Mashamoquet Brook State Park

The name Mashamoquet means “at the important fishing place” and was part of the tract known as the “the Mashamoquet Purchase” dating back to 1708, on which Pomfret was settled.

Mashamoquet State Park is a combination of three parks: Mashamoquet Brook, Wolf Den, and Sap Tree Run.  I don’t have an official date for when they combined.  The impetus of the park was a donation by Sarah Fay, a Pomfret resident who donated 12 acres of the brook and ravine.

Sarah Fay and a Mr. J Bowditch also donated the original 4 acres at Sap Tree Run.  The area was named for its many sugar maples and the plan was to develop it as one of the state’s Wayside Park service stations with the goal of eventually combining it with Mashamoquet.

State Land Acquisitions:

• 1918 – The state purchased land around the original donations to bring the total to 71 acres
• 1924 – 363 acres at Wolf Den purchased from the Daughters of the American Revolution (who sold it for the price they originally paid to preserve it in 1899)
• 1925 – Additional land purchase brought the property to 425 acres
• 1930 – Brayton Gristmill property was purchased
• 1957 – the 148 acre Hotchkins Wolf Den Farm parcel was added to bring the current total.

Wolf Den is the site of Revolutionary War Hero Israel Putnam’s slaying of the last wolf in Connecticut in 1742. The most popular version of the story is from David Humphrey’s 1788 biography of Putnam which recalls,

“a female wolf had for several years devastated the flocks and herds of Pomfret. One night the wolf killed seventy sheep on the farm of Israel Putnam, who had recently moved to the sparsely settled area from Danvers, Massachusetts. Putnam and some others set out to track down the wolf, in one trek following her to the Connecticut River and back, whereupon she took refuge in this cave. Unable to get either his dog or his black slave to flush out the beast, Putnam himself entered the cave with torch in hand, discovered the wolf, shot her, and was pulled out with the body in tow by a rope tied to his ankles. Putnam’s courage won for him the admiration of the townspeople and established his reputation for bravery in the face of unknown odds.”

The plaque at the entrance of the den tells a version of this story and was originally placed by the E. P. Putnam Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1920.  The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 2nd, 1985.

Mashamoquet Brook was used by at least 20 mills during the 19th and 20th centuries and within the state park you can find stonework foundations along the water.  One of these is still standing mill at the entrance to the state park one of the best-preserved and most complete nineteenth-century mills in the state. The red barn-style building was the Brayton Grist Mill built around 1800 and in use until 1928.  It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.  Today it operated by the Pomfret Historical Society as the Brayton Grist Mill & Marcy Blacksmith Museum Its hours are Sundays 2-5pm.