1. Pond Brook marks the northern terminus of Al’s Trail a 10.7-mile trail. The headwaters of Pond Brook, which begin above Taunton Lake, are on Castle Hill Road. Native American Tribes lived along this brook. In the 19th century, button mills and other manufacturing mills harnessed the flow along the entire brook.
2. Upper Paugussett State Forest, designated a State Forest through Polly Brody and other Conservation Commissioners in 1967, is maintained by Connecticut Forest and Parks. Once farmed, now stonewalls crisscross secondary growth. Shepaug River enters the Housatonic River across from where goshawks nest.
3. Shepaug Dam separates Lakes Lillinonah and Zoar. The day the dam closed in 1955, the worst flood in 100 years filled the lakes in 24 hours. The eagles fly here from Quebec and northern New England when frozen waters cut off their winter fishing. When the trail is closed December 15 to March 15 so that the eagles won’t be disturbed, view the eagles from the Shepaug Dam Eagle Observatory.
4. McLaughlin Vineyard, incorporated 1979 by the McLaughlin Family, grows grapes and taps maple sugar. Bruce McLaughlin built two of the nine miles of Al’s Trail.
5. Fabric Fire Hose Co. (The Lower Mill) rebuilt in its present form after fire in 1856 destroyed the original 1846 building. This factory pioneered the production of rubber products such as elevator belts and mailbags, after Charles Goodyear discovered the process of vulcanizing rubber to make it usable. From 1901, the Fabric Fire Hose Company was the primary producer of fire hose made of rubberized fabric. Today, its products are found all over the world.
6. In 1750 prospectors attempted to extract gold and silver from Old Gold Mine. Effort continued into the 19th century but with no commercial success. Above the now-filled mineshaft, is a Natural Bridge caused by the erosion of Mine Brook.
7. Black Bridge was constructed in the late 18th century. During the last 150 years, until the demise of the rubber factories in 1978, the company’s Irish employees who lived on Walnut Tree Hill Road used this bridge. High above the river is the scenic overlook on NFA property.
8. Across the Pootatuck River, named for the Native Tribe, The Upper Mill was first a yarn mill beginning in 1855. It was acquired by the New York Belting and Packing Co. in 1873 and used to recycle rubber, the nation’s earliest commercial attempts to recycle waste products. The original factory, burned in 1887, was immediately replaced with the present structure.
9. Talus, tailings and a mining road lead to a pegmatite outcropping that was mined for feldspar in the 1920’s. The feldspar, sent by train to New Jersey, was used to make high quality porcelain. Eagle Rock Road, now abandoned, lies under a picturesque overlook called Eagle Hill.
10. Costello’s Opera House on 2.5 acres near the Dayton Street Bridge brought music to Sandy Hook. Constructed in 1894 it lasted until late 1897 when consumed by fire. One can still find the foundation. The Dayton Street Bridge shortened the walk to the Rubber Factories for the Irish employees who lived on Dayton Street.
11. In 2004, 115 volunteers led by organizer, Dr. Patricia Barkman and James Belden and Joe Hovious of Trout Unlimited, planted over 300 trees along the confluences of Deep Brook, Pootatuck and Tom Brook. In 2006, a similar group of trees were planted funded by the Newtown Tree Project and planted by the children of Reed School.
12. Deep Brook has its headwaters at the view of Newtown on Castle Hill Road and behind Head O’ Meadow School. It flows through Dickinson Town Park, the golf course, under the railroad and Wasserman’s way and through The Railroad Tunnel. It is a Class A-1 trout stream, a living museum of native brook trout that have been breeding there for centuries.
