A History of Candlewood Lake

101 pgs

This paper is a brief account of the creation of Lake Candlewood and how it affected the residents in the Town of Danbury. The lake was built between 1926 and 1928. It involved the flooding of some 5,600 acres of land in the five towns surrounding it. I have chosen to deal solely with the part of the lake that lies within the Town of Danbury. This is partly because of the amount of research necessary to cover the whole lake and partly because of the Connecticut Light and Power Company's reluctance to make the necessary data available. This treatment of the topic, however, still reflects on the lake as a whole. The main features in Danbury are repeated with some variation in New Milford, Sherman, New Fairfield and Brookfield. This paper discusses technical, physical, historical, business and human aspects of the Rocky River Project in relation to Danbury. Four major sources have been used in gathering material. The Connecticut Light and Power Company has supplied two maps of the Rocky River basin, a list of the granters in the Town of Danbury and other documents relating to the history of the Rocky River Project and its operation. Mr. A.L. Bisio of the Connecticut Light and Power Company has been very helpful in this respect. The Danbury Land Records Were used to establish the ownership of land from 1917 to 1926, when the company records began.. They were also used to establish the transactions of various developers from 1926 to 1930. Personal interviews were held with several grantors to determine the general use of land within the project and the dislocations that took place upon its creation. Mr. Jeffery Lewis, a retired employee of the Company, not only contributed to the factual information in the paper, but added his encouragement in the undertaking as well. Mr. William Sanford donated many valuable photographs and papers, left to him by his uncle, Dr.William Bronson. Mrs. Jeanette Cooper donated two early guides to Lake Candlewood, published in 194o and 1948. Various articles from the Danbury, New Milford, and New York papers also supplied valuable data. A complete bibliography is listed in the appendix.