Kettletown State Park

About Kettletown State Park

The cool waters of the Housatonic River make it an ideal place for a day trip to the zoo in Kettletown State Park. The way to the youth group camp offers a good introduction to different rocks.

On the right side of the road, just a few hundred meters from the entrance to the park, you will find a large brown boulder.

This boulder is one of the boulders that glaciers leave behind when they melt and it originates from the glacier northwest of Pomperaugtal.

We do not know where this boulder came from, because the nearest basalt rock is three miles northwest of Southbury. This boulder is bordered by another basalt boulder, and the other boulder is located about a mile north of Pomperaugtal on the east side of the lake in Kettletown.

The roundness of the boulder is caused by wear on the edges and corners caused by transport. In the park, ice streaks indicate that the ice has moved southeast from the east side of Kettletown State Park and then south again. Streaks are scratches on exposed rock when ice or frozen rock in the ground moves above and grooves are dug.

The result is a basalt cushion, and some boulders and others seem to be a little further out of the way. The lava flows through the rock, freezing the surface while the internal flow is still liquid. This leads to blobs that break off, allowing the lava to flow a little further and then form blobs.

When basalt flowed through the valley, Connecticut was very different from today, and there were no lakes here and there, especially during the monsoon season.

The geology of Penwood State Park shows how the basalt and sedimentary rocks of Connecticut formed. The rocks of Kettletown were originally sediments from the seabed of Iapetus, mixed with basalt from streams. Metamorphic rocks form parts of Connecticut, from Pomperaug Valley to Woodbury and Southbury. Because of the intense heat and pressure, the rocks in western Connecticut are separated from what they were originally.

As Africa and Europe moved closer to North America, the ocean crust was pushed under the continental crust, and the sediments were scraped off and then crushed by the collision of the microcontinent (the microcontinents).

The resulting heat and pressure turned the sediments into basalt, and shale deposits can be seen along the described path. Gneiss, slate and amphibolite are all present in the park, as described, but not all are present at the same time.

Kettletown State Park, located between the towns of Southbury and Oxford, covers 605 hectares and was originally inhabited by the Pootatuck Indians, who belonged to the Algonquin group. Early colonists are said to have exchanged brass boilers for land for hunting and fishing, and the settlers eventually acquired full rights over the area. In 1758, some Pootsatucks migrated northwest and disappeared, but the settlers did not.

Although the Pootatucks were experienced fishermen and hunters, their main occupation was agriculture, and they were born and raised in the Kettletown State Park area, as well as in other parts of the state.

When the Connecticut Light and Power Company built the Stevenson Dam to generate hydroelectric power, the water from the Housatonic River flooded the original village, and the resulting Lake Zoar was the state's fifth-largest freshwater body. The Pootatucks developed a drum communication system that could transport messages across the river and from the village to the nearby town of Kettletown. All but a few hundred members of this once prosperous tribe had left in the mid-19th century, except for the occasional arrowhead, which is the only evidence of their presence in the area.

The state of Connecticut acquired 455,605 acres of Kettletown in the late 19th century as part of the funds provided by Edward Carrington of New Haven to purchase public land in the Naugatuck Valley.
The settlers, who used the land for dairy farming, left much of it behind when better farmland became available elsewhere.

A lot has happened in Kettletown since the arrival of the early settlers, but it still exists in a more natural state that everyone can enjoy.

The Kettletown Campground offers 68 camping, fishing, hiking, picnicking and other outdoor activities for all ages in an open, wooded setting.

Travel south on CT Route 67, turn right on Georges Hill Road and continue on Kettletown Road for approximately two miles. At the intersection on St. John's Road, south of the park entrance, turn left and continue south on KittletOWN Road (about 2 miles) to the campsite.

The park is located on the left (0.6 km / 0.6 miles) from the park entrance at the intersection of St. John's Road and Georges Hill Road (about 2 miles / 0.6 km).