From The Witness Stones Project Comes to Camp
In 1740 the enslaved persons of Ebenezer Lyon, including one named Crumbo, built a stone dam for a grist mill on the outlet stream of Black Pond along what is now called Camp Road. In 1760 the dam harnessed the water to operate the bellows for one of the first known iron-making works in Connecticut; the New Roxbury Iron Works. In 1996 the still-standing stone dam was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Camp Woodstock is ideally situated for this program. Our property abuts the landowner of the Slave Dam who has agreed to the witness stone’s placement. On our property lie the stone remains of the house of Lieut. James Mason of the Revolutionary War, who operated a carding mill at the dam until 1770. Across Camp Road at the camp entrance, an old woods road used to cart the bog iron to the dam remains. A short mini-bus ride away leads to the old colonial house of Ebenezer Lyon and an ancient cemetery where Crumbo’s skills were used to chisel some of the oldest epitaphs.
