There is, or was, a good-sized cave in Colebrook; it's a long-lost cave now. It's been lost before, adn eventually found, but this time it may be lost forever: there's a rumor that the W. P. A. blasted it out of existance in the early thirties for safety's sake. Here are some published reports of the Colebrook cave:
After being forgotten for over three-quarters of a century and unknown to the present generation, a party of Colebrook young men under the leadership of Dolor La Belle, the gypsy-moth scot, discovered a mammoth cave in the wilds of North Colebrook last Sunday and explored it for a considerable distance, that is, two of them who were of slight enough to build to crawl into the mouth did. Messrs. Neil Eskolin and Carl Wolfram. The others besides Mr. La Belle in the party were Harold Phillips, Walter Mattson, Spencer Deming, Ralph Cooper and Jack Salley. The cave which is over a quarter of a mile long, over 80 feet wide in one place and from 10 to 30 feet high has many deep caverns and recesses, dark pools and a running stream of water in it. The young men did not explore its depth more than about 50 feet as it is very spooky and dark and damp and they had nothing but matches with them and these would burn out in a moment on account of the heavy condition of the air and the dampness.
The cave is located upon the side of a mountain in the northwest part of the town and its entrance is only gained by hard climbing and would never have been discovered had they not had pretty definite directions which they gleaned from a description of the cave written over 85 years ago and their general knowledge of the country from their fighting the gypsy moth. The mouth of the cave after moving away the debris which had fallen from the cliff was found to be less than a foot and a half in diameter so that some of them could not crawl in.
It is proposed upon their next adventure to the cave to enlarge the opening and make a much greater exploration of this freak of nature. That it is a real wonderland hidden away in the Colebrook mountain is not to be doubted for they could hear running water a long distance away. Whether it is infested with animals in not known. They said they would not be at all surprised to find skeletons ther. Interest in the discovery of the long lost cave came about through C. A. Stotts, proprietor of the old Northrop who in turn got it from her late brother, John G. Shackley of West Brookfield, Mass. Mr. Shackley wrote his sister as follows: "I find this today in reading an old book from the library entitled 'American Adventure', Volume 1, issued by Harper Brothers in 1868."
The article referred to describing the cave is replete with thrills and it as follows:
A letter in a late number of the Norwich, Conn., Aurora, dated Colebrook, Conn., September 24, 1841, gives the following interesting account of the discovery of a cave in that place.
For several days past our usually quiet village has been in quite a commotion in consequence of a rumored discovery of a large cavern in the northwest part of the town bordering on Massachusetts.
I am first supposed the story to be a hoax and treated it as such but being assured to the contrary by a respectable neighbor who said he had been in the cave, I was induced to visit the place designated and have occular proof of the truth of the report. It may appear incredible that a great cavern should have remained so long unknown in this inhabited region but it is nevertheless true. It is probably large, but how large is not known as it has been explored but about a quarter of a mile and no one can be found who ever heard of its existence before. I have agreed with a number of my neighbors to explore the cavern as far as practicable, and I propose with your permission to give the result of our researches from time to time thorugh the medium of your paper.
The mouth of the cavern is in the northwest part of the town within a mile and a half of the Massachusetts line. It is a barren, rocky, unfrequented spot; a projecting cliff of scraggy rock, fully one hundred feet high, hangs over it with an aspect so threatening as to daunt the courage of the less daring. Why it does not fall over no one can tell. It seems to stand against all the known laws of gravitation.
When I was a boy my father lived within a mile of the place and I have spent hours with the other boys clambering over the rocks and up the side of the precipice. The mouth of the cavern at the bottom of the precipice is covered with a high mass of rocks which have evidently fallen from the cliff above. Some of them are very large and from their size one may easily discover the place from which they fell. There was nothing in the general appearance of the place indicating the existence of such a cavern and one might clamber about there a week and not suspect such a thing. The only opening was under a large rock and scarcely large enough for a boy to crawl into. It could only have been discovered by accident as it was. Two weeks ago last Sabbath one of the boys, a bold adventurous little fellow and two others scarcely less so wandering about the fields for pastime came to this spot. While they were amusing themselves by clambering about and hiding among the rocks, one of the boys, without knowing why, put his head into this hole under the rock and shouted 'hello'. He started back in affright at the strange sound and called his companions.
