New Britain herald., 1928-11-13
395,000 VISITORS
 AT HAMM0NASSET
Season of 1928 Greatest in His
 tory of State Park

Hartford. Nov. l3.-The state park and forest commission has , tabulated attendance figures for Hammonassett Beach state park in Madison. during the past season which marked the increasing use of this popular park. There were re- corded 395. .O0O visitors from January to September 30 of which 1:,393 were campers and 117.500 were bathers. the remainder being largely picknickers. Nearly 10000 automo- piles passed over the self-registering counter used to record attendance during the busy season. The largest attendance was on August when approximately 25.500 persons pie nicked. camped or enjoyed dip at some point along the two miles of state-owned beach. The greatest holi- day attendance was on Fourth of July when it reached 1S.115. On Memorial day it amounted to 7.50O and on Labor day 5000.
 2,7OO Camping Parties
 Overnight camping use far sur passed that of previous years. 2,700 parties spent a total of 46.l07 days } or about 125 years time in camp on the park. Seventy per cent were from Connecticut. Twenty-six other states and Canada were represented. i, Distant states included California. Texas. Colorado, Oklahoma and Florida. By far the largest humber of out-of-state campers came from Massachusetts: New York was a bad second: Pennsylvania and New Jer- sey tied for third place. Rhode Is- land sent only 27 parties. Most of the out-of-state camping parties remain ed only night or two. Connecticut residents usually stayed longer. Camping is 50 rapidly increasing that additional camp sites are being developed with lights, sanitary facili- ties and running water. They are marked off into lots of suitable size, the exclusive use of which, for short or long terms. is given for a moder- afc rental Applications for 1929 for long term permits will be received at the commissions office in Hartford after January ]. preference being given to Connecticut residents
 Popular With Local Residents
 The bathing paviions will accom- modate 5000 at one time and were often used to capacity. Residences of bathers are shown by the post office address of those who check Naluables, over 90 per cent of them being from Connecticut. The leading cities were in the order named: Hartford. New Haven. New Britain. Middletown, Meriden and Water bury. The bulk of visitors came from the center of the state, 97k from Hartford. New Haven and Middlesex counties. ? per cent from Litchfield and Fairfield counties and less than l per cent from New London, Tol- } land and Windham counties. The residents of the extreme eastern and western counties evidently find the journey over the crowded roads of midsummer too long to enable them to make use of this park for bath ing. Fathers from outside the state comes largely from Massachusetts.
 One person evidenly crossed part S of the Pacific ocean and all of the United States to bathe at a Connec necticut state park. as a Hawaiian checked his valua bles while enjoy l, ing a swim in Long Island sound. presumably not finding the beacl, dangerous. as the life guards gave serious assistance to only 37 persons. Besides its life guard service the commission maintains first aid bureau and a matron service for el- derly persons and women with ba . bies These services aided approM- mately 3.90o people during the sea- son. Despite the large use of the mark mark nnlice did not find it