October 8th turned out to be quite the day. Southbury Land Trust and the Town of Southbury held the 2nd History Walk of this year followed by a grand celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the SLT’s acquisition of Phillips Farm on the grounds of the preserve, 400 Sanford Road.
The 2nd History Walk was another highlight of the town’s ongoing 350th Celebration that spotlighted one of the earliest travel paths to/from the 1673 Southbury frontier that provided access to trade and shipping along the Connecticut coast. Walk participants were given a true sense of how early residents were able to traverse roads and bridges of the period as folks of that era would have, as they experienced the challenging terrain as our forefathers did in the process.
The walk was followed by a merry afternoon of food, fun, music, goats, rockets, and tractors out on Phillips Farm that celebrated SLT’s stalwart maintenance of everyone’s “Common Land” that will always be available to residents to enjoy in perpetuity.
Highlights of the Anniversary Celebration included a vintage tractor display, old-fashioned games, live music, pumpkin and face painting, hiking goats in costume and a petting zoo, plus the public unveiling of the new Philips Farm Preserve barn quilt-a beautiful work gifted by the Southford Falls Quilt Guild. And it was amazing to have Phillips family members attending, along with those who advocated and helped the land trust to protect this amazing parcel. They included Phillips Farm / Sanford Road / Jeremy Swamp Road neighbors and Elizabeth Moore with CT Farmland Trust.
Today's events would not have been possible without the significant help of all of the volunteers, the staff, board members, and the general public attending. Our thanks as well to our sponsors; Mitchell Oil, the Manville Family, Chatfield Rentals, the Bennett Family, and the Hannan Family. Additionally, we want to thank our partners from the Southford Falls quilters, the Southbury Historical Society, Southbury Garden Club, the Boy Scouts and all any other organizations participating and finally we thanks those individuals who helped originally preserve the property and who showed up and made this event the great success that it was. Finally, our thanks to Gosia Liedlich who kindly acted as our official photographer and so beautifully captured all the activities of the day.
