Spotlight on Curtiss Brook

Curtiss Brook is an overlooked and under-appreciated feature of the Shelton Lakes Greenway. Did you know that Pine Lake, Hope Lake, and Silent Waters are all dammed sections of the Curtiss Brook or its branches? Most of the major hiking trails in the Shelton Lakes Greenway feature this brook, and we've built a number of pedestrian bridges across it.  

Curtiss Brook (Click image to enlarge). 
The heavy blue highlighted section is the channel shown on  
a Shelton map dated 1867. The red line is Shelton Ave.

So here's a trailside tour of the brook, starting at the mouth of the river where it empties into the Housatonic River and progress upstream to its source near Willoughby Road.  Upstream from Pine Lake, the brook splits into three main branches. I'm showing the middle branch as Curtiss Brook proper because that's what an old map from 1867 shows. I've labeled the other two major branches as the North Branch and South Branch of Curtiss Brook for this blog post.

The Shelton Canal & Locks: Before we begin our tour at Shelton Lakes, let's start by driving downtown to the north end of Canal Street, parking, and walking through the gate to the Shelton Canal & Locks (see trail map). That water you see spilling over the locks is Curtiss Brook!  The brook had entered into the canal a bit to the south. Everyone should visit this spot at least once! The canal was the source of water power that allowed for industrialization downtown in the late 1800's. Curtiss Brook was a critical water resource for these industries. That's why the reservoirs were built. 

Curtiss Brook spills down the locks

Curtiss Brook Trail: Now drive over to Pine Lake and park. Note the big hill you drive up on your way there. When you get to the top of the hill, that's where the Pine Lake parking lot is, along with the dam across Curtiss Brook that created Pine Lake. Park here. 

The top of an old dam near Curtiss Brook Trail,
just before the brook leaves public open space

Don't get on the Rec Path just yet. With your back to the highway, turn right and follow the orange blazes of Curtiss Brook Trail. The stream is spilling over the Pine Lake dam and entering a deep ravine. The trail follows the brook but is up on the steep slope. After about a quarter mile, the slope eases and an unmarked side trail leads down to the water's edge. Just below this point are the remains of another dam. 

A spur off of Curtiss Brook Trail leads down to the water

The Rec Path at Pine Lake: Return to the parking lot, and walk across the Pine Lake dam spillway bridge. The elevation here is quite a bit higher than down along the canal where the factories used to be. All the water company needed to do was open a valve and water rushed through the pipes at high pressure because it was going down a big hill. This water pressure could be used to fight fires.  The concrete remains of a gatehouse foundation that housed the valve can be seen in the water near the bridge. There is also a red building below the dam. We're not entirely sure what this was, but have heard it was perhaps a filtration facility.  For many decades this reservoir was known as Shelton Reservoir #2. 

Pine Lake dam and pedestrian bridge
(photo taken before the old gatehouse collapsed)

The Rec Path School Campus Section: Walk along the Rec Path and cross Meadow Street. As you head up the hill, Curtiss Brook is now babbling just off to the left of the trail under tall White Pines, quite scenic in a few spots. 

Curtiss Brook as it runs 
between the Rec Path and
Shelton Avenue

Part way up the hill, with a ballfield just off to your right, the brook splits. The main brook crosses Shelton Avenue via a pair of 4-foot culvert, while the North Branch continues alongside the Rec Path all the way to Constitution Blvd North. 

Curtiss Brook goes under Shelton Ave via twin culverts, 
while the north branch continues along the Rec Path

After crossing Constitution Blvd, the North Branch is not seen from our trail system again unless you take the Paugussett Trail north and cross Independence Drive. We call this section of the Paugussett the "Indy Link" where it crosses the headwaters of Curtiss Brook's North Branch. The terrain is poorly drained and we've had a number of challenges maintaining the trail through here. After a heavy rain, the land is filled with little channels of water coming together, seemingly from every direction, and collecting. There are multiple bridges and bog walks, and the trail has been shifted a few times in an effort to find better footing. 

North Branch Curtiss Brook after heavy rain. 
Paugussett Trail north of Independence Drive.

