Natchaug Trail

Bigelow Hollow State Park is public recreation area in the town of Union, Connecticut, in the Quinebaug Highlands. The state park's 516 acres (209 ha) border Nipmuck State Forest on the east and west and Mashapaug Lake on the north. The park and forest are located in a large hollow or depression approximately 700' below the surrounding ridgelines. They are managed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Mashapaug Lake is a 297-acre (1.20 km2) lake surrounded by Bigelow Hollow State Park and Nipmuck State Forest in the town of Union in northeastern Connecticut. The lake has a maximum depth of 39.5 feet (12.0 meters), and an average depth of 15 feet (4.6 meters). Its normal surface elevation is 706 feet (215 m). The lake is very popular with fishermen and boaters from the area, and can also be used for swimming.

The Union Green is the town green of the New England town of Union, Connecticut. The Green is a small town-owned wedge at the north end of a triangle park area (known as Union Grove) formed by Town Hall Road, Buckley Highway and Kinney Hollow Road. The Green, Union Grove, and properties to the north along Route 190 are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Union Green Historic District. The historic district contains 16 buildings, 3 sites, and 2 objects over an area of 300 acres (1.2 km2).The Old Town Hall (now a historical society museum) is the dominant feature on the Green. Several town buildings, specifically the former town hall, library, Congregational Church, the Union School and former district school, and cemetery, are located around the Green. There are only two houses located around the immediate perimeter of Union Green. The oldest is the one built by Ezra Horton in 1759. The other is a newer house constructed in 1956.Although the larger Union Grove to the west of the green is privately owned, it is used for public celebrations. Also in the Grove near the intersection of Kinney Hollow and Town Hall Roads is a rough-hewn granite slab with a bronze commemorative plaque honoring the site of the first meetinghouse.In addition to serving a commemorative function, the green is used as a meeting place for parades and other town events. An Old Home Day celebration is held at the pavilion on the third weekend of August when there is a barbecue and an evening dance.The green and surrounding buildings are significant as a historic district for their evoking "the location's historic role as the town's political, religious, educational and social center", for preserving examples of architecture, and for 18th century stonecarved funerary art included in the cemetery.: 9 

Union is a town located in the northeastern part of Tolland County, Connecticut, United States and is part of the Northeastern Connecticut Planning Region and Last Green Valley National Heritage Corridor. The population was 785 at the 2020 census, making it the least populous town and municipality in Connecticut. Union includes the village of Mashapaug located in the Eastern Uplands at the Massachusetts state line. Union is located 33 miles (53 kilometers) northeast of the state capital, Hartford and 67 mi (108 km) southwest of Boston as well as 153 mi (246 km) northeast of New York City.

Breakneck Pond is a 92-acre (0.37 km2) lake surrounded by the Nipmuck State Forest in Union, Connecticut. A small portion of the lake extends into Sturbridge, Massachusetts. The maximum depth of the lake is 12 feet (3.7 m). The entire lake shore is undeveloped and motorized vehicles and boats are prohibited. The lake is accessible through trails from Bigelow Hollow State Park and camping is permitted at three locations around the lake. It is also the northern terminus for the Nipmuck Trail.

The United Colonies of New England, commonly known as the New England Confederation, was a confederal alliance of the New England colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Saybrook (Connecticut), and New Haven formed in May 1643. Its primary purpose was to unite the Puritan colonies in support of the church, and for defense against the American Indians and the Dutch colony of New Netherland. It was the first milestone on the long road to colonial unity and was established as a direct result of a war that started between the Mohegan and Narragansett Indian tribes. Its charter provided for the return of fugitive criminals and indentured servants, and served as a forum for resolving inter-colonial disputes. In practice, none of the goals were accomplished.The confederation was weakened in 1654 after Massachusetts Bay refused to join an expedition against New Netherland during the First Anglo-Dutch War, although it regained importance during King Philip's War in 1675. It was dissolved after numerous colonial charters were revoked in the early 1680s. John Quincy Adams remarked at a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society on the 200th anniversary of the Confederation's founding: The New England confederacy was destined to a life of less than forty years' duration. Its history, like that of other confederacies, presents a record of incessant discord-of encroachments by the most powerful party upon the weaker members, and of disregard, by all the separate members, of the conclusions adopted by the whole body. Still the main purpose of the union was accomplished.

Nipmuck State Forest is a Connecticut state forest. Its 9,000 acres (3,600 ha) surround Bigelow Hollow State Park in the town of Union and include parcels in Stafford, Ashford, and other towns. The forest is part of a larger network of forest lands making up some 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) in all.

The Quinebaug Highlands are a 172,000 acre region of mountains surrounding the Connecticut/Massachusetts border near Ashford, Eastford, Union, and Woodstock in Connecticut and Southbridge and Sturbridge in Massachusetts. It includes over 40,000 acres (160 km2) acres of protected forest. The highlands are the source for several rivers, including the Quinebaug River, and are part of the Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor.The highest elevation is 1,315 ft (401 m) Burley Hill in Union, CT.

Holland is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Holland in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, comprising the town center and other populated areas in the eastern part of the town. The population was 1,464 at the 2010 census, out of a total 2,481 people in the town. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Tantiusques ("Tant-E-oos-kwiss") is a 57-acre (230,000 m2) open space reservation and historic site registered with the National Register of Historic Places. The reservation is located in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, and is owned and managed by The Trustees of Reservations; it is notable for its historic, defunct graphite mines. This is a rural area with much of the adjacent and surrounding area undeveloped and forested. The reservation is entirely forested with oak-hickory forest and red maple in the wet areas and mountain laurel abundant throughout the understory. The name Tantiusques comes from a Nipmuc word meaning “the place between two low hills." The Nipmuc used the graphite to make ceremonial paints. The property also contains the ruins of a 19th-century period house that belonged to a mine worker of mixed African American and Native American ancestry.

Holland is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 2,603 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The area around the town center comprises the census-designated place of Holland.

Leadmine Wildlife Management Area is a 640-acre (260 ha) wildlife conservation area located in Holland and Sturbridge, Massachusetts. The conservation area abuts the Tantiusques reservation and its satellite Crowd Site, owned by The Trustees of Reservations. It is managed by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. Hunting (in season), hiking, and other outdoor recreational pursuits are enjoyed on the property. The conservation area is named after the nearby colonial-era graphite mining industry at Tantiusques. Note that the Leadmine WMA pond depicted on this page may no longer exist in the same form (or even as a pond anymore) as in 2017 the dams were removed from the three adjacent ponds (Upper Pond, Middle Pond and Lower Pond) which were then linked in series by Hamant Brook.