Part 1: Lake Garfield Dam
The First Dam by Linda Thorpe
Have you ever wondered about that monument at the beach on Lake Garfield?
There have always been dams along the outlet and downriver of the lake, known as the Konkapot River, since the surveyors came here in 1737-39 to lay out the original “lots” of Township Number 1. The first town meetings were held in Watertown, Massachusetts to draw lots for the first proprietors. There were lots set aside for the first settled minister, a school lot, and a mill lot. It was not until a third drawing that John Brewer acquired the mill lot. The mill lot was first drawn by Samuel Bond who later withdrew. A second drawing was held and subsequently turned down by Thomas Slaton. It was only after a third drawing that John Brewer acquired the lot on the condition that he move it downstream from the original upper end of the lot to a stronger water supply. There he set up a sawmill and grist mill on the lake outlet flow of what we call the Konkapot River.
The proprietors knew it as Twelve Mile Pond for its proximity to the Housatonic River. Later it became Brewer Pond after the early settlers, and then as Lake Garfield, renamed in honor of President James A. Garfield, upon his assassination in 1881. He had fished these waters frequently when visiting relatives here.
Besides the lumber and grist mills there were other mills that relied on waterpower to produce the essential things needed to build a community out of the wilderness. Once the township was established there were, among other things, a twine factory, sawmills, gristmills, a carding mill, a comb factory soapstone stove, a rat trap, as well as several lumber-related mills. Farther downstream in Mill River there were no less than thirteen mills at one time. All supported by our Konkapot River and many dams.
Derby, Connecticut, located on the east bank of the Housatonic River about fifteen miles from the outlet into Long Island Sound, was a shipping and fishing port where shipbuilding flourished for almost two hundred years. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries waterpower played a dominant roll in the development of industry.
In December 1866, The Ousatonic Water Company of Derby, Connecticut was organized by a group of industrialists to build a dam on the Housatonic River, as part of a statewide planned expansion of industrial development.
The Derby-Shelton Dam was considered a successful nineteenth century example of urban development. The biggest objection to the project was from the fishing industry. A fishing weir and two, two-lock canals were added to the plan.
In 1867 construction began. The progress of the dam was closely monitored by local industrialists, fisherman, and legislators and it was frequently the center of conflicts among the groups. The capstone was laid in 1870. Alterations were made in 1883 and 1890. In 1891, a 210-foot section on the Derby side was swept away and had to be replaced.
The effects of the dam in Derby were almost precisely those that had been predicted in 1864. Business expanded in Derby, the manufacturing borough of Shelton was created on the west side of the river, and the New Milford shad fishing industry collapsed. All this boom of industry in the area required a steady amount of water. The Ousatonic Water Company went upstream to find ways to keep the water flowing at a steady rate to meet their requirements. They searched upstream for tributaries that flowed into the Housatonic River. Sometime, probably in the early 1870s, a dam was constructed in Monterey to impound the water on the lake, more than eighty miles upstream from Derby, for commercial use by the Ousatonic Water Company. In times of low water in Derby they would send word to open the gate and let out water. By so doing, the lake would recede and leave the shore with the cottages a muddy mess.
About 1912 the summer residents staged a drive to collect money to buy the water rights from the Ousatonic Water Company. In the summer of 1913 a dedication was held, and a marble marker was unveiled. The inscription reads, “Water rights purchased and given to the Town of Monterey by the summer and towns people” 1913.
— Linda Thorpe, Monterey News, September 2020