The Rec Path at Silent Waters: Back to the tour. After crossing Constitution Blvd North, continue along the Rec Path to where the path takes a sharp left and begins to follow the top of the old Silent Waters dam constructed in the late 1800s. What's left of the reservoir is off to the right. The water level used to be much higher and you would have been walking right along the shoreline, but the water was mostly drained for safety reasons. Continue to the Silent Waters bridge over the spillway.  This used to be called Shelton Reservoir #1 and the modest spillway is where Curtiss Brook flows out of the reservoir.  If you look downstream, you'll see smaller Rec Path bridge over the brook, and then the brook just seems to just disappear. It's gone underground, piped beneath the big intersection between the Dog Park and the Intermediate School. From there, it flows along Shelton Avenue, but on the other side of the highway from the school and trails, so you don't see it. Eventually it recrosses the highway at the two culverts we saw earlier. 

Curtiss Brook at Silent Waters spillway
(2007 photo during Rec Path construction)

To find the headwaters of Curtiss Brook, continue along the Rec Path to the end of the dam and take a right onto Turkey Trot Trail, blazed white. You'll be going around the loop clockwise. Follow this trail past the powerline and you'll see Curtiss Brook once again on your right, babbling away if there's been enough rain. After a few hundred yards, a section splits off and crosses under Shelton Avenue. This is the outlet from Cranberry Swamp, the vast wooded swamp that Oak Valley Trail circles around (the name comes from old deeds, but we have no idea if there were actually cranberries in the swamp at one time). 

The Cranberry Swamp outlet (Oak Valley Trail)
crosses Shelton Ave and empties into Curtiss Brook 
near Turkey Trot Trail

Curtiss Brook continues along Turkey Trot Trail for a bit then turns away from the trail and is no longer seen. The trail bends to the right with Willoughby Road to your left, then meanders off to the right again, away from the road for a bit. As it circles back to the left towards Willoughby again, there will be some rock features on your right and a sharp drop off down to a wooded swamp down below. That's the source of Curtiss Brook. The trail will circle around the swamp clockwise. 

Source of Curtiss Brook, near Turkey Trot Trail

Old land records show that a portion of this swamp was once owned by George Cam, a Native American who owned several tracts of land along Oak Valley Road in the late 1700s. This particular property was entirely swampland, and there is conjecture that it was originally a cedar swamp and George Cam harvested the cedars for making cedar shingles (tools used for making shingles were found on his farm). Northern White Cedar is pretty rare in Connecticut now, but used to be much more common before it was overharvested. 

If you are literally walking this route, then continue following the white blazes of Turkey Trot Trail until the trail rejoins the Rec Path. Go left onto the Rec Path and follow that back to Pine Lake. 

The South Branch of Curtiss Brook: Park at the Dog Park on Nells Rock Road. Curtiss Brook is on the other side of Nells Rock Road and has just split into the main branch and the south branch, the latter of which goes underneath Nells Rock Road shortly. Head up the Rec Path towards Hope Lake.  You should start seeing the southern  branch of Curtiss Brook off to your left as it drains out of Hope Lake.  Continue up hill on the Rec Path and when you get closer to the Hope Lake dam, you should see the waters of Curtiss Brook cascading over the spillway. 

Curtiss Brook South Branch flowing out of Hope Lake

Paugussett Trail at Hope Lake & Eklund Pond:  Take a left onto the Paugussett Trail at the dam and follow the blue blazes along the shoreline all the way to the far end of the lake. Imagine the long, deep valley that was here before the brook was dammed. The valley made for deeper waters once the brook was dammed, which is why this is the only one of the three Shelton reservoirs that is stocked with trout. The other reservoirs are too shallow and warm to support trout. 

When the blue blazes take a sharp left and join Oak Valley Trail, you'll cross a bridge over a small stream that feeds Hope Lake. This is the south branch of Curtiss Brook. We'll come back to it further upstream shortly. 

The Hope Lake inlet
Bridge is for Oak Valley Trail & the Paugussett

Continue following the blue blazes to cross Oak Valley Road. Take a quick right onto the blue/red blazes of the Eklund Bypass Trail, and follow that down to a tiny pond formed by damming up, you guessed it, the Curtiss Brook South Channel. This is the same channel that you recently crossed as it flowed into Hope Lake. The Eklund Pond is a high quality vernal pool, filled with salamander and wood frog eggs each spring, but no fish. It's not much to look at, so enjoy this photo of a very tiny baby salamander: 

Salamander larvae from the 
vernal pool at Eklund Garden

Shelton's Lost Trails

A trail to the Pine Rock Park "Swimming Hole" had to be 
fenced off due to rampant misuse and mountains of litter

