The history of Winsted’s water supply

Winsted’s rivers, lakes and streams have long played an important role in the town’s growth and its water system. The availability of these abundant sources and the torrent of water power that they provide began the town’s remarkable industrial history in the mid-18th century. Over the years, Winsted has sought ways to improve the capacity of its water system, not only to further industrial growth but to provide adequate water for domestic use and fire protection. 

Local historians Frank DeMars and Elliott Bronson offered an insightful account of the town’s water system in their book “Winsted and the Town of Winchester,” as did former editor of Waterbury’s Republican and American newspapers, William J. Pape, in his 1918 book “History of the Waterbury and Naugatuck Valley.” According to Pape, when the borough of Winsted was formed within the town of Winchester, in 1858, one of the first issues addressed was whether the borough “had the right to draw water from Long Lake,” which is now known as Highland Lake. 

 In response to the borough’s concerns, in 1860, the Connecticut General Assembly granted Winsted the authority to take water from Long Lake for “fire protection and other purposes and to raise the level of the lake four feet above the high water mark.” Water for manufacturing purposes was not to be wasted, and a loan of $25,000 was authorized to secure flowage rights, construct a dam and lay mains. The first water pipes installed were eight inches in diameter and they were manufactured at a site near the former Clifton Mill in Winsted. In the same year, a provision was made to collect water rents and to elect commissioners who would oversee the water system. Lyman Case, John T. Rockwell and William L. Gilbert were elected as the borough’s first commissioners. Gilbert would eventually play a very pivotal role in the future of Winsted’s water system. 

With its three bays and spillway on the brink of the hill overlooking Winsted, Highland Lake was the obvious choice when the borough sought to expand its water supply. The lake stream rushed down at a distance of nearly half a mile to join the Mad River near Lake and Main streets, and the 150-foot drop offered a series of water privileges to the town’s early industries. It was said that along the lake stream route hardly an inch of water was not used from Highland Lake to the Mad River. 

In the drop from Highland Lake to the Mad River, about 500 horsepower of energy was generated, which was a substantial amount of power for the time. Some of Winsted’s most successful industrial concerns were located along the lake stream, including American Knife, Winsted Hardware, B.J. Harrison’s, Fitzgerald Manufacturing, Winsted Edge Tool Works, Hawley’s Feed Mill and Union Pin.

As the years passed, Winsted’s water system was extended to new streets. Issues arose along the way, including rusty water, disagreeable tasting water, insufficient pressure, and even the presence of eels in the system, but they were usually resolved by the commissioners. Prior to the introduction of the public water system, every property reportedly had access to a well or spring water, but by 1872 nearly the entire borough was provided with water from Highland Lake. 

The level of Highland Lake was raised again, in 1875, when consumption of water by factories along the lake stream peaked, and by 1876 Winsted’s industrial need was so great that the supply of water for domestic use and firefighting purposes was in jeopardy. Fire was a frequent occurrence in Winsted, with the prevalence of wooden structures and the lack of adequate fire detection, and providing the fire districts with effective fire fighting equipment was often a contentious issue. Historians DeMars and Bronson also offer a very detailed account of the town’s early firefighting efforts in their book “Winsted and the Town of Winchester.”

By the late 19th-century, there was rising concern about the borough’s water supply as Highland Lake became an increasingly popular recreational site and tourist attraction. The coming of the trains and trolleys to Winsted, the paving of the boulevard around the lake, and the introduction of pleasure boats brought an increasing number of summer residents to the lake, with somewhat adverse effects. Popular activities, such as horse and automobile races on the ice in winter, were eventually prohibited, and it soon became apparent that Winsted needed a “cleaner” public water supply. 

From the late 1870s to the early 1890s, the borough voted to construct various canals and dams, and several bills were introduced or passed by the Connecticut state legislature to improve the borough’s water supply. However, a long-term solution to Winsted’s water woes was not agreed upon. For years, the amount of water going to waste in the Mad River was heatedly discussed around town, especially in the newspaper. 

In July of 1887, when the borough proposed that a dam be built at Crystal Lake that would divert water to that lake from Rugg Brook, only half of the required voters showed up for the meeting so it was adjourned without any action being taken. At long last, in 1890, William L. Gilbert, one of the town’s most civic-minded citizens and a former water commissioner, offered funds to build a tunnel through the mountain between Rugg Brook and Crystal Lake. 

Crystal Lake, which was once referred to as Little Pond, is located a short distance northwest of Highland Lake. It is connected to Highland Lake by Sucker Brook, at an elevation of 227 feet. William Gilbert’s gift stipulated that sufficient funds be raised to construct a reservoir and canal between the two lakes and that Winsted purchase the water rights when the last business to hold those rights ceased operation. 

