Candlwood Lake Information

Candlewood Lake is located in Western Connecticut and bordered by 5 towns: Brookfield, Danbury, New Fairfield, New Milford, and Sherman. The lake is formed behind a power dam south of the Rocky River's junction with the Housatonic River. The lake’s 86 mile shoreline which is almost entirely residential in its development also offers recreational facilities such as golf courses, beaches, marinas, and “Down the Hatch” a restaurant and pub that patrons can both drive and boat to. The lake is used year round for boating, jet skiing, sailing, canoeing, kayaking, fishing (including ice-fishing), and “pond-hockey”.

Candlewood Lake is the largest lake in Connecticut, and one of the largest man-made lakes in the USA. The lake was created for hydro-electric purposes and its main purpose is to store water during periods of low electrical demand for power generation when demand is high. Water is pumped up a hillside into the lake from the nearby Housatonic River during the Spring and during the night in the Summer, then allowed to flow back down into the river when extra electricity is needed in the grid, often during the region's mid-to-late summer months. Power is generated by turbines that are spun by the water flowing into the river while pumping is done by reversing the impellers.

Candlewood Lake was created in the 1920s. Inhabitants were relocated elsewhere, but many of the buildings were left standing and some farming equipment was left behind. The roads were not torn up before the valley was flooded. Scuba divers can still explore buildings from the pre-flooding era, following the roads underwater. Some of the notable underwater finds are a Model T Ford, plane wreckage from small craft that have hit the lake since then, and covered bridges from that era.
The lake is around 40 feet deep in most places, with some deeper areas that are 80 feet.
In the winter the level of the lake is dropped several feet to allow people to remove their docks, work on waterfront landscaping, and to freeze weeds.

There is a 45 mph daytime speed limit for boats and a 25 mph night-time speed limit from 1/2 hour after sunset to 1/2 hour before sunrise. A 6 mph speed limit is in effect within one hundred feet of shore, docks, and moored vessels.

Although it was almost called Lake Danbury, Candlewood Lake ultimately got its name from New Milford's Candlewood Mountain - which was named after the Candlewood tree, whose sapling branches were sometimes used as candles by early settlers.