Gay City State Park

State Park · Hebron, Connecticut

A ghost town in the woods with a swimming pond on top of it. Gay City was a real settlement - a religious community founded in the 1790s that ran mills on the Blackledge River, fell apart through fire, the Civil War and simple attrition, and was empty by the 1880s. What is left is scattered through 1,500 acres of second-growth forest: cellar holes, mill foundations, a cemetery and the old road grid, all of it walkable and most of it unmarked, so you come across things rather than being shown them. The pond is a dammed section of the river with a small swimming area that is supervised in summer, and there are about eight miles of trail. It is a quiet, slightly eerie park that gets almost no attention, and the ruins are the point rather than the water. Come in late autumn or winter: with the leaves down the cellar holes and foundations are actually visible, and in July they are invisible under undergrowth. Watch your footing while you look, because an open cellar hole under a drift of leaves is exactly what it sounds like.

435 North Street, Hebron, Hebron, Connecticut, 06248, United States

Open daily year round from around eight to sunset. Parking is charged in season, with a higher rate for out-of-state vehicles, and is generally free off season. The SWIMMING AREA is supervised only during the summer season and the pond is sometimes closed on water quality grounds. Trails are not cleared in winter. There is no camping.

Gay City State Park on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos