Canoe Trip with Bob Grigg
The Colebrook River Lake Canoe Trip
On a sparkling fall afternoon in October, 2008, the Colebrook Land Conservancy hosted a canoe trip on the Colebrook River Lake reservoir, located along Route 8, for CLC members and friends. The trip was led by the late Bob Grigg, who at the time was a CLC Trustee and Municipal Historian for the town of Colebrook and Botanist Joyce Hemingson, then a CLC Trustee. The fall foliage on the surrounding hills was spectacular.
The reservoir and associated lands comprise over 1618 acres in Colebrook and the towns of Sandisfield and Tolland in Massachusetts to the north. Also known as the Colebrook River Lake, the reservoir has about 750 acres of recreational boating and fishing waters. When the reservoir is at maximum levels, the water surface is about 1,185 acres and the depth about 200 feet. The reservoir is stocked with brown, rainbow and brook trout. Large and smallmouth bass, northern pike, chain pickerel, pan fish and catfish can also be found. Wildlife in the area includes deer, black bear, red fox, raccoon, mink and muskrats. If you’re lucky you may spot osprey, great blue heron, egrets, turkey, ruffled grouse and bald eagles. In the wetland areas, Canada and snow geese, mallard, and wood ducks can be found during seasonal migrations. The nearby forest trees include eastern white pine, hemlock, red oak, sugar and red maple, black, yellow, and white birch, ash, black cherry, shagbark and pignut hickory.
We left from the boat launch off Route 8 on the west side of the reservoir and headed for Slocum Brook on the east side. The reservoir is a great place for any water sport that does not exceed 20mph. Spring, summer, and fall are for boating and fishing. In the winter, some like to ice fish and skate. Most of the land east of reservoir is owned by the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) whose service roads are open for hiking.
Photo by The Hartford Courant
As Bob describes in his Bytes of History, “as you stand on the boat launch facing east, directly across the [reservoir], imagine that you are looking at the face of a clock, with 12 o’clock straight ahead. Raise your left arm and point at the imaginary 10 o’clock position. You are pointing at Slocum Brook, usually referred to by old timers as Sawmill Brook, because there used to be two, and sometimes three sawmills operating along this stream at any given time. This is the largest stream emptying into the Farmington as it flows through the valley of Colebrook River. Also, about three-quarters of the way to that brook from where you are standing is the location of the main section of the village [of Colebrook River, which was eliminated when the reservoir was created]. Here once stood a school, two churches, two lumber mills, a store, post office, automobile garage, private homes and rentals. There were cultivated fields and fruit orchards, roads and intersections, some lined with stately American Elms.”
In 2016, when the reservoir was extremely low, the old iron Harvey Mountain Bridge that once crossed the west branch of the Farmington River into the village of Colebrook River was completely visible for the first time in sixty years, along with some remnants of the old Route 8 and well-preserved stumps of trees that once lined the Farmington River.
Photo by The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
The Colebrook River Reservoir was created as part of a long-term effort by the MDC to provide water to the greater Hartford area, reduce flood damage and support the downstream fish habitat by building dams across the watershed area of the West Branch of the Farmington River. After buying up land in and around the village of Colebrook River starting in the 1930s, the MDC demolished the buildings in the village and relocated the cemetery. In the 1950s they completed construction of the Goodwin Dam at Hogback, causing the remains of the village of Colebrook River to be submerged. After major flooding from Hurricane Diane devastated Connecticut in August 1955, the Army Corps of Engineers took over the project of building a second dam. The Colebrook River Dam was dedicated on June 27, 1969. In 1989, the MDC began operation of a hydroelectric power facility at the Colebrook River Reservoir.
After leaving our canoes and kayaks on the east side of the reservoir at Slocum Brook, Bob and Joyce led us on a guided walk, with Bob taking us back to the days when Colebrook River was the most populous village in Colebrook and Joyce describing the local vegetation. The remains of old Tolland Road were visible from time to time along the banks of the brook.
Visit Bob Grigg’s “Memoirs of Colebrook River” to learn more about the lost Village of Colebrook River
The Colebrook Land Conservancy
Post Office Box 90
Colebrook, Connecticut 06021
info@colebrooklandconservancy.org
Our Mission
Preserve and conserve the special and unique characteristics of Colebrook—rural, historic and scenic—using accepted land conservation techniques and education in cooperation with the Town, the community and other groups.