Chatfield Hollow State Park is a public recreation area occupying that lie adjacent to

Cockaponset State Forest Cockaponset State Forest is the second largest forest in the Connecticut state forest system, encompassing over of land. Most of the land is in Middlesex County though some parcels lie in New Haven County. The forest is disjointed, and comprise ...

in the

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Killingworth Killingworth, formerly Killingworth Township, is a town in North Tyneside, England. Killingworth was built as a planned town in the 1960s, next to Killingworth Village, which existed for centuries before the Township. Other nearby towns and ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. The

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

offers hiking trails, a swimming beach, trout fishing, mountain biking, rock climbing, and picnicking areas. Park attractions include Schreeder Pond, Indian caves, historic sites, a restored water wheel, and a reproduction covered bridge. The park is managed by the

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) is a state agency in the US state of Connecticut. The department oversees the state's natural resources and environment and regulates public utilities and energy policy. I ...

History

Chatfield Hollow was designated as a state park in 1949. It was developed in the 1930s as a

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

recreation area within Cockaponset State Forest. The CCC created Schreeder Pond in 1934 by building a horseshoe-shaped earth and stone dam across Chatfield Hollow Brook. In 1937,

Oak Lodge Oak Lodge is a historic recreational building, located on the west side of Schreeder Pond in Chatfield Hollow State Park in Killingworth, Connecticut. Built in 1937, it is one of Connecticut's finest examples of construction by crews of the Civi ...

was raised on the west side of Schreeder Pond; the lodge was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1986. A "from the ground up" restoration of the lodge was completed in 2017. The region where the park now resides was an important area for indigenous peoples. From the Paleo-Indian time approximately 10,00 years B.C. until the Final Woodland years which end in 1633, the area that Chatfield Hollow State Park occupies was important for fishing, plant gathering, and hunting to the River Indians of New England. The Hammonasset people are recorded as being the first known inhabitants of this area. There are large granite rock overhangs where artifact discovery shows inhabitance long before the first English colonists settled in Chatfield Hollow. These rock overhangs are today known as the Indian Caves and can be visited by hiking a marked trail in the park. The three Chatfield brothers for whom the park is named arrived from England around the year 1639.

Geology

The park's bedrock ledges consist of a type of

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...

called Monson Gneiss, a medium- to coarse-

grained Graining is the practice of imitating wood grain on a non-wood surface, or on relatively undesirable wood surface, in order to give it the appearance of a rare or higher quality wood, thereby increase that surface's aesthetic appeal. Graining was ...

rock, light in color, mainly composed of

plagioclase Plagioclase is a series of tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continuous solid solution series, more prope ...

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

and

biotite Biotite is a common group of phyllosilicate minerals within the mica group, with the approximate chemical formula . It is primarily a solid-solution series between the iron-endmember annite, and the magnesium-endmember phlogopite; more alumino ...

; trace amounts of

garnet Garnets () are a group of silicate minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. All species of garnets possess similar physical properties and crystal forms, but differ in chemical composition. The different s ...

epidote Epidote is a calcium aluminium iron sorosilicate mineral. Description Well developed crystals of epidote, Ca2Al2(Fe3+;Al)(SiO4)(Si2O7)O(OH), crystallizing in the monoclinic system, are of frequent occurrence: they are commonly prismatic in habi ...

magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe2+Fe3+2O4. It is one of the oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. With the ...

can be observed in places. The park sits in a glacial valley, with steep declines on either side and an abundance

glacial erratic A glacial erratic is glacially deposited rock differing from the type of rock native to the area in which it rests. Erratics, which take their name from the Latin word ' ("to wander"), are carried by glacial ice, often over distances of hundred ...

s. The erratics are smooth with sharp edges removed; the majority are composed of Monson Gneiss. Examples of other rock types can be found in the park, since erratics can sometimes be moved great distances.

Activities and amenities

;Hiking The Paul F. Wildermann Boardwalk allows visitors to cross an inland swamp without disturbing it. In addition, some of hiking trails, including the blue-blazed

Chatfield Trail The Chatfield Trail is a 4.6-mile Blue-Blazed hiking trail located within the town of Killingworth, Connecticut. The northern trailhead is directly across from Chatfield Hollow State Park on Route 80. There is a good parking area outside the pa ...

, originate within the park and extend into adjacent sections of forest. ;Mountain biking The park offers some of the most difficult technical cross-country mountain biking trails in the state. Among them are the Lookout Trail and the Pond Trail, which is a side trail that loops off the Deep Woods Trail. ;Rock climbing The park's ledges and cliffs include one of the most popular rock climbing routes in the state along the southern end of the Deep Woods Trail adjacent to Route 81. ;Trout fishing Chatfield Hollow State Park is one of Connecticut's eleven Trout Parks, with pond and stream stockings throughout the season and easy accessibility for young and novice anglers. ;Other The park offers swimming on Schreeder Pond and areas for picnicking.

References

External links

Chatfield Hollow State Park
Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
Chatfield Hollow State Park Map
Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection {{authority control Killingworth, Connecticut State parks of Connecticut Parks in Middlesex County, Connecticut Climbing areas of the United States Hiking trails in Connecticut Nature centers in Connecticut Civilian Conservation Corps in Connecticut Protected areas established in 1949 1949 establishments in Connecticut