Wachocastinook Falls

Having escaped the basin of an old furnace pond in the Housatonic Valley, Wachocastinook Creek carves a deep, winding gash through the forest during a thousand-foot descent from the Riga Plateau.

As early as the colonial days, the rugged hills of Salisbury were prized for the bounty of iron ore that lay beneath and the cost to mountain streams like Wachocastinook was incalculable. For nearly two centuries, their waters were tethered to raucous iron works as surrounding forests were felled and fed to insatiable blast furnaces. But with those furnaces long extinguished since the first World War and the lands left silent for a hundred years, Wachocastinook Creek has reclaimed its primeval purity amidst reborn wildlands.