About six months after William Gilbert made his generous offer, he became seriously ill while vacationing in Canada. His friend, Henry Gay, another prominent Winsted resident, rushed to Gilbert’s deathbed and convinced him to add a codicil to his will giving $48,000 to the town to build the tunnel that would connect Rugg Brook and Crystal Lake. 

After much consideration, in 1892, the borough finally accepted William L. Gilbert’s legacy and agreed to appropriate additional funds to undertake the Rugg Brook tunnel project. At a final cost of nearly $140,000, a 3,252 foot tunnel was constructed that diverted water from the Rugg Brook reservoir to Crystal Lake through Sucker Brook to Highland Lake. The project made Crystal Lake Winsted’s public water supply. 

Local resident Joe Cadrain wrote a fascinating history of the tunnel project in his article “The Gilbert Tunnel,” which appeared in the Feb. 24, 1994, issue of The Winsted Voice. In the year that he wrote his article, Cadrain actually walked the length of the tunnel route. The facts retold here, regarding the construction of the tunnel, have been gathered from his research and that of other historians and news reporters. 

The construction contract for the Rugg Brook tunnel project was awarded to Babcock, Lary and Company of Newburgh, N.Y. A worksite was set up in the dry basin of the Rugg Brook reservoir, along with a temporary boarding house for workers and a compression house with large boilers for compressors and other machinery. The machinery for the project was delivered to the Colebrook train station and transported to the Rugg Brook site. A blacksmith shop and powder house were constructed nearby, and a supply of bricks, rails for the underground tracks, pumps, drills, wheelbarrows, and timbers were stored at the worksite. Construction engineers and supervisors were housed at the Mine Hill farmhouse, located about half a mile from the reservoir. 

Explosive experts drilled holes for the dynamite used to blast through the mountain between Rugg Brook and Crystal Lake, which was two-thirds of a mile of solid rock. An estimated 36 tons of dynamite were used. The debris from the blasting was loaded into carts and hauled from the tunnel via the underground tracks that had been laid from the opening of the tunnel to where the debris was to be dumped. The walls of the tunnel were reinforced with bricks. Construction continued until the work crews met in the middle of the tunnel, a rather impressive feat of engineering for the time, and despite unexpected difficulties that were encountered with the blasting, the project was completed in mid-December of 1893. The final step was the installation of two gates at the Rugg Brook end of the tunnel. 

According to the late Joseph J. O’Brien, former reporter and Hartford Courant bureau chief, “The opening of the Gilbert Tunnel was a monumental day in Winsted history.” Although no formal ceremony had been planned, at two o’clock on the afternoon of Sunday, March 8, 1894, when the Rugg Brook tunnel opened, upwards of 600 onlookers waited anxiously for water to flow from the tunnel that made Crystal Lake Winsted’s public water supply. The Winsted Herald newspaper offered a year’s subscription to the person who came closest to guessing how long it would take for the water to flow through the tunnel. The prize was claimed by Mrs. Henry Cady, who guessed 8 minutes and 11 seconds, just one second short of the actual time. According to eye-witness accounts, “there was a rumble and a gush of air before water roared from the tunnel.” The crowd reportedly let out a cheer and some unprepared onlookers found themselves standing in muddy water. One enterprising young man, Bradley Dewey, apparently filled small glass bottles with water from the tunnel and sold them as souvenirs. 

In 1894 a dam was constructed at Crystal Lake, and on Thanksgiving Day, in 1895, a local crowd again gathered to see water fill the reservoir and pour over the spillway into Sucker Brook. Pipes were installed from there to the boulevard around Highland Lake and channeled to pipes at Lake Street. By 1896 most of the pipes on Winsted’s streets were replaced, as the old pipes would not have been able to sustain the additional water pressure. 

The Rugg Brook tunnel, often referred to as the Gilbert Tunnel, was completed in 1894, but the project was not fully functional until Winsted gained full control of the water rights in 1930. Rugg Brook has the distinction of being one of the earliest tunnels in the state that was built specifically for a public water supply. According to the Connecticut Historical Commission, Winsted’s public water supply system is “a well-preserved example of a late 19th-century, large-scale, municipal public works project.” Thanks to William L. Gilbert and Thomas C. Richards, who were instrumental in organizing and funding the tunnel effort, along with a host of other concerned citizens, Winsted’s water needs were provided for well into the future. 

Verna Gilson is the genealogy and local history research assistant at the Beardsley and Memorial Library’s Genealogy & Local History Room. All sources mentioned in this article are available at the library.