Gillette Castle State Park
11/25/2022
Gillette Castle State Park is a state park located in Lyme, CT. This is the perfect phenology spot, showing the connection between humans and the land.
The main attraction of this state park is the castle that sits prominently in the center of the park. This castle was built in 1919 on a 184-acre piece of land. The castle was created with medieval gothic architecture, giving the castle a strong medieval look. The castle was owned by Gillette and later purchased by the State of Connecticut in 1943. One of my favorite features of this eccentric castle is the train tracks. When the castle was built, Gillet had train tracks throughout the property. A mini train would then take visitors through the property and allow them to see all it offers. Now, this train no longer runs, but the tracks still stand. It is interesting to see such an extensive display of money that Gillette was able to build a castle and add fancy features such as this train.
One rock formation in the park is the Hebron formation, made of calcite and quartz-rich genesis. This gives the formation the banded texture, with a green and gray-like coloring. For the stairs of the main entrances of the buildings, schist rock is used because schist is easy to make into slabs.
When walking around, the primary plants were ferns, mainly cinnamon ferns. A tree species in the area is American Beech; most of the beech are carved by people who put their initials into the wood. The carved trees show that people will still affect the land even when trying to persevere it. Carving into these trees potentially opens the tree to infection or infestation. Along with the beech are old white oaks, making most of the land a hardwood forest. Showing that the land was probably not entirely cleared when Gillette owned it because it was not used as farmland but instead as a wealthy estate; there was no real need to remove all of the forest. Since Connecticut is in the New England area, these white oaks, at the time of the colonizers, would be used for the mast of ships and, therefore, at a specific size, would be the property of the King. My favorite tree I saw was a Shagbark Hickory. It has impressive bark that pulls from the tree in long vertical strands, making it easily identifiable. Overall, Gillette Castle State Park is an interesting spot as it combines an interesting history with the natural environment around it.
