This section of Pole Bridge Rd is discontinued which means the public does not have the right to use the road. It is not town owned or maintained. Only property owners along the road have the right to use it for ingress and egress to their properties. The road status has contributed to the area remaining natural and undeveloped. "I didn't know there was any property like this left in CT" has been the reaction by more than one visitor to this area where you can hear a pin drop.

In most towns, zoning regulations require that subdivisions occur on town approved maintained roads. The area is not likely to be developed unless at some point land values and market demand warrants a multiple number of area parcels being combined and considered for road construction (typically at a developer's expense) to access the area. This parcel has a deeded right of way off of Pole Bridge Rd that also includes the right to install electric. However electric does not presently exist on this section of Pole Bridge Rd. Since the road is discontinued, all abutting property owners now own to the center of the road. Since it is not a town owned road CT Light and Power will not install electric without a surveyed easement across landowners parcels they must cross along the road. These easements must be surveyed witnessed, notarized and recorded just like a deed. This and installation would be at owner's expense. For this reason there are many discontinued roads that have interior portions without electric. The 16'x 24' camp is powered with DC (car battery); propane cooking and gravity feed water from a 50 gallon drum. It has real doors, widows, tongue and groove pine interior, wrap around deck walkway and a grill patio. The property is accessible with four wheel drive.

The property is accessible by car but taking a nice car is not advisable. Nor is access by car advisable in the snow. Property owners along the road on occasion maintain the road as needed, such as when heavy equipment vehicles need to access properties for periodic logging. The steel girder supported wood bridge over Lebanon Brook is fairly new replacing the old telephone pole supported bridge.

Directions: From Rte 197 travel north on Pole Bridge Rd which is about 10 minutes from I-84. After the town approved road portion ends there are another ½ dozen houses on the discontinued portion, all on larger acreage tracts. Electric has advanced some up the discontinued road portion in the last 20 years. The bridge over Lebanon Brook is about ½ mile past the last house. When you go over the bridge, the cart path off of Pole Bridge Rd that is the deeded right of way leading to this property is less than 1/10 of a mile after the bridge on the right. It has stonewalls on both sides and goes through the Glennfiddich Wildlife Preserve. There is sign for the preserve located at the right of way. It's not hard to find the general area because it's shortly after the bridge and the brook itself goes right through the property. There is a gate at the entrance of this property with posted signs listing Carman as the owner. Here if one goes downhill to the stream you will find the stone dam and mill foundation remains. The cart path continues on to the camp.

There are old stone foundations along the road from the 1700's. Tories sympathetic to the British who attempted to settle there were burned out by the Colonialists. In the first part of the 20th century the area was owned and harvested by logging company. The town voted to discontinue the road in 1925. There are a number of owners of land on Pole Bridge Rd who have established nature preserves. If you continue farther north on the road and observe the "firing range" warning signs, that means you've stumbled upon the 500+ nudist camp that was established in the 1930's (www.solairrl.com). An aerial photo of the area can be found at www.glsweetnam.com and then choosing the "Neighborhood Views" section and next clicking on the link "Click here to view over six hundred images of farms, towns, rivers ..." after which go down to "Woodstock" section and click on the link entitled "Lebanon Brook Winds North to Southbridge".