The Devil Made Me Do It – in Connecticut

There appear to be some thirty-four Connecticut locations which either bear the Devil’s name or nick-name (no pun intended), or are identified with his traditional home stomping ground. Leading the list of places named for the Devil are Dens with five, followed closely by Backbones with four, and Footprints, Rocks and Kitchens with two each. The entire list includes: Devil’s Den (Plainfield,* Weston, Monroe, Franklin, Sterling) Devil’s Backbone (Bethlehem, Plymouth, Bristol, Cheshire) Devil’s Footprint (Montville, Branford) * See separate chapter in this book. Devil’s Rock (Old Saybrook, Portland) Devil’s Kitchen (Burlington, Thomaston) Devil’s Hopyard (East Haddam) Devil’s Meditation (shared by Middlebury and Watertown) Devil’s Island (in the Quinebaug River above Danielson) Devil’s Gap (Brookfield) Devil’s Gorge (Weston) Devil’s Jump (Derby) Devil’s Plunge (Morris) Devil’s Pulpit (Hamden) Devil’s Mouth (Redding) Devil’s Wharf (Deep River) Devil’s Dripping Pan (Branch Brook) Devil’s Belt (all of Long Island Sound girdling Connecticut) When two Satan’s Kingdoms (New Hartford, Bethany), a Satan’s Ridge (New Hartford), a Tophet Ravine (Roxbury), a Hell Hole (Simsbury), a Hell’s Hollow (Plainfield) and a Purgatory Brook are added to the roll of satanic spots, it becomes pretty obvious that in Connecticut’s topography, anyway, the Devil never took the hindmost.

From Legendary Connecticut by David E. Phillips

Devil’s Paintbrush, aka hawkweed, which grows all over the state.

One thought on “The Devil Made Me Do It – in Connecticut

  1. navybound says:

    I’m from Cheshire, but never heard of the devil’s backbone. It could be a hiking trail or something, we have a bunch of them.

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