Wooster Mountain State Park

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Wooster Mountain State Park
Wooster Mountain State Park.jpg
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Location in Connecticut
Location Danbury, Connecticut, United States
Coordinates 41°21′03″N73°28′13″W / 41.35083°N 73.47028°W / 41.35083; -73.47028 Coordinates: 41°21′03″N73°28′13″W / 41.35083°N 73.47028°W / 41.35083; -73.47028 [1]
Area444 acres (180 ha) [2]
Elevation535 ft (163 m) [1]
Designation Connecticut state park
Established1920
Administrator Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
Website Wooster Mountain State Park

Wooster Mountain State Park is an undeveloped public recreation area located within the city limits of Danbury, Connecticut. The state park covers 444 acres (180 ha) and is managed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. [3]

Danbury, Connecticut City in Connecticut, United States

Danbury is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately 50 miles (80 km) northeast of New York City making it part of the New York metropolitan area. Danbury's population at the 2010 census was 80,893. Danbury is the fourth most populous city in Fairfield County, and seventh among Connecticut cities. The city is within the New York combined statistical area and Bridgeport metropolitan area.

Connecticut state of the United States of America

Connecticut is the southernmost state in the New England region of the United States. As of the 2010 Census, it has the highest per-capita income, Human Development Index (0.962), and median household income in the 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 capital is Hartford and its most populous city is Bridgeport. It is part of New England, although portions of it are often grouped with New York and New Jersey as the Tri-state area. The state is named for the Connecticut River which approximately bisects the state. The word "Connecticut" is derived from various anglicized spellings of an Algonquian word for "long tidal river".

State park protected area managed at the federated state level

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 beauty, historic interest, or recreational potential. There are state parks under the administration of the government of each U.S. state, some of the Mexican states, and in Brazil. The term is also used in the Australian state of Victoria. The equivalent term used in Canada, Argentina, South Africa and Belgium, is provincial park. Similar systems of local government maintained parks exist in other countries, but the terminology varies.

Contents

History

The park was established in 1920 as Connecticut's 23rd state park through an initial purchase of 100 acres. The State Park Commission adopted the name Wooster Mountain, which was not used locally, "for its historical association, as marking the mountain mass over which General [David] Wooster pursued British troops in their hasty retreat from Danbury" in 1777, during which General Wooster was mortally wounded. [4]

David Wooster General of the Continental Army

David Wooster was an American general who served in the French and Indian War and in the American Revolutionary War. He died of wounds sustained during the Battle of Ridgefield, Connecticut. Cities, schools, and public places were named after him. He has been called "a largely forgotten hero of the Revolution."

The Civilian Conservation Corps was active in the park from 1935 to 1937, clearing trees that were infected with Dutch elm disease. [5] The CCC's former campground forms the site of the Wooster Mountain firing range.

Civilian Conservation Corps public work relief program

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men. Originally for young men ages 18–25, it was eventually expanded to ages 17–28. Robert Fechner was the first director of the agency, succeeded by James McEntee following Fechner's death. The CCC was a major part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal that provided unskilled manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state, and local governments. The CCC was designed to provide jobs for young men and to relieve families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression in the United States. Maximum enrollment at any one time was 300,000. Through the course of its nine years in operation, 3 million young men participated in the CCC, which provided them with shelter, clothing, and food, together with a wage of $30 per month.

Dutch elm disease plant disease caused by Ophiostoma ulmi fungus

Dutch elm disease (DED) is caused by a member of the sac fungi (Ascomycota) affecting elm trees, and is spread by elm bark beetles. Although believed to be originally native to Asia, the disease was accidentally introduced into America and Europe, where it has devastated native populations of elms that did not have resistance to the disease. It has also reached New Zealand. The name "Dutch elm disease" refers to its identification in 1921 and later in the Netherlands by Dutch phytopathologists Bea Schwarz and Christine Buisman who both worked with Professor Johanna Westerdijk. The disease affects species in the genera Ulmus and Zelkova, therefore it is not specific to the Dutch elm hybrid.

Activities and amenities

The park is suitable for hiking and hunting [3] and is crossed by the Ives Trail. [6] [7] Target, skeet and trap shooting are offered at the Wooster Mountain State Park Cooperative Shooting Range. [8]

Ives Trail

The Ives Trail and Greenway is a 20-mile (32 km) hiking trail in the Housatonic Valley Region. Its route connects Ridgefield, Danbury, Bethel and Redding. The Ives Trail is named after Charles Ives, a Danbury-born American modernist composer.

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Pomeroy State Park state park in Connecticut, USA

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James L. Goodwin State Forest

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Nassahegon State Forest

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References

  1. 1 2 "Wooster Mountain State Park". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey.
  2. ↑ "Appendix A: List of State Parks and Forests" (PDF). State Parks and Forests: Funding. Staff Findings and Recommendations. Connecticut General Assembly. January 23, 2014. p. A-4. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Wooster Mountain State Park". State Parks and Forests. Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
  4. ↑ Report of the State Park and Forest Commission to the Governor 1920 (Report). Hartford, Conn.: State of Connecticut. December 29, 1920. pp. 17–18. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Exploring the CCC in Connecticut" (PDF). CCC Legacy Journal. CCC Legacy. 39 (2): 13. March 2015. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Ives Trail Greenway". Western Connecticut Council of Governments. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Ives Trail and Greenway Brochure" (PDF). Ives Trail and Greenway Regional Association. April 1, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
  8. ↑ "2017 Hunting and Trapping Guide". Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Retrieved April 15, 2017.
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