Mills, cemeteries and waterfalls

 52 Saturdays: #9

Uncas Leap at Yantic Falls. There are multiple versions of this story, but in all of them one native warrior makes an impossible leap over a gap here and others fell to their deaths. The plaque says "modern-day erosion" has made the gap larger, but I have my doubts anyone ever jumped it. 

Founders Cemetery has no headstones. There is one large monument in a corner, a bench near the middle and a informational plaque at the entrance. The Thomas Post in the plaque whose land this is built on is Grandpa Joe's ancestor. The first person to be buried there was his first wife, before it was a town cemetery. He is buried there too. 

Take Under the Mountains Road past Plains Cemetery and Franklin Swamp (I saw some very cute turtles here) to Ayer's Gap. This was the first waterfall I went looking for in Connecticut. It has a pretty series of cascades tumbling down Bailey's Ravine. I saw what looked like a drop off and went to the edge to see, but all I could see were trees. It became a theme of my hikes here. Really pretty though. 

Next is Trumbull Cemetery, named after Jonathan Trumbull, Connecticut governor during the Revolutionary War, the only colonial governor that supported the revolution. Josiah Dewey (1641-1732) and Hepzibah Lyman Dewey (1644-1732) are buried here. The Deweys helped found Lebanon and my grandpa, Joseph Hilton, is descended from them. There are also some Revolutionary War sites in Lebanon, including the Trumbull House and the War Office.

Willimantic is not much of a tourist town these days. The main drag has some empty buildings and some of the historic homes are pretty run down. But there are some kind of cool quirky things here. The buildings from the mills are still there, and there's a museum about that history. The Frog Bridge is a quirky attraction, with its giant spindly-legged frogs sitting on top of thread spools on its four corners. 

And just down the street is the Garden on the Bridge, a pedestrian bridge that is planted nicely and offers views of the river, falls and mill ruins. 

UConn Dairy Bar makes its own ice cream from the university's dairy. You can see the cows grazing nearby on Horsebarn Hill that gave the milk used there. Really good ice cream with some great constants and some limited edition and seasonal flavors.