Belding Silk Mill from an Edgeworks Window, Winsted

SLIDE-TALK TOMORROW, SATURDAY, June 23 at 1 PM

“BEYOND BRASS VALLEY"

Winsted Community Bookstore

414 Main Street, Winsted

PHOTOGRAPHER’S JOURNAL: Yesterday I returned here, where the spillway from Highland Lake flows beneath the Edgeworks and on to the Belding Silk mill as it meets the Mad River on its way to the Farmington. The silkmill began operating in 1875, and they say they made silk thread for WWI parachutes here and synthetic thread used in space suits astronauts wore on the moon. The Edgeworks began as the American Hoe Company before the Civil War. By 1882 it was the Edgeworks specializing in chisels, gouges, drawing knives, 

The empty Edgeworks buildings make a quiet place to take pictures and meditate on the rush of the seasons which tomorrow hurls us forward into summer. Today, even as spring rains abate, the orderly march of seasons feels more like a reckless scramble, and I hold my breath at what may be next. I take comfort in the engine howl and dust swirling over the end building of the wrecked Edgeworks as it is being restored for new life as the Little Red Barn Brewery.