Each in turn put his head under the rock and made some noise which resounded like the sound of 100 voices. Boys though they were, they had halloed into too many cisterns and vaults not to know that such reverberations indicated room inside. So one proposed they should go in and see what discoveries they could make. This the other boys declined doing but the first boy, nothing daunted by the fears of his comrades boldly declared he would go in alone. He crawled in about eight feet when he found there was room to stand upright. A few straggling rays of light found their way between the rocks but no sufficient to discover the dimensions of the place he was in. He seemed to feel, however, that he was in a small room and a large one. He uttered a loud shriek with a view to frightening his companions outside but the sound was so wild and terrific it only frightened himself and he came out much quicker than he went in.
This was a discovery just suited to the adventurous disposition of the boys and they resolved to make the most of it. Before they parted they agreed to keep the thing a secret from all others and to meet there on the next Sunday prepared with old clothes, matches, a lantern, etc. to explore the new cave as they called it. The next Sunday they repaired to their rendezvous accoutered according to agreement and provided with the necessary implements they prepared to enter. Boys, like men, will rarely acknowledge a want of courage buthas each accused the other of being afraid, I conclude they were all half frightened out of their wits for it had occured to them that this place might be full of ghosts. Byt with some hesitation and some misgivings, they at length entered with lantern in hand. They proceeded cautiously forward taking good care to keep in sight of the hole by which they had entered. Having gone about 10 rods without meeting any boundary to their cave, and their small entering place beginning to grow dim in the distance, they thought it prudent to venture no farther. The cavern was much too large for them to explore and they concluded to confide the secret to older and wiser heads. Before going out they determined to give a loud shout altogether. I have since tried it. The reverberations are most terrific. Scarcely had the echo of their shout died away, when to their consternation and horror it was answered by a low suppressed growl which seemed within a few rods of them. With one impulse they darted toward the place of entrance. The boy who had the lantern dropped it in his fright and it was not without much rending of clothes and many severe contusions of body that they got themselves out.
I state this on the authority of the boys. We have not yet found any animal nor tracks of one large enough to have made the noise which the boys assure us they heard. The boys having reported their discovery, several of the neighbors went to they place with guns and crowbars to force an entrance. This, however, they were not able to do. The rocks were so large as to resist every effort to remove them. They bethought themselves of the expedient of blasting. By this means on Saturday last they effected an entrance large enough for a man to walk in upright.
When I arrived on Monday evening, there were some twenty persons around the cavern and others in it. I borrowed a lantern and joined the ones inside. The mouth of the cavern is towards the southeast. If all the loose stones in and around it which seem to have fallen from the cliff above were removed, the cave at the mouth would be as near as I can judge, about 50 feet wide and 30 feet high. The air on entering has a peculiar smell which I can compare to nothing. I imagine the candle burnt less brilliantly than in the open air. For the first three or four rods the way is a good deal obstructed by sharp rocks, then comes a smooth gravelled floor as hard as macadamized road. Ten rods from the entrance we measured and found the width to be 83 feet and again at 30 rods we found it 67 feet. The sides are quite even, especially the east side which is as smooth as if it had been chiseled. The roof is broken and craggy. In some parts rising very high at others descending to within 10 feet of the floor. The flooring for the most part is level and smooth, consisting of stone and hard gravel.
We met with several deep pits into one of which we were near fallling. Two of them resembled wells. We sounded one of them to the depth of nine fathoms and another to the depth of five and one-half fathoms. In the first well we found water but the latter well was dry or appeared so. The main part of the cave is remarkably straight and uniform in width for the most part. It runs in a north and northeast direction for a quarter of a mile where it ends abruptly. We met with numerous openings at the right and left. Some large enough to admit a horse and carriage and others scarcely a man. We only marked them with chalk and passed on to the end of what seemed to be the main part of the cavern.
Here we stopped for a few moments. All stood without speaking gazing about with amazement and wonder. The silence was painful. No dropping of water or creaking of insects, not a sound could be heard, but the low suppresssed breathing of the company. It seemed as if I could hear their hearts beat - it had risen several degrees. The thermometer stood at 60 1/2 degrees.
