Conte Corner: The New England National Scenic Trail

The New England National Scenic Trail (NET), a 235-mile-long hiking trail stretching from Long Island Sound in Connecticut to the New Hampshire-Massachusetts border, is a close-to-home trail for millions of New Englanders.

One Photograph: By EAR

“You can observe a lot just by watching,” noted the great 20th-century thinker, Yogi Berra; and he might have said with equal perspicacity that you can hear a lot by listening.

The Vessel and the Painting

On the afternoon of Essex’s Groundhog Day parade, figures walk through the misty streets, past clapboard houses and American flags, and gather in The Griswold Inn’s Wine Bar.

Casting About: The Farmington River

Fly anglers are dyed-in-the-wool optimists, forever believing the next cast or the next bend in the river holds the fish of a lifetime. It is a creed we live by, and in no place does it spring more eternal than on a blue-ribbon trout stream such as Connecticut’s Farmington River.

Estuary for Young Readers #14

My little cousin, Ben, broadcast the news as he left my side and ran into his house, “JJ’s home! JJ’s home!”

Once Upon an Island

It was a lazy summer afternoon in the mid-1950s when Ernest Feske dumped a load of bricks into the Connecticut River.
Kersplash!
He and his wife, the Broadway actor Bettina Cerf, were wet and embarrassed, but otherwise OK, as was their boat.

Connecticut River Museum at 50

During the 1970s the increasingly decrepit Steamboat Dock building at the foot of Main Street in Essex, Connecticut, was a topic of conversation for visitors and residents alike.

Gardening for Good: Rethinking Weeds

Any number of dictionaries refer to the word “weed” using distasteful associations. For example, you “weed out” troublesome things or people that are “useless or harmful.”

The Dreaded Spotted Lanternfly

Squish them. Squash them. Stomp them. Smash them. That’s been the order of the day from multiple government agencies inciting the citizenry to bring down the boot on any invasive spotted lanternflies they encounter.

Wildlife Wonders: Are Coyotes Living Near You?

Hiking last summer in Barn Island Wildlife Management Area, a beautiful 1,000-acre preserve in the southeast corner of Connecticut, my eyes spotted movement about fifty feet off to my right in the shadows of the forest.

Moodus Noises

Since the earliest days of English settlement in the 1600s, folks correctly identified the strange rumblings in the Moodus section of East Haddam, Connecticut, as earthquakes that are heard more than felt, but it was centuries before science explained the cause and mechanism for their creation.

A Letter from the Editor:

If you are reading this, there is an excellent chance you love the River as much as we do. The more we speak with readers like you, the more we hear new and interesting stories about the River. This is an invitation to submit those stories to us so that we might share them with other readers. We have a process for doing this. Go to estuarymagazine.com/submissions and read the detailed instructions on how to submit story ideas. You can also submit letters to the editor.

Send Us Your Best

This dramatic photo was taken by Frank Dinardi an amateur wildlife photographer from Connecticut.

An Editorial

When people wore gas masks to protect from the man-made stench of the Connecticut River

A Room with a View

Tom Rose does not live on the Connecticut River, but he lives surrounded by a panoramic River view. His view is not obstructed by buildings, by trees or by traffic-laden roads because he created it himself.