Connecticut's Underrated Park Has Trails Through The Remains Of An Abandoned Town With A Dark History

Nice hiking trails are a dime a dozen — especially in a state that's unexpectedly glorious for hikers, like Connecticut. But hiking trails that pass through ghost towns haunted by murder mysteries and tales of secret religious rituals? That's something else entirely, more so when said trails pass through a former settlement bearing the incongruous name of Gay City. That once-living city lives on in the name of Gay City Park, located in east-central Connecticut in Hebron. During the day, visitors to Gay City Park can step along beautifully-dappled forest paths. As the sun sets, they can witness the shadows of night stretch their black fingers across those same paths, listening to the dead whisper from fragments of tombstones in the woods.

All such eeriness stems from Gay City's short-lived, less-than-100-year history. Founded in 1796 by a community of Methodists who fled nearby Hartford because they didn't want to give up alcohol, Gay City gets its name from one of its founding members, John Gay. Townsfolk built a textile mill, a lumber mill, homes, shops, and, most critically for local habits, a distillery, before fleeing town when its textile mill burned down for the second time in 1885. But before then, a town blacksmith decapitated an apprentice for showing up to work late, a missing merchant's skeleton was found in a charcoal pit, and rumors of strange religious rites involving alcohol crept through the area.

In 1944, Gay City and its forest became Gay City State Park — a lush, underappreciated stretch of woods containing 10 miles of pleasant trails. There, hikers will find stone foundations, empty cellars, and tombstones along the way that speak to a history far darker than the present.

If you don't know the history surrounding Gay City State Park you might just think that you're strolling through just another one of Connecticut's picturesque state parks — like Lover's Leap State Park in New Milford, with its red iron bridge. And if you do know about the area's dark, brief, tumultuous past, it'll be hard to not think about it while poking through the woods — especially with the obviously-man-made ruins within eyeshot. This is especially true because, sometimes, passersby leave gifts or offerings at burial sites, like flowers or teddy bears for children's graves. It might just be enough to appease the spirits who linger there — who knows? 

But for those who don't go in for all that paranormal stuff, Gay City State Park still has plenty to offer. It's got 1,500 acres of rolling land, babbling brooks, numerous trails of varying lengths, Gay City Pond, the Blackledge River, and, like the rest of Connecticut's forests, dramatic changes across the seasons. While warmer months will be teeming with rich scents and the trees thick with green, autumn will be painted in vibrant oranges, yellows, and reds, and winter will be sealed with white snow. 

Lots of folks visit Connecticut in autumn specifically for the foliage, and Gay City State Park is no exception. The park's bodies of water are also ideal for swimming, fishing (with a license), and the park's trails are also good for biking.

Unlike other Connecticut state parks — like the quaint and calm Kent Falls, located in the middle of nowhere and about 90 minutes from Hartford — Gay City State Park isn't that hard to get to. By contrast, Gay City Park is only about a 20-minute drive from Hartford, which is shorter than a lot of people need to drive to the grocery store. This makes it ideal for quick getaways if you live in the area, but bear in mind that parking is limited and that when the lot is full, no more visitors are allowed.

It'll take longer for out-of-state visitors to drive to Gay City State Park and it'll cost more, too. Non-Connecticut residents have to pay for parking at a rate of $10 on weekdays and $15 on weekends and holidays. However, this is just an incentive to explore even more of Connecticut's little towns or state parks. 

For example, Gillette Castle State Park in East Haddam is only 40 minutes further south from Gay City State Park, and it's got a weird, honest-to-goodness modern-era castle built in 1914 by actor William Hooker Gillette. It might not be haunted (as far as we know), but it's at least in the same uncanny wheelhouse as Gay City State Park's ghost town. Additionally, the 17,000-acre Cockaponset State Park — Connecticut's second-largest park — is less than half an hour west from Gillette Castle State Park. Along the way, you've also got an array of quintessentially New England towns and villages to breeze through, including Hebron, Marlborough, Colchester, East Hampton, and more.