Old Connecticut Path: Trail to Tolland - Tolland, CT

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• published: 12 Dec 2012
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The Trail to Tolland begins on the banks of the Willimantic River in Nye Holman State Forest. Travelers on the Old Connecticut Path forded the river taking advantage of the shallow water and low river banks found in the Willimantic River's wide flood plain. The trail west closely follows the modern roads to Tolland and Hartford, yet remains in a world apart. The ancient roadway, following the route of the Old Connecticut Path from the Willimantic River at Nye Holman State Forest to Tolland Green at the center of Tolland, was once an important route for the founders of Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield, and the early settlers. The ancient way has been bisected and bypassed by modern roads and development. The fragments that remain are beautifully preserved and provide a window into travel in the 17th-18th centuries. The trail to Tolland shows the delicate balance between progress and preservation. Parts of the trail will be preserved within pubic lands, parts have already been lost to "modern improvements", and portions waver in the balance, at risk of being lost forever. The "Trail to Tolland" offers a digital time capsule showing a world as it may have been seen by Connecticut's founders and later settlers along side the view from our modern world. Rediscovering this portion of the Old Connecticut Path raises the challenge to ensure that the scales of progress and preservation are balanced for the future. The Old Connecticut Path is one of the earliest trails followed as part of America's westward migration. As early as 1635-36, the migration from Massachusetts Bay at Boston/Cambridge west to Connecticut began following the Old Connecticut Path. Connecticut's founders passing this in the 1630's included: John Oldham, the first Englishman to travel the path and founder of Wethersfield, CT; Reverend John Wareham, founder & first minister at Windsor, CT; and, Thomas Hooker, founder & first minister of Hartford, CT. Reverend Thomas Hooker and his entire congregation walked along the Old Connecticut Path for two weeks across the wilderness in 1636 from Cambridge, MA to establish Hartford, CT. Join me for a walk and use your imagination to experience the landscape traveled by the pioneers of the 1600s. For more information, visit the Old Connecticut Path website at https://sites.google.com/site/oldconnecticutpath/ Send comments to oldconnecticutpath@gmail.com