Borderlands Today

Exeter and Killingly are surprisingly different. Exeter has been described as “a town with no center” and is home to the “Middle of Nowhere Diner.” Although it may feel like the middle of nowhere, it is less than 20 minutes from Providence and is a key gateway into Rhode Island’s bustling southern coast. Killingly has a superabundance of centers, with six distinct villages: Danielson (the industrial core, with the densest population by far), Attawaugan, Ballouville, Dayville, East Killingly, Rogers and South Killingly. It is home to a large industrial park that is close to full occupancy. Both towns have significant natural, recreational and agricultural lands, though Exeter holds more protected lands.

With the construction of interstate highways in the 1950s and ’60s, commuting times shortened and companies moved from urban areas to smaller cities and towns—particularly in Connecticut. Killingly welcomed companies such as Frito-Lay, Staples, CEM and Rogers Corporation. The economy of the area diversified, with a mix of industry, agriculture, services and tourism. Exeter has retained a more rural character than Killingly, but both communities are attracting interest from those seeking country homes not too far from Boston or Providence. The Borderlands region includes 136,000 acres of critical forest habitat, surrounded by rolling countryside interspersed with many small villages. The area has been poetically described as a “necklace of villages around a large forested center.”

The Borderlands’ natural communities remain some of its most distinguishing features. Forty percent of the Borderlands is protected by two large forest preserves, the Pachaug State Forest in Connecticut and the Arcadia Management Area in Rhode Island. This forestland is remarkably diverse, according to The Nature Conservancy: 80 percent is covered in oak, hickory, hemlock and pine forest, and it is home to the pileated woodpecker and the Louisiana waterthrush. Uncommonly large pitch pine woodlands thrive on dry, sandy soils, while wetlands harboring imperiled Atlantic white cedar and giant rhododendron dot the landscape. Some of New England’s cleanest watersheds are found here—supporting native brook trout, alewife and herring—and providing much of Rhode Island and Connecticut’s water supply.

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