Although only about 8 miles long, Candlewood Lake has over 60 miles of shoreline affording beautiful home sites for thousands of summer and permanent residents. Over the period of years, the meadows have given way to homes and developments and the original beauty of the lake is still preserved, in fact enhanced by beautifully designed dwellings.

The Story of Candlewood Lake- Years ago what is now called Candlewood Lake was just a small stream called Rocky River, a tributary of the Housatonic River. The only purpose served by the river was to turn a mill wheel.   In 1926 the Connecticut Light and Power Company developed a unique plan, the only one of its kind up to that time call for a huge reservoir which would be filled by natural drainage and by bringing water up from the Housatonic River into the lake.  A large pipe, some 13 feet in diameter called a penstock is visible adjacent to Rte 7 north of New Milford Center. It connects the lake to the Rocky River Power plant and the pumps send water from the river up to the lake and from the lake down to the river, a very practical scheme for generating power. Karl K. Kitchen, writing in the New York Sun in 1931 stated, Unwittingly, one of the most beautiful virgins lake in America, and one of the five or six most beautiful lake in the world was thus created.

This page was updated on 08/22/2007