Mark Twain on Falls Hole in Redding, CT...

"It is an ideal bathing-place."

This is from a letter Mark Twain wrote in August of 1908:

"To-day, in a lovely place in the woods a mile and half from here [Stormfield] we visited a fine swimming pool a hundred yards long, twenty wide and 26 feet deep- water as clear as crystal, with a perpendicular rock jumping-off place 15 feet high- densely wooded shores all around. You get to it by an obscure path leading from the distant wagon-road. It is an ideal bathing-place."

Falls Hole is no longer a legal swimming pool, but as you can see it has history as one.

See Perpendicular Rock in the top left of this photo:

Helpful Blog Links

It's been getting tough to find the "good stuff" so I've listed some helpful links below.

Twain's Time in Redding:

June 18th, 1908, the arrival

The Burglary at Stormfield, September 18, 1908

The Burglary... who were the Stormfield burglars?

Stormfield Burglar makes his confession

Our Neighbor Mark Twain by Coley Taylor

Mark Twain as I Knew Him. Recollections of an Angelfish

Who were the Angelfish?

The Billiard Room Addition

Funeral Expenses

The Tour de Twain... where to visit when you come to Redding

Stormfield:

The property known as Stormfield

Books and articles containing information on Stormfield

The Stormfield Guestbook

Sunderlands, the builders of Stormfield

Stormfield and Mark Twain Lane in 1915

Stormfield Rebuiding Crew, 1925 (post fire)

Mark Twain Library:

Concert in support of library for Redding

Letter asking lawyer, Charles Lark, to release $6,000 for library

Samuel L. Clemens Book Collection at the Mark Twain Library