Hiking Putnam Memorial State Park in Connecticut

Hiking Putnam Memorial State Park in Connecticut

Putnam Memorial State Park is full of history and a great place to get a bit of exercise as well! If you are looking to learn/experience some of the history behind the American Revolutionary War, this is a place to visit. As soon as you make your way to the parking lot, be sure to pick up the map/information pamphlet on the way to the visitor center.

Although I didn’t do this myself, I recommend heading to the visitor center first to get a good overview of the park so you know a bit more what you are looking at as you hike through. Makes sense right? 🙂

MEMORIAL MONUMENT

After you get all caught up on the American Revolutionary War, make you way up the gravel driveway to the Memorial Monument. As it says on the sign in the photo above, this is the very first structure created when the park was formed.

Not much is left from the original camps back from the 1700s, but they have done a lot of research on how it would have looked. More information on that in the visitor center. (Museum is a separate building you can drive to or hike to with even more information/artifacts.)

WOODEN HUTS USED TO LINE THIS AREA

If you turn to your right from the Memorial Monument you will begin to walk along the same path where all the wooden huts used to be lined up. Each stack of rocks represents where a hut used to stand that housed around 12 people. I guess a little coziness never hurt anyone during the cold winter months. These huts were about 12’x16′ in size.

ALL OF THIS USED TO BE OPEN

All the trees you see in the middle of this gravel road loop was not there in the 1700s. Try to imagine a large open area with a bunch of officer huts/other structures lined along the back of the enlisted men’s huts.

There is one area on display where a stone chimney remains from where a officer’s hut used to stand. That hut itself was a reconstruction of the 1700’s structure, but unfortunately it was destroyed due to a fire.

PHILIP’S CAVE

Don’t forget to check out Philip’s cave while you are going along this gravel road as well. There is a little dirt path going up to where Philip used to have his hideout. Just be careful because I did spot a little bit of poison ivy along the side of the trail. 🙂

OFFICER’S QUARTERS

Be sure to check out the bits of information located on the back of your map you grabbed from the park’s entrance.  For the most part it is a repeat of what is on each sign, but I did spot a few differences.

The above picture shows where they used to keep kegs of gun powder. Again, this is a reconstruction of the building, not the original building from the 1700s. This structure was still built in the 1800s I believe, so still of historical value in my book. 🙂

POND

As you make your way around the loop you will also come across this beautiful pond (picture above). This wasn’t actually from the 1700’s camp, but they did build this in the 1800s when the park was formed. During the period of the camp itself, there was just a stream flowing through this area.

SWEET LITTLE ADVENTURE

I hope you enjoyed my little adventure at this Putnam Memorial State Park. There is obviously a lot more to learn about this area than I can fit in an 8 minute video and short blog post. Due to recent state budget cuts, some of these state parks might be struggling to survive.

If you enjoy these parks I highly recommend on getting out there and checking them out while you can. I don’t know the politics or timeline behind the situation, but from what I understand, the state parks are not winning any priority when it comes to funding. All the more reason to get out there and show your support by visiting your local, state, and national parks! (Be sure to sign their guest logs as well)

OTHER NEARBY HIKES

Saugatuck Falls Natural Area

Huntington State Park

Rock Lot

Centennial Watershed State Forest

Ive’s Trail

NOTE FROM WRITER

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Also be sure to check out Deanna’s food blog when you get the chance! A lot of awesome and healthy recipes to use there!

Adventure On!