RIVER (2014)

“Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.”
Wendell Berry

The Naugatuck River is 40 miles long, and carries the distinction of being the only river to begin and end within the state of Connecticut.  It essentially parallels Route 8 for the duration of its length.  The source is just north of Torrington, and it flows south, into the Housatonic River in Derby.  During the 19th and 20th centuries the Naugatuck River Valley was highly regarded as a manufacturing center.  I grew up in the town of Naugatuck, home to the United States Rubber Company, later renamed Uniroyal.  The town is probably best known as being the birthplace of Naugahyde, but it is also where the Mounds bar was made, at Peter Paul.  The Naugatuck Chemical Company, (later Uniroyal Chemical), also made its home along the River in Naugatuck.  The company would discard noxious, neon-colored chemicals into the air and river.  The water was lifeless, and the air, sharp and polluted.  The town was scrappy and dirty, as were the other mill towns along the river. The River was so toxic and dirty; that the thought of it being anything more than a dumping ground for waste was unthinkable.  Yet today, the mill and factory buildings sit fallow and decayed.  The water in the River is clear, if not altogether clean, and fish have returned.  Stretches of green adorn the River where industrial activity once rendered the waterfront a monotone dirty grey.  Still, much of the land cannot easily be reused because it is haunted by contamination and pollution.