Shelton Dam - Shelton, CT - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

This comes from a description of a drive from Stratford, CT to New Boston, MA. The Dam at .7 m (L) caused the msot controversy of any hydro-engineering work in the State when it was first erected. The dam, planned by the Ousatonic Water Company, was finally completed in 1877 after prolonged and bitter controversies in which all the interests upstream, fearing for their livelihood, banded together to fight the power company. Shad fishermen from the Cove Fishing Company of New Milford claimed that this dam would, as it did, ruin their fisheries, and protested to the General Assembly at Hartford. The power interests finally sent to Maine for an expert to come to the General Assembly to set up and operate a working model of a fishwheel that they contended would allow the shad to reach the spawning grounds upstream despite the dam. Inland legislators were convinced, against their will, and the franchise was eventually granted, but the Cove Fishing Company disbanded, its employees deprived of their subsistence by the dam that furnished power for the factories of Derby and Shelton. --Connecticut, American Guides Series, 1938

Regarding the dam today:
"The Ousatonic Dam was built to fill the Shelton Canal with water to power factories in the late 1800s. The dam complex, including the gatehouse, remaining locks, and a portion of the canal, is one of the most recognized scenic features in the City. The dam is used for energy generation under a federal license and is open to the public under a lease by the CT Department of Environmental Protection."
source: http://www.sheltonconservation.org/cri/scenic/Housatonic%20River.html

Book: Connecticut Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 473 Year Originally Published: 1938

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