Epoxy
Candlewood Lake
Danbury, Connecticut, USA
Also known as Danbury, New Fairfield, Sherman
Candlewood Lake does not fill itself. Water is pumped up 200 feet from the Housatonic River, and has been since 1928.
The Rocky River valley was dammed from 1926, and the river itself was reckoned good for only about a quarter of the volume. The rest came up a pipe from the Housatonic. Pumping began on February 25, 1928, and the lake was full by that September.
The point was never the lake. Connecticut Light and Power pumped when electricity was cheap and sent the water back down through turbines when it was expensive. Rocky River was the first pumped storage plant in the United States, and it still runs. The lake is a battery that happens to be 11 miles long.
Because it is a working reservoir, the level moves. Candlewood is drawn down each winter, which uncovers shoreline that sits underwater all summer.
Details
- Feature
- Lake
- Build
- Epoxy
- Material
- Solid Cherry
- Colour
- Ocean Blue
- Size
- 10-1/2" x 16
- Completed
- February 2025
How this one was made
Cherry is pale and open grained, which means blue will wick straight into it if the board is not sealed properly first, walls of the engraved channels included. Two colours on the board meant damming between them as well. Candlewood is mostly long thin arms, and the narrowest of them at the north end are where air has nowhere to escape. That is where the time on this board went.
Waypoints close by
Cos Cob HarborGreenwich, Connecticut, USA
Groton Long PointNew London County, Connecticut, USA
Beach PondConnecticut, USA
Bethany BeachBethany Beach, Delaware, USAAlso from our workshop
Moose Tracks
From 
Howl
From 
Kodiak
From 
Nomad
From Where this is
41.49396, -73.4498