Community Corner
CT Magazine Readers Vote: Hammonasset Best State Park & Best CT Beach
In the just-arrived CT Magazine, in its Best of Connecticut, the Reader's Choice for Best State Park & Best Beach in CT is our favorite, too
MADISON, CT — It may come as no surprise at all to some. Well, many.
The July issue of Connecticut Magazine features its annual Best of Connecticut, where the 'zine editorial staff have their say and readers' have theirs.
And the 2022 Reader's Choice for the Best Beach in Connecticut is Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison.
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Oh, and the Reader's Choice for the Best State Park is also Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison.
The honors were in the category, "Activities & Entertainment; Outdoor Fun."
Find out what's happening in Madisonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The July issue just arrived in the mail.
Fun facts about Hammonasset Beach State Park
- There's 2 miles of beach.
- More than a million visit annually.
- From the state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection: "Hammonasset" means, "where we dig holes in the ground" and refers to the place where a settlement of eastern woodland Indians farmed along the Hammonasset River. They subsisted on corn, beans, and squash, and by fishing and hunting. The first colonists arrived in 1639. Property changed hands frequently between Native Americans and the first colonists.In 1898 the Winchester Repeating Arms Company bought Hammonasset and used it as a testing site for their new rifle. Their Lee Straight Pull rifle was mounted on a horse drawn stone boat, from which it was fired into targets on the beach.
- It opened in July 1920.
- During World War II the park was closed to the public and loaned to the federal government as an army reservation. Meigs Point functioned as an aircraft range. Planes flew over Clinton Harbor, fired at the range and then flew out over Long Island Sound. ~per DEEP
- There's 550 "grassy" campsites.
- A birder's paradise, it's also home to coyotes and cottontails, muskrats, moles and the mink, and sometimes, harbor and gray seals.
- Meigs Point Nature Center is awesome, free, open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 t0 5, and has in-person and virtual learning.
- Get bird's eye view of osprey in their Hammonasset nest in a Menunkatuck Audubon Society live webcam.
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