industrial waste and sewage in the decades after the Civil War was arguably the state’s first modern environmental crisis.
ReadWhile the Barkhamsted Reservoir project proved successful, it cost 1,000 displaced residents their homes and livelihoods.
ReadIn 1914, bell and ball bearing manufacturer Albert Rockwell donated 80 acres of land to the city of Bristol for the creation of a public park.
ReadIn the early 20th century, supporters of the New Deal tried to recreate the Tennessee Valley Authority in the Connecticut River Valley.
ReadIn 1967, the United Illuminating Company proposed to build a nuclear power plant on Cockenoe Island off the coast of Westport, but grassroots activism ultimately scuttled that plan.
ReadThis Suffield native’s work in “New Connecticut” and other Western territories reveals how the new nation took stock of its expanding borders.
ReadWhen we speak of the “Flood of 1955,” we should remind ourselves that two separate floods, one in August and a second one in October, occurred.
ReadOne of Connecticut’s worst steamboat disasters occurred on the dark and stormy night of October 8, 1833, on the Connecticut River.
ReadHighway. Barrier. Resource. Sewer. Over the centuries each of these names has been used to describe one of the defining feature’s of the state’s landscape.
ReadSunspots and volcanic eruptions led to cooler than normal temperatures in the summer of 1816.
ReadHurricanes Connie and Diane, which both struck in August 1955, exceeded the combined property damage of the Flood of 1936 and Hurricane of 1938.
ReadOnce the proposed site of Albert Pope’s industrial village, Pope Park has served the recreation needs of the Hartford community for over one hundred years.
ReadOn July 27, 1998, Vice President Al Gore designated the Connecticut River one of 14 American Heritage Rivers.
ReadWeir Farm, located in Ridgefield and Wilton, Connecticut, resulted from the trade of a painting and ten dollars.
ReadLocated in Madison, Hammonasset State Park provides visitors with opportunities for swimming, sunbathing, or strolling along the park’s meandering boardwalk.
ReadIf you drive through the area of Ohio still called the Western Reserve today, you will find towns named Norwich, Saybrook, New London, Litchfield, Mansfield, and Plymouth.
ReadOn May 16, 1791, the largest earthquake to shake Connecticut took place in Moodus, an area known for earthquake activity.
ReadThe Connecticut River received a designation as an American Heritage River, and it remains protected as just one of 14 rivers in the country to be recognized as such.
ReadThis writer and photographer founded the Connecticut Audubon Society and created Fairfield’s Birdcraft Sanctuary.
ReadThe history of Wesleyan’s library system includes a debate that reveals how values associated with the environment in the early 1900s helped shape the campus’s development.
ReadBefore becoming a part of Silver Sands State Park, Milford’s Charles Island served as everything from a luxury resort to the home of a fertilizer factory.
ReadThe unique ridge that runs east-west just six miles north of New Haven is known as “Sleeping Giant” for its resemblance (from a distance) to a recumbent person.
ReadThe CPTV Original, When Disaster Struck Connecticut, provides an in-depth look at the four major natural disasters that befell Connecticut between 1888 and 1955.
ReadThe CPTV Original, When Disaster Struck Connecticut, provides an in-depth look at the four major natural disasters that befell Connecticut between 1888 and 1955.
ReadDuring the late 19th and early 20th centuries panoramic or perspective maps, also known as bird’s-eye views and aero views, were used to depict many of Connecticut’s town and cities.
ReadThe CPTV Original, When Disaster Struck Connecticut, provides an in-depth look at the four major natural disasters that befell Connecticut between 1888 and 1955.
ReadTwo monuments in Housatonic Meadows State Park mark this area’s reputation as one of the finest fly fishing locales in the Northeast.
ReadThe development of resources both in and around the Coginchaug River in Middletown were representative of prevailing attitudes about industrial expansion and environmental protection.
ReadIn recognition of the importance of the canal and the village in fostering local economic development, the area was given the name Windsor Locks in 1854.
ReadThis depiction of a Quinebaug Valley town and its satellite communities—Uniondale and Almyville—records an idealized view of the 19th-century textile boom.
ReadThis rendering of the village of Broad Brook depicts a classic New England mill town but takes creative liberties to emphasize the community’s assets.
ReadOnce an engineering field school for Columbia University, this former campus presents a study in change and adaptation.
ReadThe Litchfield man behind this colonial-era mile marker led an accomplished but, ultimately, tragic life.
ReadWith rapid growth due to immigration and industrialization, the turn of the century brought a sharp rise in the importance and vitality of Connecticut’s cities.
ReadOn April 24, 1638 Rev. John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton sailed into the New Haven harbor.
ReadConnecticut, the “Constitution State,” has a unique history of state constitutions. The “constitution” celebrated on our license plates is the Fundamental Orders of 1638.
ReadWhen the United States Coast Survey set out to compile detailed charts of New Haven Harbor in the 1870s, they hired recent graduates of Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School as assistants.
ReadThe CPTV Original, When Disaster Struck Connecticut, provides an in-depth look at the four major natural disasters that befell Connecticut between 1888 and 1955.
ReadThe CPTV Original, When Disaster Struck Connecticut, provides an in-depth look at the four major natural disasters that befell Connecticut between 1888 and 1955.
ReadTwo different artistic takes on a prosperous 19th-century mill town and commercial center.
ReadTwo depictions, produced 18 years apart, illustrate how the textile boom transformed this borough of Vernon.
ReadA public television adaptation of Gary Hines’ one-man play about the first Chief of the Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot.
ReadAs bird’s-eye view maps declined in popularity during the early 20th century, artists incorporated technical advances in hopes of reversing the trend.
ReadIn 1880, East Haddam was already a popular tourist destination and, despite its small size, boasted two steamboat landings to accommodate visitors.
ReadThe CPTV Original, When Disaster Struck Connecticut, provides an in-depth look at the four major natural disasters that befell Connecticut between 1888 and 1955.
Read
Oops! We could not locate your form.