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INTRODUCTION

Cannon Fire and All That Stuff

A bright summer day.

I was cruising down the Connecticut River toward Charlestown, New Hampshire, in my sixteen-foot bow rider. I passed farm fields, sandy banks and a few small islands; almost no sign of civilization.

I was just enjoying the day's quiet isolation. A beautiful day with few boats or canoes on the water. How exquisite to be out enjoying this day.

"The river is underused," I thought.

I almost stopped the boat. "Underused! #$*&#&&&&*#!! Who are YOU to think such a thing? Would you be happier with an extra hundred boats per mile?"

"Well, no, it's just fine like this, thank you."

And so with that bit of back-and-forth, I began to think more about our relationship with the Connecticut River. How do we relate to this beautiful river? How have we used it? How was it in the past? How has it sustained us? How has it contributed to our history? Have we abused it? What are we doing to conserve it?

Rounding the bend at the Charlestown Bridge, I heard cannon fire, interrupted by rifle volleys. I slowed my boat down to hear what was going on. Cannon fire was unexpected on this summer river trip.

Though I had set out with boat and camera to capture the beauty and landscape of the Connecticut River, history and humanity were never far away. Approaching by water, it was hard to see over the banks to the reconstructed Fort at No. 4, with its surrounding fields, where the battle reenactment was taking place. This fort at Charlestown, New Hampshire, got its name from having been built to defend the fourth of twenty-six "plantations" established by the Massachusetts General Court in 1735 for colonization of the upper Connecticut River Valley.

I nudged the boat onto a sandy shore, tied on to a branch and carefully climbed up the bank, wanting to see the battle, not become a part of it.

Throughout the Connecticut Valley, we are always just a step away from history. One step from something that happened way back in the 1700s that affects our communities today.

Watching the battle reenactment, I thought how far away from Deerfield's fort I was, by foot or canoe. While an easy hour away on Interstate 91 today, in 1744, the distance would have been a difficult forty-five miles through wilderness. The river was then the surest route. Even then, you might have struggled against a heavy current, or risked being stranded in low water. At that time, the river was not the tame, interconnected series of reservoirs behind cement dams that we know today. It was wild and rocky. For those traveling by boat, the treacherous Bellows Falls and Turners Falls would have to be portaged.

The French troops in the reenactment would have had an even more difficult journey, traversing rugged Vermont after canoeing down the shores of Lake Champlain from Quebec.

Back then, there was no noise pollution, light pollution, acid rain, parking lot runoff or radioactive rods stored by the river's shore. If you were out in the woods, you were out there on your own. Self-reliance was the norm. Night was dark, food was scarce. You had to know what was edible in the forest and how to find it.

I set out to explore this river, its past ... present ... and future. I wanted to understand it ... photograph it ... and do what I could to help comprehend our important role in protecting it.

After ten years' traveling, boating, hiking, cruising and flying, I have a series of images that touch on our relationship with this river and its watershed. But it is only my introduction. There is an unlimited amount yet to explore.

I had set out to photograph the landscape; yet again history confronted me most days on the water. As I traveled the river from its quiet beginning at the Fourth Connecticut Lake to the wide, shallow mouth at Saybrook Jetty Light, I was struck by so many intertwined themes. The history of colonization is intermixed with agriculture. Then a dam and hydroelectric plant appear, some industrial buildings, a preserved forest ... then a town. Rail and highway bridges abound along the river. Then a cove, another town. Some things are current, some abandoned, some historic.

I had tried to separate all these subjects into groups. Ultimately, all the themes are so inextricably woven together that I made a simple choice: to present my images in the geographic order in which I encountered them. To set the scene, let me offer a brief summary of the topics I found along the way.

GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS

Broadly speaking, the river's 410-mile path takes it through four different natural regions.

GREAT NORTH WOODS

Fir and spruce cover the mountainous headwaters in northern New Hampshire. Moose range freely in the Lakes Region. The area is known for lumber and pulp production and four-season recreation. Hunting and fishing camps are spread throughout.

The river runs down from its headwaters, picking up important tributaries, flowing by the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont and then passing through the major reservoirs at Moore and Comerford Dams.

UPPER VALLEY

As the Passumpsic tributary flows in from St. Johnsbury near Barnet, Vermont, the river begins to open up into the rich and fertile valley that characterizes the New Hampshire–Vermont border. Forests abound, dairy and produce farms fill the valleys.

Mountain ridges run north-south, directing the Connecticut River on a southerly course.

PIONEER VALLEY AND TOBACCO VALLEY

Below Vernon Dam in Vermont, the river breaks through a ridge at French King Gorge, and it takes a westerly turn to Barton Cove and Turners Falls before hitting the Pocumtuck Range and heading south again. Here it begins to open up into the rich farmland of the Pioneer Valley in central Massachusetts and continues south until reaching the Holyoke Ridge and winding its way between Mount Holyoke and Mount Tom.

