Derby and Shelton Canals

Locked In
Derby and Shelton Canals, Derby & Shelton
January 2026

One of my son’s soccer coaches used to yell “Lock it in boys, lock it in!” all the time and now I find myself using that phrase in non-athletic endeavors. Anyway, when I got down to the canals and lock in Derby and Shelton, I was “locked in” on one thing: Completing Derby.

I know, I know… no one cares about my mission to “complete” towns. Heck, no one even knows that what means. But I don’t care. The Derby Canal was the very last thing I had to see/do/experience in Derby to call it CTMQ-complete.

As locked in as I was, I was distracted by a tiny little plaque on a tiny little bridge that crosses over the tiny Derby Canal. That’s when learned I wasn’t quite done with Derby, as I had just learned that I was standing on Brian Dennehy Bridge! Friends, CTMQ is a never-ending quest. No town is every truly complete. And so, here I was, staring at the frozen Derby Canal.

Why? Why is this canal even CTMQ-worthy?

It’s not, really, but paired with the Shelton Canal across the Housatonic, I think it’s all kind of neat.

The Derby-Shelton Dam, originally the Ousatonic Dam, was built in 1870 to power the industrial growth of Shelton and Derby by creating a canal system for factories. The original dam failed in 1891 but was rebuilt with design changes, and while the canal is mostly gone, the dam and its gatehouses remain as symbols of the area’s industrial past, with remnants of the canal and locks visible today.

The Derby Canal

Paralleling Roosevelt Drive (so named after President Roosevelt motored its length), passing by present-day Gilder Boathouse, BAD SONS Beer Company, and The Dew Drop Inn, this section of the Housatonic was long considered an ideal site for utilizing the river’s water power. However, early proposals dating from 1838 were not developed because of the opposition of residents who feared its impact on the shad fisheries.

By 1864 – whoa! 46 years later! – supporters demonstrated how properly built fish weirs could lead the shad over the dam, and obtained State approval to construct a dam. Didn’t work, I’m sure. Anyway, the Ousatonic Dam was built over three years by Edwin N. Shelton for the Ousatonic Water Company at a cost of $320,000. The length is 686 feet, and 22 feet high,, with a reservoir behind the dam stretching five miles back. The dam was built of solid masonry, covered with granite, with canals on either side and a lock on the western (Shelton) canal.

This dam represented an engineering feat very unusual for its day. It opened October 10, 1870 with a parade and much celebration. The parade marshal Dr. Ambrose Beardsley predicted that factories, homes and churches would grow up because of the dam. The accuracy of his prediction is supported by the wide diversity of manufacturing establishments that operated along the river: from the five -story Birmingham Corset company employing 300 people to James N. Wise’s confectionery where ice cream was frozen by water power. In addition, the rise of the city of Shelton across the dam dates from this enterprise.

Much of the above is from The Electronic Valley.

The Shelton Canal

The Shelton Canal is cooler than the Derby Canal because a) it still has a lock (there were apparently three back in the day) and b) as of 2026, you can walk alongside it almost up to the dam. Shelton seems to have protected the whole thing somehow, despite developers wanting to fill it in over the years.

Most historians give credit to the dam and canal as the spark to get Shelton going in the 19th-century. It was the Shelton side of the dam that allowed boats to pass, hence the lock that still exists today at the northern end of Canal Street East. Tons of new development is being built here, but the lock and this section of canal have been preserved.

Computer, enhance!

I parked and walked the entire length (about a quarter mile maybe) up to the dam complex. There’s a little overlook of sorts and a little picnic table if you want to sit and stare at an antique power plant and dam – both of which are still operational of course. The canal and lock was closed to navigation in 1960, but parts were still used for another decade or so.

It’s a nice little walk. The canal used to extend beyond the entrance to this protected area to power the factories and such that were built up alongside the canal. If you’re ever in this part of Shelton, it’s very easy to see where it used to be down through Veteran’s Memorial Park.

That’s it. I like canals.

Much of the above is from The Shelton Trails Committee.

CTMQ Hikes Shelton’s Town Trails
CTMQ’s Forts, Canals, Dams, & Fishways/Lifts/Ladders