History, Architecture, Industry, Edibles and More, Explained

When I lived in New York City, I loved that there was always something new to explore, a shop or restaurant or neighborhood or museum.

You might not realize it at first, but the Tristate region is just the same. Whether you’re new to the area or have lived here for years, decades or your whole life, and no matter how much you think you know  about your surroundings, there’s always something amazing that’s waiting for you to find it.

The differences are that in New York, new things are trumpeted and celebrated. Up here, the “new” things you learn are often old things: traditions and history and landscapes. It’s more about the roots, less about the surface. 

There are many talks, hikes and other events through the year that can teach you about our landscape. But there is a concentration of them on weekends in September and the first weekend of October. They are hosted by the Upper Housatonic National Heritage Area, which is a grass roots group with federal funding whose mission is to highlight the history and culture of towns in this part of Connecticut and Massachusetts. 

On Saturday, Sept. 4, over Labor Day weekend, there will be two tours of Litchfield County’s industrial heritage. The hike from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. in Kent, Conn., in Macedonia Park is dedicated to two icons of local history, Ed Kirby and Ron Jones, who  both died in 2021. It was Jones who did much of the hard work to create the heritage area here. This tour will be led by Marge Smith of the Kent Historical Society.

Earlier that day, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., there will be continuing tours of Beckley Furnace in North Canaan, Conn.

The Kent and North Canaan tours will help show the scope of the iron industry that shaped  the Northwest Corner of Connecticut as we know it today. 

The tour in Kent is a hike through the woods in search of iron industry relics. The tours in North Canaan will showcase the beautifully preserved Beckley Furnace on the Blackberry River. 

Information on hikes and activities during the month-plus of Heritage Hikes can be found at www.housatonicheritage.org/events/heritage-walks.