Putnam Memorial State Park

State Park · Redding, Connecticut

Connecticut Valley Forge, and the oldest state park in Connecticut - set aside in 1887, which makes it one of the earliest state parks anywhere in the country. General Israel Putnam wintered part of the Continental Army here in 1778 and 1779, in a season so cold and so badly supplied that the men were close to mutiny, and what survives is the ground itself: stone firebacks from the soldiers huts, still in their rows on the hillside, so you can see exactly how the camp was laid out. There is a reconstructed blockhouse and officers hut, a small museum, and a magazine cut into the rock. It is a quiet, wooded, slightly melancholy park that gets a fraction of the visitors of anything on the shoreline, and the winter encampment story is much harder than the Fourth of July version of the Revolution. Come in late autumn or winter with the leaves down and you can read the whole camp layout across the slope, which is impossible in July and is the single best reason to time a visit here rather than simply turning up.

492 Black Rock Turnpike, Redding, Redding, Connecticut, 06896, United States

The PARK and its trails are open daily year round from around eight to sunset and are FREE. The MUSEUM and the reconstructed buildings are seasonal and open on a limited week, typically late spring to early autumn. Parking is free. Living history events run on announced dates. Trails are not cleared in winter. Confirm the museum season before travelling.

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