This is where I stayed in West Suffield, Connecticut. I took the photo at the last moment, when the sun was in a bad position for it. It was originally built in the 1920s as a summer only residence, and has been adapted, but not by much. It still relies on pumping water from its own well, and I imagine it is cold in winter and too hot in summer.

West Suffield is less than 5 miles from the Massachusetts border, and is extremely rural. The house is in a road of similar properties, but otherwise the surrounding area was mainly farms, mostly growing tobacco.

Connecticut is the third smallest state by area, but with a population of 3.6 million it is the fourth most densely populated. In 2010 it had the highest per capita income in the USA, but I was staying in one of the poorer areas.

I decided to visit all the attractions within 20 miles or so of where I was staying, and there were more than I anticipated.

First was a series of waterfalls near West Granby, along about half a mile of river.

This was typical, and the drop is greater than it appears here

Next were a couple of reservoirs, both on the Farmington River. The McDonough Reservoir dates from 1918 and is lower down. It was created purely to control the flow of the river, and is not used for drinking water.

This is about a third of its extent. It has a campsite and is used for sailing and swimming.

The river is tiny where it exits the dam

This shows the earth dam.

This is the dam of the Barkhamsted Reservoir, built just after WW2 as a water supply for the Greater Hartford area. It is 8 miles long, and drowned a couple of villages, with over 1,000 inhabitants being relocated. The tourist sites rave about the beauty of this control tower and there is a large car park so it can be admired by one and all.

Only 5 miles from where I was staying is Old New-Gate Copper Mine and Prison.

The copper mine was started in 1707, and was the first in what was to become the USA. All the ore had to be exported to England (as smelting was not permitted in the colony), seams were narrow, and it closed after 4 years, but re-opened in 1714 and staggered on with little profit until after Independence.

In 1773 the General Assembly of the Colony bought out the last lease, and turned the site into a prison. The prisoners were housed underground, the only way in being a ladder down a shaft with a guardhouse over the top.

Prisoners were badly fed and slept on musty straw. One prisoner escaped when he found a second shaft. The original shaft was then blocked off, and more buildings built over the top so more prisoners could be accommodated.

Prisoners were required to mine the ore. Following the Revolution, at least a hundred men loyal to the Crown were imprisoned there, and also forced to mine the ore. There was no natural light, no washing facilities and communal toilets.

Due to lack of space, mining was abandoned and the prisoners set to making nails by hand for 12 hours per day. Despite increasing to 27 guards, escapes and fires occurred. It was abandoned as a prison in 1783.

Nowadays it is a tourist attraction. During October the mines had a Halloween display of several hundred pumpkin lanterns.

I think this was really just a way to be able to charge a larger entrance fee, as it is struggling as a simple visitor attraction.

One wandered alone though the underground galleries. It was very damp, and quite slippery. I am not sure it would be allowed to open in the UK.

I had to travel all of 11 miles to the New England Air Museum at Bradley International airport.

There are three very large ‘hangars’ displaying the collection. The first is for military  and space displays.

Even though they have a lot of space, there is not really enough room to keep the exhibits separate from each other, so taking clear photos is very difficult.

Though some are easier than others.

Helicopters are very difficult as the rotor blades are very long relative to the body of the craft.

And zooming the photo distorts it.

I enjoyed the really old stuff most.

It was easy to miss tiny ones tucked under the wings of larger ones

There were many displays of information on all sorts of related topics, including women in aviation.

The star of the first hangar was ‘Dr Flush’.

Now aged 85, Donald W Rethke worked for Pratt Whitney in the mid 1960s designing the way astronauts would toilet themselves in zero gravity. He delights in explaining in graphic detail, and the same methods are still in use.

This is a space suit for going outside the spacecraft into space.

Unfortunately he is now losing his short term memory somewhat, so his explanations got rather repetitious.

Apart from the staff on the entry desk and in the gift shop, everyone else was a volunteer. They were a very aged bunch, even on a Saturday, and several are very deaf. I fear for the future of the museum unless they can attract some more younger volunteers pretty soon.

The second hanger is for civil aircraft.

This has to be very old

They are not averse to the odd car.

I think this is cute

And this one very odd

The third hangar is mainly for a Flying Fortress.

It was very difficult to get far enough away to get it all in the photo.

In 1979 the hangars had not been built, and most of their collection of over 30 craft was stored outside. When a tornado struck the Flying Fortress was one of only seven craft that could be restored. The Flying Fortress took many years to put into reasonable order, though it was in poor condition even before the tornado.

I found the most interesting exhibit in this hangar to be the ‘capsule’ that goes under an air balloon.

We are back to military use, as this was used to escort convoys in WW2.

A very worthwhile visit, that kept me occupied for several hours.

Once again I have too much for a single post, so will split it over two, with the next one covering places in Connecticut further away from where I stayed.