Route 9 West

A later chapter in Wilmington’s industrial history lies just west of the Norton House (Stop A). Here, a pedestrian bridge crosses the Deerfield River to the site of the former railroad yard and a mill that operated for almost 80 years. In the early 1900s, workers employed by Ludington Woodenware used a footbridge several hundred feet downriver from here to reach the mill. From 1915 to 1927, the company produced clothespins, bowl, butter molds, made wooden fruit and bread boxes and, during World War II, ammunition boxes. The mill’s use took a quirky detour in the 1960s when it manufactured the legendary Rokon “Trail-Breaker” motorcycles, popularized in the television show “Wild Kingdom.” In the 1970s and early 1980s, a company produced weathered barnyard for the construction industry. The Valley Trail, a pedestrian and bicycle pathway currently under development, is accessible from the bridge.