Wolcott History – Rivers and Brooks

My blog about Lakes and Ponds was quite well received, so I thought I’d do another about the bodies of water that tie all the lakes and ponds together.

Most of Wolcott is part of the Mad River watershed, i.e. the Mad River which flows out of town into Waterbury takes most of the rainfall from the town. It’s only the fact that the town boundaries are straight lines that prevents them from matching the limits of that watershed on three sides of the town. In the north, Cedar Lake extends into Bristol, in the west Welton Pond extends into Waterbury, and in the northwest the area around Allentown Road is part of the Hancock brook watershed.

Here are the same list of lakes and ponds from the prior posting, but showing how they are connected by various rivers, brooks, and streams. I have put the lake/pond names in bold and the river/brook/stream names underlined.

Primary Mad River

Russell’s Pond, unnamed stream, Cedar Lake, Mad River, Mad River mill ponds, Mad River, Scovill Reservoir, Cornelis Pond, Mad River

Secondary feeds into Mad River

Welton Pond, Col. Richard’s Brook (Old Tannery Brook), Chestnut Hill Reservoir, Old Tannery Brook, Lions Club Pond, Old Tannery Brook, Mad River

Hitchcock Lake(s), Hitchcock Lake Brook, Teriaults Ice Pond, Lily Brook, Todd Road unnamed pond, Lily Brook, Finch Brook, Mad River

Wolcott Sports Complex unnamed pond, unnamed stream, Mad River

Clintons Pond, unnamed stream, Mad River

Scovill Road unnamed ponds, unnamed stream, Mad River

Tertiary feeds

Evers pond and unnamed pond, unnamed stream, Lindley Brook, Scovill Reservoir

Grilley Road unnamed pond, unnamed stream, Old Tannery Brook

There is however, one part of Wolcott that is not part of the Mad River watershed – the eastern slice of town. If you were to draw a [nearly straight] line that began at the top of the hill behind the Russell Preserve (1000+ feet in elevation), down across the western end of Long Swamp Road, joining Woodtick Road near Alcott School, then down Woodtick Road as far as Center Street, then on down County Road and continuing on to East Street, you would chop off that part of town that is not part of the Mad River watershed.

In this eastern part of town the water flows either north or east, not to the southwest as does the Mad River. Here are the lakes and ponds in this part of town.

Dunham Mill Pond, unnamed brook to the north into Bristol, Pequabuck River

Bristol Fish and Game Club Pond, Cussgutter Brook to the east into Southington

Roaring Brook unnamed pond, Roaring Brook, New Britain Reservoir, Roaring Brook (North Branch Hamlin Brook) to the east into Southington

Southington Reservoir No. 2, Humiston Brook to the east into Southington

The Mad River eventually empties into the Naugatuck River which feeds into the Housatonic River. All the brooks in Southington are part of the Quinnipiac River watershed which flows south toward New Haven. The Pequabuck River in Bristol flows northeast and is part of the Connecticut River watershed.

Thus the north eastern corner of Wolcott is actually the dividing spot between three different watersheds, each one of which empties into the Long Island Sound in a different spot (Bridgeport, New Haven and Old Saybrook). I believe that makes Wolcott unique as a Connecticut town!