NUGGET #62
Settlers Rock: Large boulder at edge of Fairlawn Cemetery on North Salem Road, opposite New Street, where, legend says, five Norwalk men, exploring for the new settlement of Ridgefield, spent a night. “The howling of wolves and the cry of the wild-cat filled them with terror, and one can imagine that daylight was greeted with much joy,” speculated George L. Rockwell [History of Ridgefield, 1927]. Silvio Bedini [Ridgefield in Review, 1958] says “they built fires around the base of the great boulder to protect them against wild animals.” There is no contemporary written record of all this. The rock bears a plaque, installed in 1958 for the town’s 250th anniversary.
Jack Sanders, Ridgefield Names.
