After three of us scrambled this week up a series of rocky ridges leading to a modest summit generously called Popp Mountain, we caught a distant glimpse of a glittering body of water.

This was the Saugatuck Reservoir, which spreads out over 880 heavily forested acres straddling the Fairfield County towns of Redding, Weston, and Easton.

Had Phil Plouffe, Andy Lynn and I climbed this hill a century ago, we would have gazed at Valley Forge, a village where the nation’s first iron plows once were manufactured. This tiny hamlet (not to be confused with the Revolutionary War encampment in Pennsylvania) had been settled by Welsh immigrants in 1760. Connecticut’s Valley Forge now lies some 100 feet underwater.

Construction of a dam on the Saugatuck River in 1945 to create the reservoir followed a long, bitter and ultimately futile fight by displaced residents.

Another legal battle had a different outcome in 1999, when a coalition of environmental groups blocked the water company from selling 730 acres to a developer who planned to build a gated community with 103 luxury homes and golf course. Supported by actor Paul Newman, who lived in nearby Westport, they raised $5.3 million to buy the property; the state kicked in the remaining $6 million.

Today, the Trout Brook Valley preserve, owned and managed by the Aspetuck Land Trust, is a pristine swath of open space that features 13 miles of hiking trails. It also abuts the 162-acre Crow Hill and 117-acre Jump Hill preserves, crisscrossed by an additional 6.4 miles of footpaths.

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