Imagine where Candlewood Lake is now, a valley of fertile farmland.  Here, in southern Sherman, was once a farming community, with its own school and a cemetery.  Familiar Sherman families - Leach, Haviland, Mallory - farmed wrapper tobacco and raised cattle.  Two roads bisected the area: the Redding Turnpike, from Danbury to Sherman, and Mill Pond Road which ran across the valley to the New Milford town line.

In 1926, this landscape was changed forever.  The Connecticut Light and Power Company began construction of a man-made lake and hydroelectric power plant, the first large-scale operation of its kind in the United States.  Trees were cleared, farmland sold, families moved and in just 26 months, the valley had been turned into a lake.