As we prepared to retrace our steps, we discovered an opening on the west side a few rods from the termination of the part of the cavern we were in. We drew near and listened. There was a low murmuring sound as of a distant waterfall and the air which issued from it seemed colder and damper. This led up to suppose it must be of very great extent but we were too cold and weary to prosecute our researches farther at this time."
A week later, on November 25, 1926, there was another mention of the Colebrook cave in the "Winsted Citizen":
Augmented by a dozen more men from Colebrook and Winsted including Carrington A. Phelps, the novelist and story writer, Dolor Le Belle, entomologist and his assistants, visited the big cave told about in last week's Times in the northwestern part of Colebrook again last Sunday and made further explorations.
Leaving the state road at the Rock schoolhouse, the party, journeying in four automobiles, took the left hand turn and followed the highway to J. C. Burwell's camp on the old Shantry farm. From there they walked about a mile to Knapp Hill, which is located on Mr. Burwell's farm, near the Norfolk town line and soon came to the mouth of the cave.
Armed with spot lights this time, five of the members of the party were able to crawl into the cave for a distance of 80 or 100 feet when they found their way blocked from going further by reason of huge stones in their way, though they were much disappointed to find the passageway blocked for they felt sure they were in the same place as before.
It is believed that the frost has broken down the rocks in the cave since it was first explored in 1841 as much ice was found in the cave on Sunday.
The cave was very damp and dark. At one place it was high enough for a man to stand up but for the most part the passageway was so filled with rocks that it was difficult to make one's way. The explorers could hear a stream of water running in the cave at some distance. The cavern extends under Knapp Hill, which is practically solid ledge with a thin layer of soil and some vegetation on top.
The mouth of the cavern is about 100 feet below the top. In addition to those already mentioned, the exploring party consisted of Wilbur Mills and sone, Burt, Harry Sweet, Daniel Bisson, Edward Newhall, Rudolf and Arnold Stenman, George Luce, George Mills, Robert Fritz of Colebrook, and Arthur Hayes of Winsted.
The cave was undoubtedly formed in prehistoric times. The rocks, which now block the passage, may have been jarred down by an earthquake of blasted, but is more likely done by frost.
The Colebrook cave is also mentioned again twenty years later, in April, 1947, in the Winsted paper; Tee Vee's "col-yum":
There are some caves up between Colebrook and North Colebrook which are said to be rather extensive but which no one aroudn these days seems to be able to find. The caves have been searched for by a number of Colebrook people on many occasions in the past few years but haven't yet been found. A few days ago a group of young people including members of the Betts, Bickford, Otis, Cooper, Pruyn, Ford and Wheeler families spent a great deal of time searching for the caves but failed to find them. Is there anyone in the audience who knows where these caves actually are?
We had an item in this col-yum the other day telling about the unsuccessful efforts of a group of young people form Colebrook to find the famed Colebrook caves. They are situated, so we are informed, on the south east corner of the prominent hill north of Shantry road and in the same vicinity where Colebrook's famed dinosaur tracks can be seen. We've heard that the entrance to the caves was closed up a dozen or so years ago as a WPA project as it was feared someone might enter there and fall into a deep pit near the entrance. Can anyone verify this information?"
"The answer to countless .........has never been found, .......to be found ....... published in Vol. 1 of Harpers in 1868. There doesn¹t seem to be an author but the type of stories in the publication indicated the stories to be true. This book is on file in the New York City Public Library in the history dept.
In September of the year 1811 some boys were playing hide and seek in the rocks that were known to lay at the base of a large hill on the farm of Jonah (?) Randall in the northwest part of Colebrook. This location is on the town line of Norfolk and is about 1 and 1/2 miles south of the Mass. state line. It was described as a barren rocky spot with a 100 ft. cliff and at that time was known as ³Witches Retreat².
One of the boys ducked into an opening under a large rock in the mass and realized that the hole he entered was different. His voice had an echo and the cavity a strange large depth. A few days later he led his father and some other men to the site and the opening was probably the largest cavern in Connecticut.