Here are some trails we used to have in Shelton and now we don't.  The reasons for the trails being abandoned vary, but we've learned to think hard about whether any new trail should be built. Is it on protected land? Who will maintain it? Is there parking?  Will anyone want to use the trail?  But even if the trail is used and maintained, other issues may shut it down, as in our first example: 

Far Mill River Trail at Pine Rock Park  This trail to the so-called "swimming hole" at Pine Rock Park was around for decades in one form or another, mostly following a sewer line to a deep pool below gorgeous falls in the river. It's one of the prettiest spots in Shelton. But with the rise of the Internet, word got out, and growing crowds of people began to descend on the swimming hole. They came from as far away as New York or New Jersey, and caused all sorts of problems in the neighborhood, clogging the streets, leaving piles of litter, and keeping people up at night. The City of Shelton spent years enforcing 'no parking' signs from the adjacent Pine Rock Park neighborhood. When a commercial development proposal for 865 River Road came before the Planning and Zoning Commission in 2006, an arrangement was made to provide parking spots there in the hopes that people would stop parking in Pine Rock Park. That did work for awhile.

Trail to the Pine Rock Park "Swimming Hole,"
now fenced off from the general public

The Trails Committee became involved at that point, creating a trail in 2008 from the back of 865 River Road to connect with the old trail. It was a lot of work and included three sets of stairs, but the area was beautiful, and the trail provided fishing access. Sadly, over the years the crowds kept growing and growing, causing serious problems in the parking lot and leaving enormous piles of litter at the "swimming hole" each summer weekend as well as lots of graffiti. (Here's a blog post about that from 2013).  Finally, in 2015, the City of Shelton allowed the owner to erect a tall fence and prohibit river access from their facility. 

That returned pressure at Pine Rock Park, and in 2021 an 8-ft fence was installed along the back of the City's Pearl Bach Open Space where people were cutting through to gain access to Stratford's property.  Public access to the Swimming Hole was thus eliminated. 

The old part of the trail follows a sewer line

This was always a frustrating and complex issue because the open space property in question, north of the river, is within the boundaries of Shelton, but owned by the Town of Stratford as part of their Far Mill River Park. So the City of Shelton didn't have authority to manage it, but the Town of Stratford didn't have good access and considered it to be a nature preserve, not a public facility that needed intense daily management. For a couple years, Stratford had an access trail on their side of the river, with a tiny parking spot, but the trail was covered in thorny overgrowth and the tiny parking lot became a problem.  Everyone finally just gave up and fenced it off. It was a real loss because the river is absolutely gorgeous. And this is why we can't have nice things. 

This type of problem is happening all over the state where there are potential "swimming holes." At Indian Well State Park, problems at the falls have gotten so bad that park staff have taken to closing off the parking area and making the falls as hard to access as possible. The problems at Wadsworth Falls State Park became so bad that neighbors created a Facebook Page to address the issue. 

Well Spring Estates/Far Mill Crossing: This short-lived trail was located along the south side of the Far Mill River near Old Stratford Road and Far Mill Crossing. It was only about 800 feet long, if that, but passed by some interesting old ruins and provided fishing access. Its creation was one of the conditions of approval for the PDD housing development known as Well Spring Estates in 2004. Designated public parking was down a driveway off of Far Mill Crossing. Trails Committee volunteers did some maintenance (see this blog post for some nice photos of a work party), but that came to an end when the public parking area was eliminated. Residents had concerns that parked vehicles might obstruct emergency response vehicles. The general public is now required to park on the street and walk down the driveway to access a very short trail, something most people wouldn't want to do.  

Trail at Well Spring Estates, now overgrown.
The parking area was closed to the public, ending interest in
maintaining the trail.

This particular trail still has some potential. It officially ended at the border with private properties, although an old fishing path continued along the edge of the river. On the other side of these private properties (0.4 mile) is some Shelton Open Space and then Stratford's Far Mill River Park, which continues for over a mile along the steep river bank to Rt 110.  Conservation & Trails have long hoped to extend the Paugussett Trail from Buddington Road to the Far Mill River and out to Rt 110, ending at the old landfill (which was supposed to have a public access/boating component to it on the river side), but there are many hurdles that would need to be cleared. 

