The falls known to Native American Indians as Nip-pau and as Wyllys Falls… (Peter Marteka, Peter Marteka )
Birch Mountain Brook starts its journey from the Case Reservoir through Case Mountain Park and tumbles down a few dams that once powered the nearby paper mills. The stream then tumbles down a high rock face creating what is known as "Wyllys Falls," "Bridal Veil Falls'' or simply "The Falls" through a pocket of open space in Manchester's Highland Park neighborhood.
And that's not the only place of note preserved by the Manchester Land and Conservation Trust Inc. Near the waterfall was the opening to one of the state's first copper mines plunged into a nearby hillside. And a parcel donated by Hayden Griswold Jr. at the corner of Tam Road and Spring Street provides access to the falls and and the area of the forgotten mine.
A climb down a steep embankment filled with hemlocks and sycamore trees leads to the bottom of a valley where Birch Mountain Brook flows through. Visitors can stop here and view the falls from a distance or the more adventurous can cross over if the water is low enough or find a fallen tree to balance across if it is not.
After crossing the brook and winding past towering tulip trees, white pines and beech trees that have thrived in the protected valley, visitors reach the base of the falls. According to local legend, a nearby hill was also the location of a copper mine now buried.
In his publication "Connecticut's Iron and Copper," Charles Rufus Harte talks about the Wyllys Copper Mine by quoting the Rev. S.W. Robbins who wrote the chapter on Manchester in "The Memorial History of Hartford County":
"Here the stream falls sixty-five feet over the rocks into the valley below,'' Robbins wrote, "grass covered, and enclosed for some distance by wooded bluffs -- a miniature Yosemite -- admired by all observers. At the base of these bluffs are excavations that have been made for [copper] ore which being found in limited quantity was supposed to indicate the existence of valuable mines."
Although the mine seems to be buried in the past, the waterfall is definitely a natural wonder, especially in spring when high amounts of water are thundering down the face of the granite cliff. A broken stone dam, the only man-made formation to be seen, sits just east of the waterfall. The dam once held back a mill pond, but burst in the 1980s, adding more water to the falls. Be sure to check out the falls and scenic dam along Spring Street above the lower falls.
So while the water still thunders over, take a visit to a rarely seen natural world treat. And a small hillside where a forgotten mine lies buried.
I-384 to exit 3/Route 83 toward Glastonbury and take a left on Spring Street. Follow to the intersection of Spring Street and Tam Road. The parcel entrance is directly across the road.