State forest throws centennial bash

The UConn Woodsmen team saw a log at People’s State Forest’s 100th birthday party.

Patrick L. Sullivan

State forest throws centennial bash

BARKHAMSTED — The People’s State Forest in Barkhamsted turned 100 this month, and on Sunday, Oct. 6 Matthies Grove was busy with exhibitions and demonstrations.

Owen Laurenzo of Hickory Hollow Working Steers in Belchertown, Massachusetts maneuvered two oxen in place while his father Chris got a big log up on a sled, ready to be pulled 75 yards or so to a portable sawmill, where a team from the University of Connecticut’s College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources awaited.

Elsewhere Jody Bronson and Vicki Nelson from Great Mountain Forest chatted with visitors. Bronson demonstrated how to make an axe handle.

The UConn Woodsmen did various woodly things with crosscut saws, chain saws and peaveys.

John Ferrantino from the Farmington Valley Trout Unlimited chapter was on hand and ready to talk fly-fishing, and members of the Barkhamsted Historical society were highly informative, especially when asked why it’s called the “People’s” state forest.

The answer: Because while some of the 3,059 acres were donated, much of it was purchased with donations from ordinary citizens, thus the moniker.

Latest News

Six die in Copake plan crash

COPAKE — A Mitsubishi MU-2B-40 plane carrying six people crashed in an open field near Two Town Road shortly after noon on Saturday, April 12, killing all aboard.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the aircraft departed from Westchester County Airport and was headed to Columbia County Airport in Hudson.

Keep ReadingShow less
Connecticut approves merger of Northwell, Nuvance health systems

Sharon Hospital

Archive photo

Connecticut’s Office of Health Strategy approved a merger between Northwell Health, a large New York-based health system, and Nuvance Health, which owns Danbury, Norwalk, Sharon and New Milford hospitals in Connecticut, as well as three hospitals in New York, according to a Tuesday announcement by the agency.

The two systems now have to complete the step of formally joining the entities together under the Northwell Health banner, a spokesperson for Nuvance Health said.

Keep ReadingShow less
Out of the mouths of Ukrainian babes

To escape the cruelties of war, Katya finds solace in her imagination in “Sunflower Field”.

Krista A. Briggs

‘I can sum up the last year in three words: fear, love, hope,” said Oleksandr Hranyk, a Ukrainian school director in Kharkiv, in a February 2023 interview with the Associated Press. Fast forward to 2025, and not much has changed in his homeland. Even young children in Ukraine are echoing these same sentiments, as illustrated in two short films screened at The Moviehouse in Millerton on April 5, “Once Upon a Time in Ukraine” and “Sunflower Field.”

“Sunflower Field,” an animated short from Ukrainian filmmaker Polina Buchak, begins with a young girl, Katya, who embroiders as her world becomes unstitched with the progression of the war. To cope, Katya retreats into a vivid fantasy world, shielding herself from the brutal realities surrounding her life, all while desperately wanting her family to remain intact as she awaits a phone call from her father, one that may never come.

Keep ReadingShow less
William F. Buckley Jr.: a legacy rooted in Sharon
Provided

Sam Tanenhaus, when speaking about William F. Buckley, Jr., said he was drawn to the man by the size of his personality, generosity and great temperament. That observation was among the reasons that led Tanenhaus to spend nearly 20 years working on his book, “Buckley: The Life and Revolution That Changed America,” which is due out in June. Buckley and his family had deep roots in Sharon, living in the house called Great Elm on South Main Street, which was built in 1812 and bought by Buckley’s father in 1923.

The author will give a talk on “The Buckleys of Sharon” at the Sharon Historical Society on Saturday, April 12, at 11 a.m. following the group’s annual meeting. The book has details on the family’s life in Sharon, which will, no doubt, be of interest to local residents.

Keep ReadingShow less