Driving Directions: I-84 to Route 7 north; take Federal Road exit; north on Candlewood Lake Road, left onto Nabby Road. After 0.75 miles, take left onto Forty Acres Road, launch is on the right.

Directions Map:  Google Map

Danbury Town Park

Boat Launch is Trailered. Paved access, concrete slab ramp

Candlewood Lake (Lattins Cove) Boat Launch

ADA Access:

Site Description:

Environment:

Additional Info:

Candlewood Point

Longitude: 73.44067699999999  °W  Latitude: 41.536483 °N

Danbury Bay

Longitude:  73.45558800000001 °W  Latitude: 41.439887 °N

Driftwood Point 

Longitude: 73.444011  °W  Latitude: 41.458428 °N

Lattins Landing

Longitude: 73.42901000000001  °W  Latitude: 41.449261 °N

Pocono Point 

Longitude: 73.43512200000001  °W  Latitude: 41.461484 °N

Snug Harbor

Longitude: 73.45095499999999  °W  Latitude: 41.442872 °N

Ta'Agan Point 

Longitude: 73.45317799999999  °W  Latitude: 41.437595 °N

Wildman Landing

Longitude: 73.4547437962618  °W  Latitude: 41.42438114056676 °N

Site History:

Candlewood Lake was created in the 1920s. Inhabitants were relocated elsewhere, but many of the buildings were left standing and some farming equipment was left behind. The roads were not torn up before the valley was flooded. Scuba divers can investigate buildings from that era, following the roads underwater, and discover artifacts from that era onwards. Some of the notable underwater finds are model Ts, plane wreckage from small craft that have hit the lake since then, and covered bridges from that era.

On July 15, 1926, Connecticut Light and Power Company's board of directors approved a plan that would be unique: The first large-scale operation of pumped storage facilities in the United States. By creating the lake and pumping it full of water from the Housatonic River then letting the water pour down an immense pipe called a penstock and into a turbine, the utility could produce electricity.

Within weeks, an army of 50 surveyors swarmed into the valley, and lawyers were hired to process the deeds transferring land held by some families since before the American Revolution into the hands of CL&P. The utility had the power of eminent domain and so the farmers sold their land - $2,356 for 53 acres, $3,000 for 34 acres, $100 for 3 acres.

Starting in late July, 1926, nearly 1400 men labored to create Connecticut's largest body of water. About 500 men from Maine and Canada, hand-felled 4,500 acres (18 km²) of woodland, burning the lumber in massive bonfires - reminiscent of Indian campfires that once burned in the valley centuries earlier. Several dams were built. The largest, at the north end of the valley, measured 952 feet (290 m) wide and 100 feet (30 m) high upon completion.

Nearly two years later on February 25, 1928 the first pumping operation began pouring water into the valley from the Housatonic. Engineers had planned on the Rocky River and its tributaries filling the valley one-fourth of the way, with the generating plant pumping the remaining three-fourths of the water out of the Housatonic. The valley filled quickly and only 7 months later, on September 29, 1928, the water reached an elevation of 429 feet (131 m) above sea level and Candlewood was considered complete.

Even before the lake's filling was completed, it became apparent it would draw summer vacationers from as far away as New York City. Land prices on what would become the shoreline had already jumped to an unbelievable $1,000 an acre and summer developments sprang up almost immediately.

Although it was almost called Lake Danbury, Candlewood Lake ultimately got its name from New Milford's Candlewood Mountain - which was named after the Candlewood tree, whose sapling branches were sometimes used as candles by early settlers.