Same Dam Falls
Talcott Ravine Falls, Vernon
May 2017 & June 2020
Sometime I disagree with Connecticut Waterfalls and its decision to exclude certain falls around the state. However, I agree with this one not making the final edit.
Mostly because from what I can tell, it’s a fake falls. It’s merely a dam from back in the mill days of Talcottville. Of course, the Connecticut Waterfalls guidebook includes all sorts of dam falls.
And some of them are beautiful and/or historically important. I have no issue with what made it and what didn’t. I’m pretty much just filling space at this point.
This picture is from VernonDepot.com.
This image is from a postcard, postmarked 1911, of the falls near Ackerly’s Mill. The dam, waterfall and mill pond remain today, but much else has changed. This view is looking east, toward Vernon Center. The bridge and roadway is what is known as Dobson Road today. The bridge has been replaced at least twice since the photo was taken, most recently in 1986. The building on the left is long gone, but some of its footings are still along river bank. Ackerly’s Mill was to the right, just out of the picture.
Ackerly’s Mill remains
That’s pretty much it. I hiked the Northern CT Land Trust’s Talcott Ravine Trail with Damian and was hugely impressed with the ravine part, which is just below the falls along the Tankerhoosen.
A few years later Calvin and I rode the Hop River State Park Trail and there was a bench to take a break above these falls on the other side of the Tankerhoosen. While Calvin rested and snacked, I made my way down the herd path into the ravine – not realizing I’d seen these dam falls with Damian a few years earlier.
The signs up on the bike path referred to Dobsonville and I had this whole incorrect revelation that I’d found some new falls. I had not, but here’s a picture I took from the other side of the river that day. But more importantly, Dobsonville is named for Peter Dobson who was a local mill owner of course. But you know what else? He also first hypothesized a bunch of important stuff about glaciation before scientists did. More here.
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