Connecticut is home to quite a few oddities, that’s for sure. We are all pretty familiar with the legends and lore surrounding the abandoned villages of Dudleytown and Johnsonville but there is another abandoned place that many of us have visited without even realizing it. There is actually an underwater village lying beneath the surface of Connecticut’s largest lake.

Candlewood Lake is bordered by five towns: Brookfield, Danbury, New Fairfield, New Milford and Sherman. But another village by the name of Jerusalem lies underneath the lake.

Flickr/Wendy Candlewood is a man-made lake that covers 8.4 square miles and has an average depth of 40 feet. It is a popular recreation spot in Connecticut for boating, fishing and swimming.

As seen on the 1895 map below, the only bodies of water originally in the area were a few small ponds, but by September of 1928 the largest lake in Connecticut was complete.

Wikimedia Commons/By Rand McNally Atlas, Public Domain In 1926 Connecticut Light and Power had a plan approved to construct a man-made reservoir to produce electric power. It took 26 months to build the dam, clear forests and flood more than 5,000 acres of land.

Along with the farmland and forests that were claimed for the lake, the village of Jerusalem was also taken for the project. Most residents sold their land to Connecticut Light and Power, but a few residents refused.

Wikimedia Commons/By cropped by User:Cmprince (National Atlas) [Public domain] To this day some of the land under Candlewood Lake is still privately owned. Over 100 buildings were either moved or demolished during the relocation of the Jerusalem residents. A small graveyard, including headstones and bodies, was also moved.

What lies under the blue waters of Candlewood Lake today is the remnants of a village long forgotten.

Flickr/Doc Searls In the excitement to push forward with the extensive lake creation project, many residents were forced to leave large belongings behind. There is a great amount of farm equipment on the lake bottom along with foundations of buildings that were once occupied.

Divers who have explored the lake report the existence of covered bridges and some Model T Fords that were abandoned by the village residents.

Flickr/Eric Heupel Divers can also trace the roads underneath the lake that connected the surrounding towns. There is quite a bit of history from the pre-lake era lying beneath the water.

So the next time you are drifting across the waters of Candlewood Lake, think about Jerusalem, the abandoned underwater village beneath you. Who knows what could be right below the spot where you are floating?

Flickr/Western Connecticut State University Peggy Stewart

Candlewood Lake is a summer hot spot in the Nutmeg State. Did you know about the underwater village that lies beneath this popular destination?

Flickr/Wendy

Candlewood is a man-made lake that covers 8.4 square miles and has an average depth of 40 feet. It is a popular recreation spot in Connecticut for boating, fishing and swimming.

Wikimedia Commons/By Rand McNally Atlas, Public Domain

In 1926 Connecticut Light and Power had a plan approved to construct a man-made reservoir to produce electric power. It took 26 months to build the dam, clear forests and flood more than 5,000 acres of land.

Wikimedia Commons/By cropped by User:Cmprince (National Atlas) [Public domain]

To this day some of the land under Candlewood Lake is still privately owned. Over 100 buildings were either moved or demolished during the relocation of the Jerusalem residents. A small graveyard, including headstones and bodies, was also moved.

Flickr/Doc Searls

In the excitement to push forward with the extensive lake creation project, many residents were forced to leave large belongings behind. There is a great amount of farm equipment on the lake bottom along with foundations of buildings that were once occupied.

Flickr/Eric Heupel

Divers can also trace the roads underneath the lake that connected the surrounding towns. There is quite a bit of history from the pre-lake era lying beneath the water.

Flickr/Western Connecticut State University Peggy Stewart

Check out this previous article to find out what other creepy things are hiding under the water in Connecticut.

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