I see there are bears around. Did wolves ever live here?
“Bears, wolves, panthers, and wild-cats” once roamed our woods, reported the Rev. Samuel G. Goodrich in the year 1800. The settlers, who killed or frightened away most of them, feared these animals, not only for their own safety but also for the safety of their livestock.
Of all the predators, the wolves seem to have been the most common and created the most anxiety. To deal with them, the settlers dug “wolfpits,” deep holes covered with a loose mat of twigs and leaves, and baited with carrion. When an unsuspecting wolf or two happened by for dinner, down they went into the pit, where they could be easily shot or starved to death.
Getting rid of wolves was serious business. The Norwalk Town Meeting voted in 1659 “that it shall be lawful for any person or persons to make any wolfe pitt or pitts in convenient places, and what wolfes shall be taken and killed by sayed persons, they shall be allowed for every wolfe 10 shillings by the Towne.” Evidently, the reward was getting too few takers or wolf problems were becoming worse, because in 1667, the Norwalk voters jacked up the payment to 20 shillings. Proof, the Town Meeting said, was showing the “head or eares” of the animal.
Wolfpits were dug in at least the south part of Ridgefield. However, these pits may have existed here before the town did.
Their first mention occurs in a 1721 deed for land “lying in ye lower end of that swamp called and known by ye name of ye Wolfpitt Swamp.” In 1753 the proprietors (the first settlers) gave Alexander Resseguie 11 acres “lying on ye east side of his land near ye Wolfpitts by Norwalk [now Wilton] line,” suggesting that the pits may have been well south of Old Branchville Road in what is now the Twin Ridge neighborhood. A 1792 deed for 10 acres placed the parcel “next to ye Wolf Pitts,” and bounded on the south by the Norwalk line. The last mention of the Wolfpits in the land records was 1797.
Since the wolfpits were at the south end of town, it’s quite possible that early residents of the Wilton Parish of Norwalk, settled around 1650, crossed into the wilder Indian territory that was to become Ridgefield, and dug those wolfpits. Thus, the pits may have predated Ridgefield’s founding in 1708. The pits are no longer visible; man or nature probably long ago filled them in.
Around 1980, a developer asked for a suggestion for the name of a road he was creating in the Old Branchville Road area, and was offered Wolfpit Lane. He quickly rejected the idea, feeling “pits,” wolf or otherwise, didn’t reflect the fine and fancy Colonial houses he believed he was building. In fact, the name was far more Colonial and meaningful than most in town, and is used for roads in Wilton, Bethel and Norwalk — with some pretty fine and fancy houses along them. —J.S.
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