Once again, it opens into a broad plain from Holyoke into Connecticut's Tobacco Valley. The next major obstacle is the ridge at Rocky Hill, which once formed the southern end of Glacial Lake Hitchcock. Breaking through at Rocky Hill, it flows south to Middletown where it takes a strong south-easterly turn through Bolton Ridge.

TIDEWATERS

The East Haddam Swing Bridge seems to me to symbolize the river's change to the Tidewaters. Unique in all of New England, the wetlands of the lower Connecticut River are designated by the United Nations Ramsar Convention as being of international importance:

The site includes open water; fresh, salt and brackish tidal wetlands; floodplains, river islands, beaches, and dunes. The system serves as essential habitat for numerous regionally, nationally, and globally rare or otherwise significant species and forms an extensive biological corridor that links marine and estuarine waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

These many estuaries, coves and ponds of the tidal lower river continue to exist as natural habitats because the shallow, sandy mouth of the river prevented the establishment of a major shipping port with the attendant pressure to fill in wetlands for shipping and industrial uses as has occurred at many other river ports.

In addition to waterfowl, these habitats also provide feeding grounds for many other birds including herons, egrets, cormorants and a now-thriving osprey population. During the winter, bald eagles fish the river's mouth as the ospreys move south.

EXPLORATION AND COLONIZATION

Native American people are believed to have populated the Connecticut River Valley for as long as 12,000 years. Originally hunters, they began farming such crops as squash, beans and corn long before contact with Europeans. The Native American population in the Connecticut River Valley may have reached approximately one hundred thousand, principally with the Abenaki in the north and the Pequot in Connecticut.

From the first recorded European visit by Dutch explorer Adrian Block in 1614 through the American Revolution, a relentless wave of exploration and colonization pushed the native inhabitants out of the valley. That colonization, combined with diseases brought from Europe, decimated the native population, leaving little written record.

The Dutch first settled the river valley. River transportation made the valley more accessible and the floodplain bottom-lands were the most fertile and easiest to clear and till. Adrian Block reached Enfield Rapids in 1614.

By 1634, English settlers founded Wethersfield, followed by Saybrook the next year. Both Hartford and Springfield were settled in 1636. By 1654, English settlements dominated, and the Dutch were pushed out of the valley. By 1675, native populations were virtually eliminated in the southern area of the river.

English colonists moved quickly northward with settlements in Deerfield (1669), Fort Dummer, near Brattleboro (1725), Bellows Falls (1735) and Fort at No. 4 (1740). The Fort at No. 4 was abandoned in late 1746 and resettled again in the spring of 1747. It remained under frequent attack until 1753, when it was chartered as Charlestown, New Hampshire. During the 1760s, settlement spread on both sides of the river. Dartmouth College was chartered in 1769 at Hanover, New Hampshire, originally to teach and train native populations for the ministry. By the late 1700s, the majority of the towns we know today along the river were settled.

TRANSPORTATION

Steamboat service from New York to Hartford began in 1822, continuing till 1931. The river valley became the path of railroad and road transportation as it offered the best grade and route. Most stretches of the river have a nearby railroad bed on one side or the other. Bridges for rail — often now abandoned — and highways are common features of the river landscape.

The first bridge over the Connecticut was built in 1785 by Enoch Hale near the site of the present Vilas Bridge in Bellows Falls, Vermont. By 1796, three additional bridges were built: at Springfield, Massachusetts; from Cornish, New Hampshire, to Windsor, Vermont; and from Hanover, New Hampshire, to Norwich, Vermont.

By the early 1800s, most of the original wooden bridges had decayed and been replaced by covered bridges, keeping the timbers and deck dry. A typical toll, for example at Bellows Falls, was Foot Passengers, 3 ; Horse and Rider, 6 ; One horse, Chaise or Sulkey, 12 1/2 . Farm animals were 1/2 each. The current bridge from Windsor to Cornish was completed in 1866 at a cost of $9,000 and remains in use. At 460 feet, it is the longest covered bridge in the United States.

Transportation changed quickly from water to rail, and by the 1850s rail was king. Between 1847 and 1852, rail lines were laid from Boston to Montreal, running through Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Keene, New Hampshire, and Bellows Falls, Rutland and Burlington, Vermont. In Connecticut, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad line began service in the river valley in 1871. The Northern Railroad, meanwhile, reached from Boston to Lebanon, New Hampshire, and Montpelier and Burlington, Vermont. A north-south route went from Greenfield, Massachusetts, upstream to St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Portions of this route are still used by the Connecticut Valley Railroad for the popular steam train route that runs north from Essex. These rail lines dominated transportation until the major highway systems came on the scene in the mid1900s.

