Source for the Eightmile River Wild & Scenic Watershed

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LEARNING & EXPLORING

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Additional Cultural Landscape Documents

The following text is an excerpt from the Watershed Management Plan Chapter VI.

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1. Defining a Sense of Place: The Cultural Landscape of the Eightmile River Watershed

Cultural landscapes are special places created by human interaction with the environment. They are comprised of the cultural and natural resources associated with historic events, activities, or persons, and serve to both define the current character of a community and reflect its past.

Quantifiable features of a cultural landscape include structures such as houses, churches, and public buildings, as well as cemeteries, stone walls, views and vistas, vegetation and topography, and the distribution of transportation systems and land uses. Also considered is the spatial organization of features across the landscape, for example the location of hamlets such as the Eightmile’s Millington Green or Hamburg.

In the fall of 2004 an Eightmile River Watershed Cultural Landscape Assessment was completed by the University of Massachusetts’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning. The cultural landscape assessment included: a narrative of human settlement and the history of landscape change; descriptions of the features and characteristics of three distinct cultural landscape areas in the Eightmile — an agricultural area, a town center, and an industrial center; and a comprehensive analysis of the integrity and significance of the Eightmile cultural landscape as an outstanding resource value.

Overall, the watershed remains a rural place, full of small settlements, winding roads and hiking trails. There are no large commercial developments and convenience stores are outnumbered by general stores and farm stands. Small dispersed hamlets and farmsteads, as well as town greens and 18th and 19th century buildings, are connected by a pattern of circulation dating originally to the Colonial era. The overall historic pattern of settlement and human circulation within the watershed still exists today.

Nearly 300 archaeological and historic architectural sites have been identified for the towns and villages of the Eightmile River watershed, 23 of these are located within ¼ mile of the Eightmile River and the East Branch. The historic sites, nine of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, include many existing buildings, bridges, mills, dams, cemeteries and wharfs, as well as historic districts. (See Appendix 13 - Assessment of the Archaeological Resources of the Eightmile River Watershed)

Many individual cultural landscapes within the watershed such as Hamburg Bridge, Sterling City, Millington Green and the Bingham family properties, can be traced to their 18th or 19th century origins. They exhibit great historic integrity in terms of patterns of settlement, circulation, and architecture.

The Eightmile River watershed landscape is a significant example of a successional agrarian landscape in southern New England that is relatively undisturbed by 20th century urbanization or other modern development. There are several reasons why the watershed has seen less change than other comparable areas. The hydrology of the estuary at the mouth of the Connecticut River caused sand bars to accumulate, preventing the river from becoming a major transportation corridor. A major harbor never developed at the mouth of the Connecticut, inhibiting population growth within the watershed and surrounding area. In addition, the distance of the watershed from metropolitan areas and the lack easy access to major roads made it less desirable to settle in the Eightmile River Watershed. For those who did settle within the watershed, agricultural practices were limited by the rocky and steep topography. These factors have limited the amount of development within the watershed to where today the overwhelming footprint of settlement, circulation and even land use patterns can be traced to 17th, 18th and 19th century origins.

Overall, the cultural landscape of the Eightmile River Watershed has a number of unique features. The watershed is a rural landscape, largely undeveloped with open meadows and fields amidst hills, bedrock outcrops, extensive woodlands, stream corridors and inland wetlands. Lands bordering the Eightmile River have a high potential for intact archaeological resources. The topography, past land use, and lack of modern development contribute to a unique watershed landscape allowing for the possibility of many additional intact archaeological sites to exist. Many of the 17th, 18th and 19th century buildings, structures, and sites analyzed as cultural landscape study areas demonstrate the high degree of historic integrity that remains, particularly in architectural form. As well, the patterns of settlement, circulation, and vegetation add to the overall significance of the landscape. When compared to other watersheds of similar size in Connecticut all of these features combine to make the Eightmile River cultural landscape exemplary as an outstanding cultural resource value.

The full Cultural Landscape Study of the Eightmile River Watershed can be found in Appendix 5 Outstanding Resource Value Report – the Cultural Landscape.

2. How the Cultural Landscape is Threatened

An assessment of threats to the cultural landscape identified 13 potential activities that could degrade the cultural landscape values of the Eightmile River Watershed. A large reason the cultural landscape and its related archaeological resources were found to be of such high quality is because of the lack of development. As a result it is clear the most significant threat to these resources comes from the affects of development including: increases in housing and population; poorly planned development patterns and roads; impervious surfaces from new roadways and other sources; filling and altering wetlands; watercourse crossings; destruction of riparian corridor vegetation; and increases in suburban lawns. All of these activities have the potential to significantly change the character and quality of the landscape as well as damage possibly significant archaeological sites.

A second major threat identified was the general lack of information about the cultural resources, what makes them unique and valuable, where they may be found in the watershed and what can be done to protect them. All this information may be very important to local land use commissions and town staff in land use planning and permitting activities.

3. Existing Protections and Gaps

In order to understand potential additional protection needs for the cultural landscape a comprehensive review was completed of current protection measures planned and implemented at the local, state and federal level. Existing protections include:

  • East Haddam requires an archaeological review for new subdivisions to ensure potential sites are not destroyed before they can be analyzed for significance
  • Use of the National Register of Historic Places has been used to recognize important resources and obtain possible support to preserve and protect them
  • Active open space conservation work, especially in Lyme, has helped preserve significant landscape characteristics.
  • East Haddam’s use of the conservation subdivision approach provides the opportunity to place potential new development in a way that minimizes impacts to the landscape and archeological values of a site.
  • Inland wetlands and watercourses regulations are in place to protect wetland resources that may potentially also protect important water-related archaeological resources.
  • The State Plan of Conservation & Development identifies much of the land in the Eightmile Watershed to be sustained in a way consistent with rural character and the conservation values of the landscape.
  • The state scenic road program ensures any changes to state roads are done in a way that is consistent with conserving the characteristics that made the road eligible for “scenic” status. Rt. 156 in Lyme was designated a state scenic road during the Wild & Scenic Study process.
  • East Haddam and Lyme have local scenic road programs to recognize unique town roads.
  • Some towns utilize local historic districts such as Millington Green in East Haddam to conserve the cultural values of a particular area.
  • The Eightmile River is an officially designated state greenway.

Gaps in protection were identified as a result of comparing known cultural landscape threats with existing protection measures. Primary gaps in protecting cultural landscape features include:

  1. There are no comprehensive maps showing significant landscape features, historic buildings and landmarks or current and potential archaeological resources available to local communities for land use and open space planning activities.
  2. Lyme and Salem do not require archaeological review of a site during a subdivision application process.
  3. Towns are currently limited in their ability to manage increases in impervious cover or impacts to riparian corridors possibly affecting potential archaeological sites and historic transportation patterns.
  4. A town scenic road program is not established for Salem.
  5. Lyme and Salem do not require use of a conservation subdivision design process.

 

 

 

 

 

4. The Cultural Landscape Protection Goal

The cultural landscape goal for the Eightmile River Watershed is to recognize and conserve the scenic, historic and unique features of the cultural landscape within the Eightmile River Watershed, for the quiet enjoyment and recreational use of present and future generations.

5. Indicators of the Cultural Landscape

a. Natural Topographic Condition
b. Intact Riparian Corridor
c. Impervious Surfaces
d. The Types, Patterns and Degree of Development