More than a half a century ago I would walk up to Spaulding Pond for either fishing or swimming with my good friend Jimmy. I lived on Spaulding Street, at that time, in a two-family Victorian home with my parents and two sisters.

Well, Jimmy and I would walk up to Warren Street and finally reach the entrance to Mohegan Park very near to the Rose Garden. We’d then begin our fun exploration of the old path through the forest following the blue painted slashed trail markers to Mohegan Park Road and cross over to the Ice Pond where in my father’s youth he broke his right leg skating too close and fell in where the ice men were cutting ice for the “ice house.”

Our trip to “the park,” as we called it, took us along a stream with its towering trees, rock outcropping, green understory, and aquatic life. We’d enter the park center from the trail just below the rose arbored dam where there were ducks swimming in a small pond carousing, to our delight, and then travel along the park roads to Bullhead Rock to fish or swim depending on the weather.

Now, well over 60 years later, the memories are getting a bit cloudy or maybe enhanced by my hyped imagination of good times past. Now, as a senior citizen, I see a beautiful park where you can enjoy swimming in season, fishing, baseball and tennis or a healthy walk or jog.

It’s also enjoyable to just observe the flora and fauna from the trails or the seven miles of paved roads.

Through private donations, the land of Mohegan Park has grown to over 380 acres between 1907 and the present time. The park center was established in 1907. The names of the participants can be found on a carved stone in the park center by the flag pole and there are 17 listed on the carved stone.

In 1908 two pavilions were built for public use and entertainment which are still used today. One other pavilion was built near the Rose Garden, but it was burned down in either the late ‘50s or early ‘60s. Roads were added and improved over the years. In 1940, the rock covered Recreation Department’s office at Rec Field just behind the right field fence of Dickiman Field was built through the Works Progress Administration of the Federal Government’s New Deal employment stimulus program.

Other buildings cluster around the center such as the dog pound, barns, and food pavilion. The Department of Public Utilities built a large water storage tank near the Rose Garden on a flat piece of land where the neighborhood kids would pay baseball.

The park’s zoo was a delight way back then. You could see deer, a golden eagle, and a bear. If my mind serves me right, one of the bears was a mascot from the Coast Guard Academy.

Other animals were added over the years for the public to view and enjoy. A playground in the park center had monkey bars, a slide, swings, and later a fire truck that had been burned at the Van Tassel warehouse fire in 1962.

This park’s concept came from a few same-minded citizens visualizing a nature preserve and space that would lend itself to improve the city’s well-being.

It began through the Yankee ingenuity of two entrepreneurs beginning in 1854 with the building of two earthen dam to provide a storage entrapment of usable water for power wheels which would meet the requirements of the two factories.

Henry Allen had a furniture manufacturing company on Chestnut Street, and Charles Spalding built a cork cutting facility there also.

The outflow of this water from the dams followed its natural course through a stream bed to the ice pond and finally under a short section of Broad Street to Lake Street where a sizable pond held back and controlled the future water needed to the water wheels at the factories. A tunnel was carved out of granite to the basements of the manufacturing plants to supply the water power to their water wheels.

Finally it continued into established capped stream drainage pipes leading to the Shetucket River.

On March 3, 1963, just before 11 p.m., following a very heavy rain, the earthen dam holding back the impounded ice-capped water of Spaulding Pond fractured, allowing 45 million gallons and over one-foot-thick ice to follow the natural path towards the city center.

Six people perished, and many homes were damaged. The Turner and Stanton Mill situated just above the Lake Street playground was destroyed by a wall of water, killing the workers inside. The torrent continued down its natural path through the city, swamping the J.B. Martin Company’s facility in the Hopkins and Allen building, destroying tens of thousands of dollars of equipment and dye used in the manufacturing process of velvet.

Many city stores were heavily damaged and their stock destroyed. The rampaging water, leaving death and destruction, finally entered the Shetucket River at Rose Ally. The dams of Mohegan Park were later rebuilt, leaving a spring fed pond great for fishing, swimming, and ice skating for all to enjoy in season.

Another gem of Norwich is the Norwich Rotary Memorial Rose Garden. With the Norwich Rotary as sponsor, Thomas H. Desmond of Simsbury designed the garden’s plan in 1938, but the garden did not get built until after World War II.

In 1946, the Zachae Brothers contoured the land, cutting trees, removing tons of rock, and adding loam. Three structures were built: a pergola, trellis, and a covered shelter. On the right side of the steps leading to the shelter you will find the names of those who had a hand in the building of this cherished gem of Norwich.

It should be noted that the Rose Garden is a test garden for the All-American Rose Selection. In 1949, Better Homes and Gardens Magazine named this beautiful garden as the best in the nation in its category of cities with populations between 10,000 and 100,000.

Bill Shannon is a retired Norwich Public School teacher and a lifelong resident of Norwich.