Wakelee View Trail (Waterview Drive): This trail was formally proposed by the Open Space Committee in 1996 (this committee no longer exists) for the Shelton Heights Industrial Park area off of Constitution Blvd South. The details are lost to time, but people involved seem to remember that it was in response to a request by Pitney Bowes.  The industrial park was mostly still vacant at the time. The Trails Committee had not yet been established, but a few years later the committee was created and the 0.9-mile Wakelee View Trail became their first project. No idea why it was called that. The trail traversed the periphery of the industrial park through a 100-ft conservation easement area up on an open hillside. 

Wakelee View Trail
(most of the buildings had not been constructed yet)

It was a big project but almost immediately became overgrown.  Trails Committee members had been under the impression that Pitney Bowes employees would help out with maintenance, but it didn't happen. The trail never seems to have gotten much use, probably because it was unimproved (a paved or crushed stone path would be more attractive for people on their lunch hour, like the popular paved corporate path near Trap Falls Reservoir).  Also, this was the same year that the Shelton Lake regions became open space, and the Trails Committee's volunteers were enthusiast about getting some new trails there established, including the Rec Path. 

Wakelee View Trail

Land Trust/Boy Scout Trails: A number of trails created by Boy Scouts have been lost over the years, including a network of trails across the Stockmal and Willis Woods properties. Prior to the creation of Nicholdale Farm in the 1990s, the Stockmal family hosted a Boy Scout camping area on their private land, which abuts the Land Trust's Willis Woods property. A number of hiking trails were blazed, but after the Scout camp was moved to the new Nicholdale Farm property, those trails were not maintained and became impassible.  Some sections of the newer Stockmal Trail and Willis Wood Trail coincide with these lost trails. The Scout camp was located at the current end of Stockmal Trail.

Another Land Trust/Scout trail in danger of being lost is the one off of Commerce Drive leading down towards the Far Mill River. A kiosk marks the spot. This was a great project and benches were installed. A general challenge of hiking trails created by Scouts is there is often no maintenance program in place to keep those trails clear, so they become overgrown quickly, especially if crossing sunny areas with lots of vegetation.

CFPA's Paugussett Trail, Hook-Up Trail, and the Birchbank Access Trail: Built in the 1930s, the Paugussett Trail used to stretch from the Stevenson Dam in Monroe all the way through Shelton to Roosevelt Forest in Stratford. The trail was managed by the non-profit Connecticut Forest and Park Association (CFPA). Everything south of Indian Well was abandoned in the  1970s or 80s when land was cleared for new housing developments. The trail was originally built largely on private property with only a handshake agreement, so when suburbanization ramped up, the trail was lost. The construction of Aspetuck Village was a major disruption, as were the office parks along Commerce Drive. Note that a portion of the trail was re-established in the 2010's using a new, protected route. Read more.  Many other sections of the Paugussett from Birchbank to Webb Mtn were also lost or shifted in response to subdivisions. Lesson: Route trails on preserved lands where possible, or otherwise try to preserve a corridor for them. 

1946 CFPA Map showing the Paugussett, Pomperaug, 
and Hook-Up Trails (click to enlarge)
Surviving routes are in blue

The Hook-Up Trail linked the Paugussett Trail in Shelton to the Pomperaug Trail in Monroe. It passed through farmland of the White Hills. We don't know much about this trail, but assume it was lost when private properties were subdivided.  Much of the southern Pomperaug Trail was also lost, and one orphaned stretch south of the Stevenson Dam was became part of the Paugussett Trail. Read more.

The Birchbank Access Trail to the Paugussett, blazed blue/yellow, was official abandoned due to unchecked ATV damage. After the City of Shelton purchased the land in 1998, the trail was re-opened (now blazed white), and ATV use was enforced. 

The Bluff Walk at Riverview Park: A section of Shelton's first recreational trail was lost when it was buried under fill for a ballfield and the basketball parking area. The trail goes way back to the at least the early 1900s and can be seen on an aerial from 1934. The two ballfields were in place by 1965 and the basketball court by 2004. The section in the photo below still exists behind the large ballfield, while a new trail was dug into the fill slope behind the small ballfield. The Bluff Walk currently crosses the pavement at the basketball courts because the fill slope is too steep for a trail (a portion collapsed in a landslide a few years ago). 

Old post card showing the Bluff Walk at Riverview Park,
looking down on the canal.