A romantic, 19th-century view of a grist mill on a small stream. At one time, mills like this were as much a part of every small Connecticut town as a gas station is today.

the principal means of heating homes. Today, not a single acre of forestland in the state remains that was not once cleared for farming or cut for timber, fuel wood, or firewood. Every square foot of Connecticut's land either had been or was being used.

But there was one resource that was still being underutilized, particularly in the Uplands: water power. For the first 150-200 years following colonization, only the small streams were dammed for power. The principle use of water power was to turn the gears of the hundreds of tiny gristmills and sawmills. A gristmill and a sawmill were as much fixtures of each community as the meeting house. There the flour for the week's bread was ground and the boards for the new barn were cut. The miller was also the town's main source of news and gossip, as each week he usually saw someone from every family, bringing in a sack of corn or wheat to be ground. But these mills were such small operations that a small dam on a small stream sufficed to drive them. The rivers were ignored.

Because of the complex topography and moderately high rainfall, many rivers drain the Uplands. Through the Western Uplands flow the Housatonic, Pomperaug, Naugatuck, Farmington, Shepaug, Aspetuck, Saugatuck, Norwalk, Mad, Pequonock, and two Still rivers. The Eastern Uplands are drained by the Quinebaug, Willimantic, Thames, Shetucket, Hammonasset, Salmon, Hop, Natchaug, Mount Hope, and Yantic rivers - and the last twenty miles of the Connecticut River.

Rivers are not born suddenly but develop through the ages, constantly adjusting to the events of geologic history. Over time, rivers seek the easiest paths to the lowest points while conforming to geologic obstacles that resist the eroding power of water. The present courses of Connecticut's rivers reflect this eons-long diplomacy of nature by closely following much of the underlying bedrock of the Uplands. The path of the Housatonic through the easily eroded Marble Valley is an excellent example of a river that conforms to the bedrock geology. Another example is Trading Cove Brook, which precisely follows the boundary between the granitic rocks of the Mohegan Range and the mixed metamorphic rocks of the Windham Hills region of the Eastern Uplands. And the Connecticut enters the Eastern Uplands at the location of a

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