mix several cupfuls unnoticed into a big bag of flour and its heavy weight (a cup of powdered barite weighs about eight times more than a cup of flour) saved him quite a bit of the flour that was supposed to be in a 50 - pound sack. The origin of the veins is similar to the formation of the Central Valley copper deposits; super-hot fluids containing dissolved barite were injected into the brownstone of Cheshire from a molten mass of traprock. In fact, a little copper is also found in the barite veins. The discovery of the veins is credited to an old slave woman, remembered only as jenny, for whom the hill containing most of the barite, jenny Hill, is named. During the early 1800s, the veins were mined extensively (and often profitably) to a reported depth of 400 feet. Today, a housing development covers most of the site, and the many chunks of barite incorporated into stone walls and rock gardens are the only sign of the once-thriving mine.

Into the Uplands

The Central Valley was the great incubator of Connecticut, first settled and first in resources. Most important for the colonists was the resource of land; here was level, stone-free ground with rich soils just begging to be farmed. Despite the barrier of the Metacomet Ridge, transportation in the Valley was relatively easy, both because the ground is generally flat and because of the easily navigable Connecticut River. Mineral wealth was not abundant, but the farms were productive enough that sufficient raw materials could be "mined" through trade. Population swelled, and by 1675 the original wilderness of the Central Valley had been thoroughly tamed. New settlers were obliged to head for what was then the frontier: the Eastern and Western Uplands.

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