Roaring Brook Falls is a

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

in the southwestern hills of

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

in the

Northeastern United States The Northeastern United States (also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. Located on the East Coast of the United States, ...

. Formed as the eponymous Roaring Brook descends a wooded cliffside on West Mountain, the waterfall is an 80-foot horsetail and ranks as one of the tallest in the state.

History and conservation

Recovered arrowheads suggest that Algonquian Native Americans frequented the vicinity of Roaring Brook Falls prior to the arrival of settlers from the

Connecticut Colony The Connecticut Colony, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became the state of Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636, as a settlement for a Puritans, Puritan congregation o ...

. Beginning as early as the 17th century, the surrounding landscape was clear-cut for agriculture and the falls were harnessed to power a stream-side mill. By the late 1800s, Roaring Brook Falls had become something of a local landmark with visitors from the nearby city of

New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...

touring the area and enjoying the scenery. The property encompassing the waterfall was still privately owned in 1974 when concerned locals discovered that it might be sold for development. Significant efforts were launched to save the property and, by 1978, the waterfall and surrounding forest was cooperatively preserved by the Town of Cheshire and the Cheshire

Land Trust Land trusts are nonprofit organizations which own and manage land, and sometimes waters. There are three common types of land trust, distinguished from one another by the ways in which they are legally structured and by the purposes for which th ...

References

{{Authority control Waterfalls of Connecticut

History and conservation

See also

References