Quinebaug Highlands

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

The Natchaug Trail is a Blue-Blazed hiking trail "system" which meanders through 19.5 miles (31.4 km) of forests in northeast Connecticut—primarily in Windham County. It is maintained by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association. Its southern trailhead begins in the James L. Goodwin State Forest in the towns of Chaplin, Connecticut and Hampton, Connecticut and the northern terminus is at its intersection with the Nipmuck Trail in Natchaug State Forest in Eastford, Connecticut. For much of its length the Natchaug Trail travels through two Connecticut state forests—the James L. Goodwin State Forest and Natchaug State Forest as well as the much smaller Nathaniel Lyons Memorial Park. Camping permits may be obtained by backpackers for both state forests. In addition to the Nipmuck Trail there are several smaller hiking trails which connect to the Natchaug Trail as well as several park and forest roads and the multi-use Airline State Park Linear Trail. In Natchaug State Forest the CCC Trail is a historic loop trail which was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Two of the several trails inside the James L. Goodwin State Forest are connected to the Natchaug Trail have recently been blazed as official CFPA trails. According to signs at the James L. Goodwin State Forest the White Trail is being (or has been) re-blazed as a blue-white trail named the "Pine Acres Lake View Trail". A CFPA blue-orange blazed trail also intersects with the Natchaug Trail during the stretch between Pine Acres Lake and Black Spruce Pond.

Dennison School House is a historic school building (now a private residence) at Dennison Lane in Southbridge, Massachusetts. Built about 1849, it is the city's only surviving rural district schoolhouse built in brick. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

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.

The George B. and Ruth D. Wells House is a historic house on Durfee Road in Southbridge, Massachusetts. Built in 1932 to a design by Boston architect Paul Wood, it is one of the first International Style houses to be built in the northeastern United States. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. It is not generally accessible to the public, but is vacant and was listed for sale in 2014.

The Simon Plimpton Farmhouse is a historic farm in Southbridge, Massachusetts. It was probably built about 1789 by Simon Plimpton and his brother Baxter on family-owned land. Baxter Plimpton eventually deeded his share over to Simon; the house has been in the hands of Plimpton descendants since. The house is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house, five bays wide, with a center chimney. Although the house is nominally Federal in its styling, there are Greek Revival details (the broad eaves and door frames) that may have been added later. The full-width front porch is a late 19th-century addition.The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

The Judson–Litchfield House is a historic house at 313 South Street in Southbridge, Massachusetts. Built sometime in the 1830s, it is a well-preserved local example of brick Greek Revival architecture, of which there are few surviving examples in the city. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.