Norwich ― From pre-European settlement tribal battles to Gen. George Washington’s visits, Benedict Arnold’s exploits and the roots of the Industrial Revolution, city officials made their pitch Wednesday to become a centerpiece of the state’s celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary.

By the second stop on a tour of Norwichtown historical sites by state and local representatives planning the state’s 2026 celebration, at least one member of the America 250/CT Commission, agreed.

“All I can say is, more people in Connecticut need to see this site,” commission Vice Chairman and Connecticut Humanities Executive Director Jason Mancini said, after viewing and hearing excerpts of collections of Revolutionary War documents, letters and original newspapers at the Leffingwell House Museum.

In one letter, Revolutionary War soldier Zephaniah Bliss, serving in New York, wrote to his brother in Norwich and described how Nathan Hale had just been captured and hanged by the British as a spy.

Dayne Rugh, director of Slater Memorial Museum at Norwich Free Academy, who led the tour, grabbed a framed letter by Thomas Jones in Rhode Island to Norwich man Nehemiah Waterman.

“This is my favorite letter in the entire collection,” Rugh said, apologizing for his excitement.

“Public matters engages all of our attention,” Rugh read. “The clouds over our country grow blacker and blacker, and God only knows where these perplexities will end. No doubt at the expense of blood and treasure. Now is time for unity and unanimity in Americans, and our motto should be, join or die.”

The letter was written on April 14, 1775, five days before the Battle of Lexington and Concord that launched the Revolutionary War.

Greg Farlow, of the Society of the Founders, which owns and operates the Leffingwell House Museum, told the guests the tale of Washington’s visit, noting that the tall general found the low door frames and beds in the tavern guest room too small for his comfort, so he slept at a neighboring house in Norwichtown.

400 years of history in two miles

During two breaks in the tour, members of the state commission and Norwich and Mohegan tribal officials met to discuss the state’s planning for the 250th anniversary. William Champagne, past president of the Norwich Historical Society, said he is hoping multiple Norwich sites can be grouped together to offer visitors a half-day or full-day visit to experience “400 years of history in 2 miles,” he said, pointing to sites on a map from Norwich Harbor and downtown to Norwichtown.

Mancini said the state is considering so-called cohort grants, encouraging multiple organizations to submit a combined proposal for funding the 250th celebration programs.

Wednesday’s tour started at the Norwichtown Green, where Rugh pointed out significant properties surrounding the historic green, where the original English settlers made their homes. The group walked to the historic Norwichtown cemetery, where many of the town’s elite figures, their servants and enslaved people are buried.

After the Leffingwell tour, the group drove to the Uncas Leap historic site of the 1643 battle between the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes. That battle occurred 16 years before English settlers signed a monumental agreement with Mohegan Sachem Uncas, turning over to the English, “nine miles square” that eventually encompassed Norwich and adjacent towns.

Mark Brown, member of the Mohegan Tribal Council told the legend of how at the Battle of Great Plain two miles from Uncas Leap, Uncas signaled his outnumbered warriors to begin firing a barrage of arrows before the Narragansetts were ready for battle. That started a rout, and not knowing the terrain, many fleeing Narragansetts fell to their deaths in the steep Yantic River gorge.

Narragansett Chief Miantonomo supposedly made the leap, but injured his leg, Brown said. But Uncas followed and landed cleanly. The Mohegans captured Miantonomo in the Taftville area.

The rushing waters of the Yantic later fueled Norwich’s earliest industrial mills, starting in the Revolutionary War years, with Christopher Leffingwell’s chocolate factory and a paper mill. Larger textile mills then dominated the area, the Falls Mill and its workers’ homes now housing condominiums.

Norwich is using $2.9 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act grant money to create the Uncas Leap Heritage Park, featuring walking trails, a granite amphitheater and areas that overlook the Uncas Leap falls.

The project is expected to be completed in October, ahead of the state’s 250th celebration.

Mayor Peter Nystrom said the city has a grander plan for the Uncas Leap site. Norwich plans to lobby state and federal officials to designate Uncas Leap as a national park. Mancini said CT Humanities would support the effort.

“There’s not a site like this anywhere else in Connecticut,” Rugh said. “There isn’t, maybe even in the entire nation.”

c.bessette@theday.com