Housatonic River, Falls Village, Canaan – Jerry Dougherty
The town of Canaan is located in Litchfield County in the northwest corner of the state, close to both New York’s and Massachusetts’s borders. In 1738 the area now known as Canaan—and also as Falls Village to its residents—was sold at auction in New London as part of the Western Lands sale. Its first proprietors cleared the land and built homes, some of the first in the area. For over 100 years Canaan played a major role in the northwest corner’s iron industry, building stack furnaces to accommodate iron ore mined from nearby Salisbury. As the iron industry waned at the end of the 19th century, Canaan reverted back to the quiet, peaceful town that remains today.
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