Dividend Pond Falls

Pays Dividends
Dividend Pond Falls, Rocky Hill
December 2023

Everyone loves a nice waterfall that doesn’t require effort to enjoy, right? We have several in Connecticut, and some are near interstate highways in the center of the state. Dividend Pond Falls in Rocky Hill checks all those boxes.

You just park, walk down some stairs and voila… the triple-tier waterfall drops 28 vertical feet right in front of you.

There’s a lot more to Dividend Pond than these falls, like the miles of trails that circle the pond, loads of historic ruins and industrial history, and even a really cool glacial sediment dam.

But this page is all about the falls.

An upper pond flows into a lower pond with the waterfall in between. The trails near the falls are generally flat and easy to walk. Further afield (apond?) at Dividend Pond you can find some rocky trails, but even though this is in Rocky Hill, there are no hills worth noting unless you aim to seek the top of the massive sediment dam.

The park is actually a designated state archaeological preserve, showcasing how the brook here once powered mills and foundries dating back to 1677.

Here, I’ll let an ancient Peter Marteka article explain some more:

Visitors can start their walk at the far eastern end of the preserve at what remains of the foundation of Gershom Bulkeley’s Corne Mill built in 1677. The path follows the banks of what is known as lower pond and continues uphill. While climbing the hill, visitors can find a framed picture hanging from a tree of what the area once looked like. The highlight of the hollow is the 40-foot-high falls that take Dividend Brook cascading down from upper pond into lower pond and eventually into the nearby Connecticut River.

Take a side trail across the Bulkeley mill dam and walk down the northern side of the falls. A dirt path continues up to Tollgate Road and Pleasant Valley Road, where you can see the remnants of the Butler and Sugden Shear factory, where shears, a single-shot muzzle-loading pistol and other hardware were made. The mill burned down and was rebuilt and sold to Elisha Stevens, a toy manufacturer in Cromwell who produced miniature toys, cast iron banks and chandeliers. There are dams and sluiceways to explore, water-filled foundations to hop in and abandoned staircases to climb. There are also various rusted machines still lying around that visitors can touch and feel and wonder about.

Just north of the archaeological preserve where former industry thrived, is Rocky Hill’s current industrial park. Just south of it? TPC River Highlands where Connecticut’s PGA event is held in the summer. Once out of the parking lot, however, none of that other stuff is noticeable.

I’m sure a lot of people come here just for the falls, and that’s fine. They’re pretty. But to ignore all the history and signage in the immediate area is almost impossible to do. I understand not making the trek around the pond, let alone to explore the sand dunes of the ancient natural dam.

So hey, go check out these falls. Quick, easy, and quite pretty.