Brown's Mill: Inside CT's Abandoned Paper Factory on the Salmon River

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The old brick walls of Brown's Mill still rise above the Salmon River like a stubborn memory. Trees push through cracked floors. Rusted metal hangs from the ceilings. Broken plaster and splintered wood cover the ground inside what remains of the once-busy paper mill. Yet even after decades of abandonment, parts of the machinery still stand. Two hydro turbines sit silent beside the river, and a massive steam engine remains planted inside the ruins, a reminder of the years when the mill pulsed with noise, heat, and labor. Locals still call it Brown's Mill, though its official name was the Brown Brothers Paper Mill. For generations, the factory sat along the western bank of the Salmon River beside Comstock Bridge Road, shaping both the economy and identity of the Colchester (East Hampton) community in eastern Connecticut. Today, only two of the seven mill buildings survive: the main structure and the northern building, both rebuilt during a modernization effort in 1929. From P...
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Abandoned Camp Rock



When one spot is a failure you move on to the next.






I had my sights on this spot for a long while. It wasn't until Sunday that I was in the area after exploring a previous spot to check out its theater and bowling alley. After pulling away from another spot that was quite open and risky to access and explore I ventured here. Pulling through the back I butted up on a deer who just stood to stare at us chewing on its cud before a loud CSX train passed by with the loudest sound I've ever heard from a train as it dashed away into the bushes.



Pablo the Deer


Building One Exterior 


Building One Interior






Squeezing through a gap in the fence we came upon four boarded-up buildings lined up neatly surrounded by heavy vegetation. Nothing special or of note was found inside any of the buildings. One building to the far left looked like a stable for cows. The center building was locked and seemed to hold unknown items in storage and the first building on the right was completely empty. This was the only building that still had electricity running to it.  All in all, not a bad site. Even the not-so-interesting spots can be small but still significant. A and I would never have met that friendly deer or built those rocks alongside the small water management stream behind the residential houses.















Building Two



Building Three - The Barn


Updates: As of May 2023, satellite activity picks up the renovation or reuse activity on the property. A revisit soon.

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