Gov. Dannel P.Malloy, left, talks with Dan Cruson, president of the
Archeology Society of Connecticut, at Putnam Park in Redding Monday,
July 2, 2012.
Photo: Michael Duffy
/ CT
"I'm 57 years old now,'' Malloy said Monday, while touring the park. "It was a long time ago."
Four decades or so of reading gave the governor a different perspective on the park.
"I have a much greater interest in the state's history now,'' he said. "Connecticut played a major role in the Revolutionary War. Just because someone drew a line between Connecticut and Massachusetts doesn't change that.''
Malloy's visit to the park, accompanied by Dan Esty, state commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection; Thomas Tyler, director of state parks; and local historian Dan Cruson, of Newtown, was part of a five-stop swing through western Connecticut to promote the state's new $27 million tourism campaign "Connecticut: Still Revolutionary.''
Putnam Park, site of the 1778-79 winter encampment of American forces led by Gen. Israel Putnam, the state's Valley Forge, was a logical part of the itinerary.
"It's our most Revolutionary War state park,'' Esty said.
When the state's new tourism pitch was unveiled in May, it was criticized for not including any footage or mention of western Connecticut.
The trip, which included stops at Lake Compounce in Bristol. Blackie's hot dog stand in Cheshire, Weir Farm National Historic Site in Redding and Sunset Vineyard in Goshen, showcased what this part of state has to offer.
Cruson, who helped with some of the park's recent archeological work and is president of the Archeological Society of Connecticut, began the tour with a stop at the park's visitor center.
He then led Malloy and others to the site of one of the park's three encampments, showing them a building that has been recently renovated with a $65,000 state grant.
Once thought to be an officer's quarters, Cruson said he now thinks it served a much humbler function,a magazine for the army's powder.
"It was built into the hillside,'' Cruson said. "If there was an explosion, the front might blow out. But the top and sides were built into a ridge."
It is also the first state park, Cruson said, although the people at Sherwood Island State Park, dedicated as the first official state park in 1914, might disagree.
"We were a park three years before them,'' Cruson said.
Aalong with a good dose of history, Esty said Putnam Memorial State Park offers visitors a great chance to get out and walk the landscape.
The same holds true for the state's 16 other parks, 32 forests and 25 wildlife areas.
"There's a park, a brook, a pond or a beach for everyone,'' Esty said.
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