Legend Of Lovers Leap

Lillinonah, the daughter of Chief Waramaug, and a white trader fell in love and they were married by the Chief. Not long after that the young husband left on a long journey (to tell his family? to sell his trade goods?) but said that he would "return when the buds swelled in the spring." Time went by, spring into summer, autumn and finally winter. It was whispered that the white man would not return and that Lillinonah had been deserted. At last she gave up hope and got into a birch bark canoe and drifted down the river and over the Great Falls. At that very moment the young lover arrived on the top of the cliffs above the falls and, realizing what was happening, leaped into the river in a futile attempt to save his beloved and was killed.

Goodyear Island was below the Great Falls, south of Grove Street today. The island and the falls were submerged when the Shepaug Dam was built in 1955. From bridge can see ruins of Bridgeport Wood Finishing Company, birthplace of "Bon Ami" scouring powder (where farmers would bring silica to augment income).