Boat Launch Information:

Brewster Street Boat Launch

ADA Access:

Site Description:

Environment: Tidal River

Additional Info:

Ash Creek Conservation Association, Inc

Site History:

What's In A Name?

The origin of the name "Ash Creek" is not known for certain. Early Colonial and British maps show the creek as the Uncoway or Fairfield River. Later records refer to Ash Creek as Ash House Creek, perhaps alluding to the presence of an ash house, for lye-making, on its banks. The most likely source of the present name was the British invasion and burning of the Town which left the creek, and the entire town center, covered with ashes.

An Active Port

As you walk the trails at Ash Creek Open Space you follow the footsteps of many Fairfielders. Some sailed in and out of the creek when it was a thriving harbor, some brought wheat and other grains to the creek's grist mills, and some travelled from the open space across an old road to Black Rock.

For more than a hundred years after Roger Ludlow's settlement of Fairfield in 1639, Ash Creek was the Town's main harbor. The water provided a good supply of fish and shellfish and the salt marshes, which surrounded the harbor, provided pasture land for horses and cattle.

When Fairfield reached a population of 4,500, in 1750, Mr. Peter Penfield constructed grist mills on either side of the creek by damming both sides of the river to Great Marsh Island. The mills, like others in Town, became centers of activity, supplying vital foodstuffs to the townspeople.

At practically the same time the Penfield Mills were built, Fairfielders constructed a short cut to Black Rock - a wooden corduroy road and bridge which connected an old town road on the Ash Creek Open Space with Balmforth Street in Black Rock. Many a resident helped build the bridge since the Town levied a tax for either labor or money for public works projects.

Owing in part to this new bridge, wharves, stores, and residences grew quickly in Black Rock which soon replaced Ash Creek as Fairfield's main port. By 1790, due to its considerable depth, Black Rock Harbor had become the official port of entry for Fairfield County and a lively international port and boat building center. The bridge which helped spark this activity was destroyed in 1802 but its sturdy remains rest along the marsh's edge for all to see.

Also in 1790, the Town offered 90 English pounds to Mr. Penfield to remove his dams and allow the re-entry of eels, clams and shad which were vanishing from the creek. He refused the offer and the tidal flow of Ash Creek continued to fuel the mills until the 1840's. As you walk the marsh trail at low tide you will see some of the old dam stones on the western side of Great Marsh Island.

In 1848, the railroad began to bring into Fairfield people who looked to the marshes for recreation, not farming. In 1870, under the direction of the Village Improvement Society, and again, in 1911, led by Colonel Valery Harvad, who served in the malaria-ridden Spanish American War, Fairfield began a marsh drainage campaign to eliminate mosquitoes. These and more recently constructed mosquito ditches still crisscross the Ash Creek Marshes.

The area immediately surrounding Ash Creek Open Space was laid out for development by a 1917 subdivision plan with 255 lots. The house sites would become homes for many workers in the busy Bridgeport munitions industry.

Since 1973 the Ash Creek Open Space has served as a site for environmental education. Fifth Graders in Fairfield Public Schools visit each autumn with trained volunteer guides from the Mill River Wetland Study Group as part of the River Lab Estuary Science curriculum.