The Traprock Landscapes of New England. Peter M. LeTourneau
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Welcome to Traprock Country
The high and rocky mountains, contrasted with the smiling valleys altogether form … one of the most magnificent panoramas in the world.
E. T. Coke, A Subaltern’s Furlough (1833)
Stone. Soil. Water. Forged by nature and sculpted by time, the Connecticut Valley is more clearly defined by the basic elements of the landscape than any other region in the United States. The city and culture of New Orleans may be inseparable from the Mississippi River and its delta, San Francisco owes its unique charm to its famous hills, the Bay, and the legendary Pacific fogs, but only in the Connecticut Valley are the boundaries of the cultural landscape so precisely limned by topography and geology. Travelers arriving in the Connecticut Valley realize that they have entered a landscape of special character with their first glimpses of the lofty traprock cliffs, the ledges of red-brown sandstone and shale, and the broad alluvial terraces bordering New England’s largest river. There, the patterns of stone, soil, and water reveal the natural and cultural history of one of the most storied and celebrated landscapes in America.
To understand the history, culture, and character of the Connecticut Valley, we must travel through both geographic space and geologic time. Along the way, we will witness the planet-wrenching turmoil that created the bedrock foundation of the region, observe great ice-age glaciers scouring the land, watch successive waves of human occupation replace forests with fields of grass and grain, and finally arrive in a modern landscape of highways, houses, and commercial strips, bordered by rugged traprock cliffs that seem ageless in comparison.
Of all the natural features in the Connecticut Valley, none command more attention than the bold lava crags. With their barren windswept summits and deep rock-lined ravines, savanna-like meadows and cool broadleaf forests, and splashing cascades and sparkling lakes, the ancient volcanic ridges make up the most diverse and visually stunning landscapes in southern New England. Rising abruptly from the valley floor to elevations of more than 1,000 feet, the lava ridges are reminiscent of the legendary crags in northern England, including those in the Pennine Hills, the Yorkshire Dales, and the Peak District. Forming a dramatic backdrop for cities and towns from Northampton to New Haven, the traprock promontories offer expansive views that stretch to nearly one hundred miles in any direction, along with intimate maplike scenes of the lands beneath the towering cliffs. Writing about the views from the traprock summits in 1820, the Yale professor Benjamin Silliman enthusiastically stated: “The bold scenery … and the rich and grand landscape, from their summits … can hardly be exaggerated.”1
Massive walls of lava and vast talus slopes like these at South Mountain form fortresslike barriers along the length of the Connecticut Valley.
The sheer cliffs of Ragged Mountain in Southington, Connecticut, host the finest rock climbs in southern New England.
Influential nineteenth-century travel writers declared the Connecticut Valley traprock ridges the most beautiful landscapes in New England and world-class natural wonders. In 1821, Yale president Timothy Dwight called the view from Mount Holyoke “the richest prospect in New England, and not improbably in the United States.”2 Writing about his North American tour of 1832, the British adventurer and travel writer Lieutenant Edward T. Coke named the view from Mount Holyoke “one of the most magnificent panoramas in the world.” Nathaniel Parker Willis described the same view as “the richest view in America, in point of cultivation and fertile beauty.”3 For Silliman, Dwight, Coke, Willis, and other early students of New England geography, the landscape of the Connecticut Valley was the living canvas on which the cultural expressions of a young nation—its agriculture, industry, religion, and civic functions—were laid down in strokes both bold and precise.
Timeless elements of the local landscape, lava crags form dramatic backdrops for towns and cities from Northampton to New Haven. Here, Higby Mountain looms over Meriden in the central Connecticut Valley lowland.
Gigantic basalt blocks form natural monuments, such as this trilithon reminiscent of England’s Stonehenge. Cathole Peak, Meriden.
Visible for miles at sea, the red-colored traprock cliffs surrounding New Haven, including East Rock, shown here, are the most distinctive rocky headlands on the Atlantic coast south of Maine. East Rock Park.
Framed by the steep talus slopes of Beseck Mountain, a boater enjoys the traprock scenery at Black Pond, Middlefield, Connecticut.
As a result of its favorable geography, robust economy, and long history of settlement, the Connecticut Valley emerged as a vital center of the arts and sciences. There, landscape painters, illustrators, geologists, geographers, and travel writers combed the traprock hills seeking scenic overlooks, interesting geologic features, and evidence of the economic, social, and cultural progress of the young nation as revealed in views of the thriving towns and villages that surrounded the stony heights. By the mid-nineteenth century, the characteristic “tilted” profiles of the Connecticut Valley traprock crags had become iconic American landforms, immediately recognizable at home and abroad. Views of East and West Rocks near New Haven, Meriden’s Hanging Hills, Talcott (West) Mountain near Hartford, and Mounts Tom and Holyoke in the northern Connecticut Valley were widely disseminated in illustrated books, lithographs, paintings, and even collectible ceramics from England and Germany.
Following in the footsteps of the scientists, writers, and artists, landscape tourists flocked to the traprock crags in the Connecticut Valley from about 1830 to 1930. To accommodate the rising flow of visitors, entrepreneurs developed some of the earliest and most elaborate mountaintop facilities in the nation at East Rock, Sleeping Giant, the Hanging Hills, Talcott Mountain, Mount Tom, and Mount Holyoke, including rustic refreshment pavilions, elegant hotels, observation towers, a tramway (Mount Holyoke), and a cable railroad (Mount Tom).
The skillful use of talus blocks by nineteenth-century masons created pleasing patterns in stone on English Bridge in New Haven’s East Rock Park. The use of traprock for construction has deep roots in the Connecticut Valley.
The sight of a raven soaring through a gentle snowfall is a reminder of the importance of open space in the highly populated region. Chauncey Peak, Meriden.
Encased in frozen fog, the ancient traprock cliffs of Chauncey Peak seem to rise out of the mists of time. Though the cliffs are wrapped in lush growth in summer, winter brings out a fiercer aspect that gave rise to eerie tales and legends in earlier times. Giuffrida Park, Meriden.
Autumn colors paint the surface of a traprock reservoir with an impressionist’s brush. Numerous lakes and ponds nestled within the traprock hills reflect the beauty of the surrounding cliffs and crags. Merimere Reservoir, Meriden.
Droplets of pure water captured high on the traprock ridges replenish dozens of public-supply reservoirs throughout the region. Protected watershed lands form the backbone of the regional open-space corridor.