Connecticut's history is full of engaging and fascinating stories, rocks that are national monuments, the "people's sculptor," football players on chapel finials, moons on the Travelers calendars, artists Frederic Church and Eric Sloane and even a Thanksgiving Day touch football game with a future president. These are tales from Greenwich to Enfield, from Sharon to Old Lyme and so much in between. Follow along with historian Wilson Faude in this "must-have" Connecticut book as he traverses the state in search of hidden history.

Read the history of Mystic, Connecticut, from quiet farming village to wartime shipbilding powerhouse, to the charming nautical- themed destination it is today. Tucked away in a natural port, Mystic has long been home to seagoing adventure. In A History of Mystic, Connecticut, author and former Mystic Seaport librarian Leigh Fought relates the compelling story of this picturesque coastal community. Forged from the brutal Pequot War, for years Mystic was a quiet little farming village. Then came the War of 1812. Mystic's upstart venture capitalists seized on the war's dislocations to transform the settlement into a shipbuilding powerhouse. The shipyards launched vessels by the hundreds and an industry was born. The Civil War, steam-powered ships and the decline of commercial whaling halted Mystic's shipbuilding boom. Yet the town recovered, transforming itself into the charming nautical-themed tourist destination that has enchanted millions. Read Fought's comprehensive narrative to discover Mystic's role in New England's thrilling maritime saga.

Canton and Collinsville lie fourteen miles west of the state capital, Hartford, along the Farmington River in the scenic Farmington Valley. Incorporated in 1806, the town has grown from a farming community to a factory town built around the Collins Company, worldrenowned manufacturer of axes and edge tools from 1826 to 1966. The closing of the Collins Company brought a new era of change and growth to a suburban community of unique character and charm. Collinsville is internationally recognized as one of the best preserved nineteenth-century mill villages and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Canton and Collinsville is a hundred-year panorama of Victorian life and its aftermath, with glimpses into local lives and events from 1866 through 1966. Special sections are devoted to never-before-published photographs of the Collins Company and the devastating flood of 1955. Also portrayed are the 1906 Canton centennial celebration, the building of the Nepaug Reservoir Dam, CantonA[a¬A's railroads, and historic homes and landmarks, including churches, schools, and local businesses of the Collinsville Historic District and Canton. Outstanding citizens, such as Congressional Medal of Honor winner William Edgar Simonds, are featured in Canton and Collinsville.