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UNDER THE DARK SKY
UNDER THE DARK SKY
Life in the Thames River Basin
of Eastern Connecticut & South Central Massachusetts
A PHOTO ESSAY BY STEVEN G. SMITH
FOREWORD BY STEVE GRANT
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown, Connecticut
Published by Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT 06459
Copyright © 2018 by Steven G. Smith
Foreword Copyright © 2018 by Steve Grant
All rights reserved
Published in 2018. First edition.
Designed by Steven G. Smith
Printed in China
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-8195-7840-2
Ebook ISBN: 978-0-8195-7841-9
ON THE COVER: The glow of sunrise contrasts against the dark night sky on Bigelow Pond in the northern reaches of the Thames River Basin near Union, Connecticut. This part of the valley is considered to be the last stretch of dark night sky viewed by the massive population between Washington, D.C. and the Boston metro area. Bigelow Pond is a 24-acre lake in Bigelow Hollow State Park, which, along with adjoining the Nipmuck State Forest, offers 9,000 acres of forested woodlands.
To all the lovers of New England and to the people who appreciate quiet, understated beauty
To my wife, Gwyn, and my two boys, Luke and Cole, thank you for your willingness to journey with me
Granite boulders mark the edge of Bush Meadow Brook in the northern corner of Connecticut. In 1994, the U.S. Congress designated a 35-town area in eastern Connecticut and south-central Massachusetts as a National Heritage Corridor. It was recognized because it is one of the last remaining stretches of green in the region and boasts some of the largest unbroken forests in southern New England.
“Green by day” and “dark at night,” this corridor is a relatively undeveloped notch in the midst of the most urbanized region in the nation. By day, green fields and forests confirm the surprisingly rural character of our towns. At night, the region appears distinctively dark amid the urban and suburban glow when viewed from satellites or aircraft.
— LyAnn Graff, The Last Green Valley National Heritage Corridor
The summer celebrations held by the city of Putnam, Connecticut, include the Riverfire event on the Quinebaug River. Bonfires are lit on flotillas while the town folk sit on the banks and enjoy music and an evening out. The Thames River has 17 tributaries, including the Quinebaug River, which flows for 69 miles.
Contents
Bigelow Brook meanders through the Yale-Myers Forest near Union, Connecticut. Yale University owns nearly 8,000 acres in the northern reaches of the Thames Watershed just south of the Massachusetts border. The forest is reported to be the largest private holding in the state and is managed by the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Yale offers graduate level studies in forestry and is the oldest graduate program in the country. The brook makes its way from Mashapaug Lake in Union all the way to the Still River, forming the Natchaug River in Eastford, Connecticut.
Foreword
Look closely at a map of eastern Connecticut; brooks, streams, rivers, everywhere. Drive the roads; small farms, small towns, small cities. Adjoining them are public and private forests spread over tens of thousands of acres. In the fields, and even in the woods, are centuries old stone walls, relics from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when all of eastern Connecticut was patchworked farmland. Along many of the waterways are old textile mills, some empty and windowless, some morphing handsomely into twenty-first century usefulness as condos, restaurants and shops. Along the coastline, or near it, are colleges, gambling casinos and heavy industry.
This is the Thames River watershed, a fluvial web of waterways from which the aesthetic and cultural soul of modern-day eastern Connecticut evolved.
Steven G. Smith, associate professor of visual journalism at the University of Connecticut in Storrs—the university itself is an enormous presence in the valley—has masterfully captured the essence of the Thames watershed in the pages that follow. The rivers, the forests, most of all the people, are here, the overall effect of his images providing a real sense of life in the region.
“In many ways, Eastern Connecticut is still the state at its truest; a place where the character, culture and natural beauty of this state remains largely untransformed by proximity to New York and Boston,” says Walter W. Woodward, associate professor of history at the University of Connecticut, the designated state historian, and a resident of the Thames River valley himself.
In Connecticut: A Guide to its Roads, Lore and People, a 1938 book produced by the Federal Writers’ Project of the Depression-era Works Progress Administration, eastern Connecticut is described as mostly rural, with a long, rich history. It was, for example, along a trail that passed through northeastern Connecticut—which became known as the Connecticut