Canaan

Litchfield County · dedicated 1972 · location approximate

CANAAN The Town of Canaan, established in 1738, is known as Falls Village because of the Great Falls of the Housatonic where a power company dam was built in 1912-13. Early industrial prominence resulted from a saw mill and grist mill built at the Falls in 1741, an ironworks in 1743, and a fulling mill in 1747. This region's iron ore, limestone, and forests were important to America during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. The Housatonic, meaning "place beyond the mountains" in the Indian language, forms the western [bo]undary of Canaan, which was divided [i]n 1858 into two towns, Canaan and North Canaan.

Text transcribed from the cast town markers erected under Connecticut's town historical marker program in the 1970s and early 1980s. Presented as a historical record.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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Marker text: Connecticut Historical Commission town marker program (1970-1983), text as cast on the markers
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