It was described as (after blasted open) as having a mouth entrance toward the southeast over 50 feet wide and 60 (?) feet high. The main passage was at 10 rods in 83 feet wide and at 30 rods in 67 feet wide. There were deep pits, two of them like wells, one 9 fathoms deep with water and another 5 and 1/2 fathoms, which was dry. A number of side passages were explored and at the end was a side opening on the west side where water was heard. For some strange reason the cave was closed and lost to the present generation."
On the Massachusetts border bounded by Sandisfield, Mass on the north, Hartland, Conn. on the east, Winchester on the south and Norfolk on the west is the town of Colebrook in Litchfield County. The land was sold by Hartford & the name was taken from Colebrook in Devonshire England. The settlement was started in 1765 and the town was incorporated in 1779.
The village is an attractive town of older well kept homes surrounded by a mountainous region of great beauty. Sandy Brook is one the major streams that flows into the larger Farmington River. Goodwin (? my best guess) Dam of the west branch of the Farmington is under construction and will form one of our states larger reservoirs. Beulah Falls on Sandy Brook Road is a place of beauty. The famous Tunxis Falls is down the Sandy Brook almost at its junction with the Still River. Here was the _____iron furnaces of 1770 where the iron ore was brought from Salisbury in saddle-bags or by ox-team. The pig iron was transported to Boston. This business was important to the Revolutionary War.
The Algonquin State Forest consists of over 2300 acres and lies mostly north of Sandy Brook. It is kept as an attractive wilderness area. The old roads are worth exploring. They pass odd stone walls and cellar holes where pioneer families lived.
The area is used for fishing in (sic) Sandy Brook and hiking and exploring the wild woodland places.
Route 8 is the main highway running north thru the eastern part of the township to Massachusetts passing the beautiful cliffs and views of the west branch of the Farmington River. Routes 182 & 183 give access to the town from Route 44 on the south. There are a few small bodies of water and beautiful forests and streams to make an attractive rural township...
REW
pCw = Washington Gneiss
pCbg = Biotite Gneiss
Description of map units - Gneisses of the Berkshire Massif - Intrusive igneous rocks
WASHINGTON GNEISS (Precambrian) Dark-rusty-brown rough-weathering strongly foliated locally well-layered muscovite-rich schist and feldspathic quartzite. Locally orange-tan-weathering well-layered biotite-muscovite-rich gneiss composed of quartz, plagioclase, biotite, muscovite, sillimanite, apatite, zircon, and rare coarse-grained garnet. Gneiss and schist units mapped separately in Norfolk quadrangle. Schist contains scattered beds of gray vitreous weathering lace-work-pitted quartzite composed of rutilated quartz, microcline, biotite, muscovite, zircon, and apatite. Gneiss contains distinctive light-gray to white lightly rusty-weathering layers rich in quartz and feldspar and studded with large garnets rimmed by coarse-grained black biotite.
BIOTITE GNEISS (Precambrian) - Well-layered light- and dark-gray medium-to coarse-grained biotite-rich gneiss composed of quartz, biotite, plagioclase, locally hornblende, sphene, zircon, apatite, and magnetite. Epidote commonly occurs with hornblende and rims monazite. Stratigraphic position uncertain; occurs with Washington Gneiss and may be either a facies of the Washington or separate stratigraphic unit.
Description under "Geology of the South Sandisfield Quadrangle / Stratigraphy / Precambrian rocks"
Washington Gneiss -The Washington Gneiss is composed of tow major rock types; one predominately a feldspathic, micaceous arenite and the other a pelitic schist. These two lithologies can be separated locally, but outcrops are too scarce to trace their contacts through the eastern part of the area so they are mapped together. The Washington Gneiss can be easily distinguished from the other Precambrian rocks by its dark rusty-brown weathered surface and its abundant muscovite. Individual outcrops of tghe Washington can be confused with some of the Dalton Formation, but the associated rocks of the Washington, particularly gray, vitreous, lacework-pitted quartzite in the schist and white to light-gray feldspathic granofels containing large garnets rimmed by biotite in the arenaceous rocks, have no litholgic equivalents in the Dalton.
Biotite gneiss -Light-and dark-gray biotite gneiss of the calc-silicate-bearing sequence, similar in appearance to parts of the biotite-quartz-plagioclase gneiss, is associated with the Washington Gneiss in the eastern part of the quadrangle. It is tentatively and quite arbitrarily assigned a position below the Washington Gneiss.