AGRICULTURE AND TIMBER

Agriculture along the river began as subsistence farming. River transportation made it possible to ship grains and wood products. Gristmills and lumber mills sprang up on the tributary streams where water drops were often of a greater height than on the main stem of the Connecticut River. Rail's arrival in the mid-1850s turned many farmers to raising dairy cattle — fresh milk products could then reach the city markets before spoiling. In addition, woolen mills throughout New England opened a large demand for sheep farming. Most of central New England land was cleared and used for farming.

A growing demand for wood products and pulp pushed timber harvesting farther north. Major log drives took place on the river from the early 1860s until 1915. The log drives posed threats to bridges, dams and canals. Competing rights to the river resulted in conflicts between log drivers and the bridge and dam operators. Legislation permitted the drives as long as the logs were under the "immediate care and controul of some person or persons." This control was often tenuous at best. After all, there was no stopping the log drives once they were released into the river. An agreement between competing interests had to be reached for the dams' gates to be opened.

INDUSTRY

In early 1845, an upstart gun shop in Windsor, Vermont, won a federal contract for 10,000 rifles at $10.90 each, with the work to be completed within three years. The Robbins and Lawrence Armory completed the job in eighteen months. In meeting the contract's requirements, the company built a plant from scratch and perfected the use of interchangeable parts on a scale that had never been attempted. The firm also improved the precision of each part to such a point that a rifle could be built from a mass-produced collection of parts rather than having each part hand fitted.

Robbins and Lawrence exhibited both their rifles and new process at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exposition in London, England, and became an instant success. The British Enfield Armory ordered 25,000 rifles and 138 precision machine tools.

Robbins and Lawrence then built a plant in Hartford, Connecticut, with plans to make 325,000 rifles. An initial order of 25,000 was produced, but the follow-up order for 300,000 never materialized, forcing bankruptcy. Through many changes of name and ownership, the business eventually moved to Springfield, Vermont, leading to the development of the machine tool industry in the area that became known as Precision Valley.

Today, the Robbins and Lawrence Armory houses the American Precision Museum, tracing the entire development of the machine tool industry in New England and the development of the system of interchangeable parts.

The rifle's development is a major story throughout the Connecticut River Valley. Springfield, Massachusetts, became the site of the U.S. Armory, controlling the development of the Springfield Rifle and many other weapons systems until its closing in the 1960s. The facility is now being redeveloped as a community college and business center. The U.S. National Park Service preserves part of the original armory and parade grounds as a museum.

Downstream, in Hartford, where Robbins and Lawrence went bankrupt, Samuel Colt made a name for himself with the Colt 45. The Colt plant, now a National Historic Landmark, also is being redeveloped and is a prominent feature on the Hartford skyline, with its blue onion-shaped dome given by a Russian czar in appreciation for Colt weapons.

These three cities — Windsor, Hartford, and Springfield — along the Connecticut River all produced weapons and became central players in developing precision industrial machinery now used worldwide.

In addition, significant mill centers sprung up using waterpower from the Connecticut and its tributaries. Bellows Falls and Turners Falls were once centers of paper production. Holyoke was planned as an industrial city with a series of canals fed from the river. Initially, woolen mills were the primary projects, but paper soon followed as the area's major product and Holyoke became known as the Paper City of the World. Many mills are still standing, some remaining in use for production or distribution.

ELECTRIC POWER

With industry's growth and the increased population, hydroelectric power came to prominence and the Connecticut River was a natural source of energy.

Vernon Station, near Brattleboro, went on line in 1909 with eight two-megawatt turbines. Two more were added in 1910, and two larger units in 1921, bringing the total capacity to twenty-seven megawatts. Several of these generators are still operating, a testament to both skill in construction and maintenance. Four replacement generators were added in 2008, bringing capacity to thirty-four megawatts. Vernon Station was the first plant to sell electricity across state lines, feeding towns in southwestern New Hampshire, as well as Fitchburg and Gardner, Massachusetts.

Bellows Falls Station was developed for hydroelectric power in 1928 with three generators capable of producing forty-nine megawatts. Comerford Station, near Monroe, New Hampshire, one of the largest construction projects of its time, was switched on from the White House by President Hoover in 1930. Housing four generators, it was capable of generating 164 megawatts. The last and largest dam on the Connecticut was Moore Station, near Littleton, which went on line in 1957 with a capacity of 200 megawatts.

While milestones in their time, all of the hydroelectric plants in the New Hampshire–Vermont section of the river together do not equal the capacity of Vermont Yankee nuclear plant's 650 megawatts, which went on line in 1972. Vermont Yankee has recently extended its license and been permitted to increase its thermal discharge.

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Excerpted from "The Connecticut River"
by .
Copyright © 2009 Al Braden.
Excerpted by permission of Wesleyan University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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