At South Canaan is the junction with State 43. (now 63)
South of the GREAT SWAMP (Robbins Swamp), where early autumn foliage is brilliantly vivid, are the remains of an OLD MILL, 72 m. High on the mountain above lies the mill dam to which the miller climbed each time he opened or closed the gates.
Iron ore was carried over this road in saddle-bags and by ox-team. A thriving village grew up on the shores of Forge Pond, a lonely lake at the mountain-top, whose waters, day and night, reflected the glare of blast furnaces. Commerce soon followed the industrial activity. The Salisbury women who wanted silk for a dress had to journey to this village on the mountain, where a thriving department store kept fur clerks to serve the flourishing trade and supplied a variety of merchandise not obtainable in near-by towns. Here was forged the great anchor for the 'Constitution' which was drawn by six yoke of oxen to the Hudson River for shipment. Naval officers stationed at Mt.Riga to inspect anchors and chains of Salisbury iron added gaiety to the weekly dances and balls. In this region Katherine Sedgwick found inspiration for her story 'The Boy of Mount Righi'
The last forge cooled at Mt.Riga in 1847, houses tumbled to ruins, laborers went down the hill to work at forges nearer the railroad, and nature reclaimed the mountain-top for her own. Three of the original houses remain, one with a great loom in the front room and another with a flower bed in the dooryard that adds a touch of color to the weathered grays of rotting fence rows and bleached clapboard siding. Away in the woods is a lonely GRAVEYARD.
Along the lower slopes of Mt.Riga, tucked away in shallow mountain coves, are the cabins of 'The Raggies'..a 'lost' people about whom little is known. The ancestry of the Raggies may possibly be traced to Hessian deserters who worked the woodland forges at the top of Mt.Riga, or to early woodsmen,who, when there was no longer use for charcoal, still stayed on, knowing no trade and having no means to move from the area. They live in squalor, intermarry, and twelve or fourteen are often crowded together in a two room shack. Sanitation is entirely inadequate: sink drains flow into springs of drinking water unrestrained.
Canned woodchuck is a favorite dish along the lower slopes of Mt.Riga. A local woman has taught the people to 'put up' the meat of Johnny Chuck, to can brook suckers and preserve the berries that grow on the rocky slopes.
Ghosts are said to enjoy the moonlight with great freedom. Tales of their wanderings have been numerous since November, 1802, when for several days and nights 3 houses in Sages Ravine were bombarded with pieces of mortar and stones of a variety not found in this region. Fifty window panes were shattered by the missles which, strangely, did not hurtle into the rooms but were carefully deposited on the window sills as though places by a unseen hand. A vigilant watch was set and although the stones continued to fly, no tangible assailants could be discovered. Surely, say the natives, here was evidence of black magic such as the Raggies' believe in today.
Many other legends are woven about the natural phenomena of this area and the eccentric recluses and half-breeds who lead strange lives in huts half hidden among the undergrowth of the back country. On private property south of Lake Washinee are the MOVING STONES'. These boulders on a hillside have pushed up mounds of sand before them and left paths behind, as though tosses like dice from the hilltop, although other near-by rocks have been unmoved by the same force which must have shaken the great rocks loose.
Northward, beyond Twin Lakes, the oiled road leads to the junction with another country road at 1.4 m.
Left on this road, 0.7 m., to Taconic (alt.740,Town of Salisbury), where the ancestral estates of Robert and Herbert Scoville, decendents of an early iron master, cover 2500 acres. Their gray stone houses, roofed with red tile, set amid copper beeches and ornamental shrubs behind thick stone walls create an almost feudal impression of wealth and power.
==== Roxbury....
Left on State 67, winding over the hills to the Shepaug River and ROXBURY STATION, at 2.9 m.
Left at Roxbury Station, a dirt road crosses the railroad and turns into the property known as MINE HILL. (private property, visitors welcome, park car and proceed on foot; care should be taken to avoid hidden mine shafts), 0.3 m. The mine, which was originally opened in 1750 by prospectors who hoped to find silver, contains one of the few American deposits of siderite. The vein of spathic iron averaged about 8 feet in width and was uncovered for a distance of one mile. More than a million dollars were expended in developing the mine, which for 42 years was operated by the American Smelting Company. Ten tons of pig iron was the average daily output. Now maintained for demonstration purposes by the Columbia School of mines, Mine Hill is of especial interest, not only because of its iron deposit is a fine example of an ore vein along a fault, but also for the many large and perfect pyrite crystals and other minerals in small crystals which can be found here.
At 10 m. is the Transylvania Crossroads....At Transylvania is the junction of State 172...