Millers Pond State Park is a public recreation area lying 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

towns 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 ...

of Durham and Haddam,

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 park's central feature is Millers Pond, whose principal source of water is large springs that create a body of unpolluted water excellent for

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

and smallmouth bass. The park offers fishing, hiking, mountain biking, and hunting.

History

Thomas Miller erected the upper dam in 1704 to make a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

to serve his downstream

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

. Millers Pond and 170 acres of woodlands were acquired by the state in 1955 from the heirs of Thomas Macdonough Russell. The acquisition was one of several made in the 1950s using funds bequeathed by

George Dudley Seymour George Dudley Seymour (October 6, 1859 – January 21, 1945) was an American historian, patent attorney, antiquarian, author, and city planner. He was the noted authority and foremost expert on Nathan Hale, the American Revolutionary War hero. ...

. The state's purchase of additional land around the pond was completed in 1972.

References

External links

Millers Pond State Park Reserve
Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
Millers Pond State Park Reserve Map
Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection {{authority control State parks of Connecticut Parks in Middlesex County, Connecticut Ponds of Connecticut Bodies of water of Middlesex County, Connecticut Protected areas established in 1955 1955 establishments in Connecticut Durham, Connecticut Haddam, Connecticut