Sleeping Giant State Park is one of Connecticut’s most beloved hiking destinations. The mountain is about 210 million years old, but this October marks the 100th anniversary of its designation as a state park.
WSHU’s Sabrina Garone spoke with Trina Mace Learned of the Sleeping Giant Park Association and New Haven Museum.
WSHU: I understand that photography sparked your love and passion for Sleeping Giant State Park. Could you tell me a little bit about that, and what about the park inspires you?
TML: I was working on a graduate degree at Wesleyan University and took a pandemic-perfect course called photographing Connecticut State Parks. Every person was obligated to choose their own park. I chose Sleeping Giant State Park because I live not far from it in New Haven. When one has the opportunity, first of all, in the pandemic, to get out and hike five to ten hours a week, taking thousands and thousands of pictures, one develops a real love for the park.
But I'm also an architectural historian. What was interesting to me on these more extensive hikes was the discovery of abandoned structures at the west end of the park. I'd never known that there were structures in the park! I was fascinated as to what their history might be. Where did they come from, and why were they there? What they housed began my discovery process of understanding what was at the west end of the park that had created those buildings, which turned out to be a quarry. It was through the understanding of those buildings and the quarry operation that existed there that I started to unravel the story of the founding of Sleeping Giant State Park. And it turned out to be much more complicated, much more intricate, and therefore much more fascinating than one presumed.
WSHU: Very cool. And not to go on a tangent so quickly into this, but you mentioned that you could choose any state park for that assignment. Connecticut is a small state, but it has a great number of state parks. Do you feel like Connecticut does a good job with this kind of land preservation? I mean, what do you think is the "state of the state parks?"
TML: That's an interesting question. I think there are — I may have this number not quite right, but I'm in the ballpark — 127 state parks in Connecticut. So they're numerous. Sleeping Giant is not the first by far. It's probably in the seventies or eighties in the order of when it was founded. State parks, in general, are a phenomenon of the early 20th century. National parks came first in the sense that they were developed around really significant monuments, some sort of land formations, and so forth. And of course, municipal parks were everywhere — a town green, etcetera. Connecticut had almost no state parks. So in the 20s when other states were starting to have this movement, there began to be a real push to create state parks in Connecticut so that people had access to all the amenities that could be in a state park — not too precious to be a national park, and generally of a larger magnitude or size than a municipal park.
WSHU: And prior to it officially becoming a state park, what did Sleeping Giant look like and what was the land being used for?
TML: Certainly going back to Indigenous peoples, the Quinnipiac occupied the land around Sleeping Giant. Prior to that, it was formed by a series of glacial activities. Obviously, it is known because of the contour. So you can't help but think about it as a human being, as a sleeping giant, a little Gulliver's Travels ideas come into mind. It is the only transverse ridge in that whole volcanic formation. East and West Rock, and New Haven are also part of that formation.
The people who had owned land on Sleeping Giant before it became a state park, there were numerous — maybe as many as 100, certainly 80 or so — of various different size parcels. There had been people who had built cabins on the various ridges, the tops. They're called ridges one, two, three, or four, but they're also called the belly, the knee, the chin, and so forth. In fact, there was one person who owned "the head." He was also the person who leased his land to the quarry operation which took place and took off the part of the head! The rest of the landowners were convinced through the urgings of a couple of Yale affiliates, particularly the then Dean of the forestry school who felt that this was the ideal location for a forest preserve.
It wasn't necessarily meant to be a park or a state park, but a forest preserve — someplace where the integrity of the forest could be viewed and accessed by the people of New Haven. He and his influential friend at Yale convinced a lot of property owners actually to donate their land toward this effort. It was a very early example of a public-private partnership because these were people who did not want the park for themselves. This was not a land grab. There was never any eminent domain exercise. They collected a group becoming the Park Association, then presented it to the state of Connecticut in hopes that it would become a state park.
WSHU: That is pretty interesting that landowners would be so willing to do that, I guess for the greater good! Was there some push and pull there, or was it, 'No, this is very important, and I'm totally on board!'
TML: It is fascinating, particularly when we think of it in the context of today, I suspect that there were a couple of factors that came into play, but it was a tough place to live. And so I think there was a groundswell that if they were surrendering their land or selling their land for the greater good, they knew that the land would stay as beautiful as they had stewarded it. There was an impetus to do it.
WSHU: I'd like to hear more about why the mountain was important to the Quinnipiac people.
TML: The Quinnipiac claimed much of the land that is between East Rock, West Rock and Sleeping Giant — fertile land, connected to the waterways and Long Island Sound. It was a great place where they could hunt readily. That's another reason the park was formed, not just for the protection of trees. There was a sense that there were other precious resources like natural minerals, wildlife, the dangers of forest fires, and people doing things to take away from the beauty of the land.
The Quinnipiac talk about the legend of Hobbomock — a spirit who was generally pleasant, may have been prone to what I will call temper tantrums. And at one time when he was a little cranky, he stamped his foot in Middletown and caused the Connecticut River to not flow down through New Haven County but, in fact, to empty out at Old Saybrook. Such a diversion of a major waterway was rather difficult to comprehend. A good spirit Kietan came to Hobbomock and enticed him to stuff his pockets with the beautiful oysters of Long Island Sound and the gorgeous minerals, and cast a spell where he fell down in slumber. And there he now lays. I think that's plausible! That makes perfect sense to me! There's a spirituality — you can't help but think of a human form! It is unmistakable, and that outline has always factored into its well-being. It's probably its biggest protection. It's not just that it's a great natural formation, it is a sleeping giant.
WSHU: It really is a Connecticut icon. You know, you scroll through Instagram and everyone has that photo of themselves sitting in the window of the tower at the top! How did that get there?
TML: The stone building at the top — sometimes called the castle, sometimes the tower — was built by the Works Progress Administration. Most of the stones came from cabins that already existed. In the early thirties, the state decided to disassemble most of the private cottages up there as a way to honor the preservation of the land, and there was a lot of vandalism that wasn't worthy of being a caretaker. In order to build that observation tower, an access roadway must also be provided. That's what's now the Tower Trail, which is the most popular trail on Sleeping Giant, but there are, in fact, 32 miles of trails on Sleeping Giant, so there's a lot to do.
There was a terrible tornado in 2018 which closed the park for almost two years. And during that time in order to pull out all the fallen trees, the tower trail was again expanded a little to allow some sort of vehicular access to the park. But yes, I think that the most popular structure in the park now is the tower. And what a great view from up there!
The New Haven Museum will host an in-depth talk on Sleeping Giant history on Oct. 30 at 6:00 p.m.
