page_title: Metacomet Ridge
section_title: Colonization, agricultural transformation, and industrialization
hierarchical_section_title: Metacomet Ridge / History / Colonization, agricultural transformation, and industrialization
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Fertiggestellter Meiler. 30-40m Umfang. 70-80 Meter Raummeter Stockholz Español: Realizando una carbonera de unos 30 ó 40 m de perímetro, formando un volumen de unos 70-80 m3 de leña.
context_page_description: The Metacomet Ridge, Metacomet Ridge Mountains, or Metacomet Range of southern New England is a narrow and steep fault-block mountain ridge known for its extensive cliff faces, scenic vistas, microclimate ecosystems, and rare or endangered plants. The ridge is an important recreation resource located within 10 miles of more than 1.5 million people, offering four long-distance hiking trails and over a dozen parks and recreation areas, including several historic sites. It has been the focus of ongoing conservation efforts because of its natural, historic, and recreational value, involving municipal, state, and national agencies and nearly two dozen non-profit organizations.
  The Metacomet Ridge extends from Branford, Connecticut on Long Island Sound, through the Connecticut River Valley region of Massachusetts, to northern Franklin County, Massachusetts, 2 miles short of the Vermont and New Hampshire borders for a distance of 100 miles. It is geologically distinct from the nearby Appalachian Mountains and surrounding uplands, and is composed of volcanic basalt and sedimentary rock in faulted and tilted layers many hundreds of feet thick.
context_section_description: Europeans began settling the river valleys around the Metacomet Ridge in the mid–17th century. Forests were cut down or burned to make room for agriculture, resulting in the near complete denuding of the once contiguous forests of southern New England by the 19th century. Steep terrain like the Metacomet Ridge, while not suitable for planting crops, was widely harvested of timber as a result of the expanding charcoal industry that boomed before the mining of coal from the mid–Appalachian regions replaced it as a source of fuel. In other cases, ridgetop forests burned when lower elevation land was set afire, and some uplands were used for pasturing. Traprock was harvested from talus slopes of the Metacomet Ridge to build house foundations; copper ore was discovered at the base of Peak Mountain in northern Connecticut and was mined by prisoners incarcerated at Old Newgate Prison located there.
  With the advent of industrialization in the 19th century, riverways beneath the Metacomet Ridge were dammed to provide power as the labor force expanded in nearby cities and towns. Logging to provide additional fuel for mills further denuded the ridges. Traprock and sandstone were quarried from the ridge for paving stones and architectural brownstone, either used locally or shipped via rail, barge, and boat.
caption: Wood prepared for charcoal burning
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