Picture Connecticut: Heavy Rain + A Spillway = Photography Heaven

VERNON, CT — This week's stop on the Picture Connecticut tour is perfect for both amateur or professional photographers alike after a heavy rainstorm, or in the case of 2024 plenty of recent heavy rainstorms.

It's the Amerbelle Spillway, a diversion of the Hockanum River that dates back to the Victorian Era textile mill heyday in the Rockville section of Vernon.

The best view of the water is at a small, partially obscured observation pullout near the intersection of East Main and Prospect Streets, not far from the Tolland County courthouses. The river travels downhill from the north and through a canal and underneath the former Amerbelle factory.

The water congregates in a holding pond and then speeds down another waterfall at the site of the old Ano Coil factory.

The two are the largest among an assortment of waterfalls in the area.

_____

Picture Connecticut is a weekly series that features images of the state, past and present.Here are past images:
2024

• The ECSU Gallery, Willimantic
• Great Captain Island, Greenwich
• Bobblehead Madness, Storrs
• Bobby Sands/Hunger Strike Memorial, Hartford
• Mr. Jonathan Goes To Hartford, Hartford
• The Latest Discount Airline, New Haven
• State Groundhog Gets Arrested, Manchester
• Historic Wartime Sutures, Willington
• Big Business Week In CT, statewide
• The Marketplace at Guilford Food Center Guilford
• Main Street at night, Middletown
• The Hide-and-Seek Bear, Tolland
• The MLK Mural, Manchester
• The Mount Southington Summit, Southington

2023

• All Faiths Gather At Town Park, Vernon
• Riverside Igloos, Milford
• The TPC Pro Shop, Cromwell
• The Santa House, North Pole, er, Northern Connecticut
• Mile 4 Funnel, Manchester Road Race, Manchester
• UConn Lacrosse Giving Back, Connecticut River Valley
• The Capitol Grounds Tour, Part 3, Hartford
• The Capitol Grounds Tour, Part 2, Hartford
• The Capitol Grounds Tour, Part 1, Hartford
• The Doughboy, East Hartford
• The Walt Whitman Stone, West Hartford
• The indoor bush plane, Hartford County
• The Big Pink Chair, Ellington
• The Notch, Granby
• The CT 9/11 Monument, Westport
• Vintage Gas Pump, Somers
• Tobacco Harvest, East Windsor
• Late Afternoon, Lakeside, Coventry
• Fogarea, New Haven County
• Judy Black Memorial Park and Gardens, Washington Depot
• Connecticut River Police Boat, Rocky Hill
• The first dentist, Windsor
• The Frog Bridge, Willimantic
• The World War Bridge Rapids, Putnam
• The Peeking Cow, Tolland County
• The Ivy Lacrosse Tournament, New Canaan
• The Bradley International Airport runway, Windsor Locks
• The Underground Railroad, Unionville
• The cow carousel, Ellington
• Charles Island, Milford
• State Veterans Cemetery, Middletown
• Glastonbury-Rocky Hill Ferry, Glastonbury/Rocky Hill
• The Old County Jailhouse, Tolland
• Agent Orange Monument, Andover
• The Sunken Garden, Farmington
• Lafayette Tour Monument, Vernon
• The Pinchot Sycamore, Simsbury
• Bob's Discount Furniture Studios, Manchester