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Salisbury, Connecticut

Salisbury, Connecticut
Town
Official seal of Salisbury, Connecticut
Seal
Location in Litchfield County, Connecticut
Location in Litchfield County, Connecticut
Coordinates: 41°59′06″N 73°25′20″W / 41.98500°N 73.42222°W / 41.98500; -73.42222Coordinates: 41°59′06″N 73°25′20″W / 41.98500°N 73.42222°W / 41.98500; -73.42222
Country United States
State Connecticut
NECTA Pittsfield, MA
Region Northwestern Connecticut
Established / Incorporated 1741
Government
 • Type Selectman-town meeting
 • First selectman Curtis G. Rand (D)
 • Selectman James van B. Dresser (D)
 • Selectman Katherine Kiefer (I)
Area
 • Total 60.1 sq mi (155.7 km2)
 • Land 57.3 sq mi (148.5 km2)
 • Water 2.8 sq mi (7.1 km2)
Elevation 699 ft (213 m)
Population (2000)
 • Total 3,977
 • Density 71/sq mi (28/km2)
Time zone Eastern (UTC-5)
 • Summer (DST) Eastern (UTC-4)
ZIP code 06039, 06068 06079
Area code(s) 860
FIPS code 09-66420
GNIS feature ID 0213500
Website salisburyct.us

Salisbury is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States of the New York metropolitan area. The town is the northwest-most in the State of Connecticut. The MA-NY-CT (Massachusetts-New York-Connecticut) Tri-State Marker is located just on the border of Salisbury. The population was 3,977 at the 2000 census.

Salisbury was established and incorporated in 1741, and contains several historic homes, though some were replaced by larger modern structures in the late 20th century. Salisbury was named for a town in England. Historian Ed Kirby tells us that traces of iron were discovered in what was to become Salisbury in 1728, with the discovery of the large deposit at Old Hill (later Ore Hill) in 1731 by John Pell and Ezekiel Ashley. Beginning before the Revolution, during the Federal period, and until around 1920, Salisbury was the seat of an important iron industry.

Additional iron mines were opened, mostly in the Western end of the township, although historian Diana Muir dismisses them as "scarcely big enough to notice," with the further disadvantage of not being near a river large enough to ship iron to market at a reasonable cost. The solution, according to Muir, was to pour labor into the iron, working it into a quality of wrought iron so high that it could be used even for gun barrels. This fetched a high price and made Salisbury iron the celebrated choice of Connecticut's early nineteenth-century arms industry as well as the preeminent source of cast iron railroad car wheels until they were superseded by steel wheels. Peter P. Everts, an agent of the mid-19th-century mines, however, stated the quality of Salisbury iron varied. The iron industry in Salisbury became inactive following World War I, a plan to revive it during World War II was never implemented, and the mines remain under water.

Scoville Library in Salisbury was the first in the United States open to the public free of charge. Salisbury is also home to the oldest Methodist Church in New England, The Lakeville Methodist Church, constructed in 1789.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 60.1 square miles (155.6 km²), of which, 57.3 square miles (148.5 km²) of it is land and 2.8 square miles (7.1 km²) of it (4.59%) is water. Although the peak of Mount Frissell lies in Massachusetts at an elevation of 2,453 ft, the south slope of the mountain (2,380 ft) in Salisbury, is the highest point in Connecticut. Within Salisbury there are several ponds and six lakes: Wononscopomuc, Washinee, Washining, Wononpakook, Riga Lake and South Pond.


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