Mittineague Park

Mittineague Park is an approximately {{convert, 325, acre, km2, adj=on

urban park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...

located in the southern section of the town of

West Springfield, Massachusetts West Springfield is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 28,835 at the 2020 United States Census. The city is also known as "West Si ...

(In neighborhoods, Tatham and Mittineague). Mittineague derives from the Agawam Algonquian L-dialect, related to Nipmuk "muttinohkou" + "ohke" = "land on the right" (Gustafson, Holly, "A Nipmuck Grammar," Univ. Manitoba, 2008; Goddard, "Loup Languages of Western Massachusetts," Algonquian Conference, 2016; Trumbull, Natick Dictionary, Smithsonian,1905). The park contains a wide range of services typical of a park of this type, including many baseball/softball diamonds, and trails for hiking or cross-country skiing. It has a large

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

, and a building that is used as a

summer camp A summer camp or sleepaway camp is a supervised program for children conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as ''campers''. Summer school is usually a part of the academ ...

for children with special needs. Special events are scheduled at the park, including events for children. It contains a

greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...

and a

community garden A community garden is a piece of land gardened or cultivated by a group of people individually or collectively. Normally in community gardens, the land is divided into individual plots. Each individual gardener is responsible for their own plo ...

. There is an interpretive trail created by the "Friends of Mittineague Park". Native peoples were active in the area up until 400 years ago. The southwestern part of West Springfield is still called ''Tatham'', a name derived from the Agawam name for the brook ("tattam" = someone encloses; "tattaum" = someone shakes; "taphum" = someone buys it; all in Trumbull, Natick Dictionary, Natick being closest recorded glossary according to Dr. Ives Goddard, "The Loup Languages of Western Massachusetts: Dialectical Diversity in Southern New England, Algonquian Conference 2016). The Westfield River, which runs at the outermost perimeter and most of the park's terrain was created by glaciers (the Hitchcock glacial lake/Laurentide ice sheet) as they retreated 15–20,000 years ago. Mittineague Park is home to wildlife such as hawks, beavers, frogs, foxes, fisher martens (a.k.a. Fisher Cats), and deer. The deer are most active during the winter season, and are found grazing year round in the meadows which were once part of a farm. Urban public parks Springfield metropolitan area, Massachusetts