page_title: Gay City State Park
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Gay City State Park / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking southward at the Blackledge River from a foot bridge at the southernmost point on the border between Connecticut's Gay City State Park and Meshomasic State Forest.
context_page_description: Gay City State Park is a public recreation area on the Blackledge River in the towns of Hebron and Bolton, Connecticut. The state park occupies 1,569 acres bordering Meshomasic State Forest and is accessible from State Route 85. In addition to its deep forest, millpond, and marshland, the park bears trace remnants of the mill town that occupied the site for most of the 19th century. The park is managed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
context_section_description: The isolated hollow on the Blackledge River was first settled by religious leader Elijah Andrus and his followers in 1796. A succession of ill-fated mills marked the town's history—the first built around 1800 and the last burning down in 1879. Village history has also been burdened with tales of community tensions caused by the free use of alcohol during twice weekly religious services and of grisly murders gone unpunished.
  Following construction of a sawmill and wool mill, the village became known as Factory Hollow and grew to about 25 families, many of whom bore the surname Gay. The wool mill's commercial success ended with the War of 1812; the mill burned down in 1830. A paper mill revived the village's fortunes but it too fell victim to fire, leading to the village's ultimate demise.  The property was sold to the state by one of the town's last descendants in 1943, at which time the name Gay City was bestowed on the site. A year later the land became a state park, then entered the official roles as Connecticut's 54th state park, with 680 acres, in 1946.
caption: Looking southward at the Blackledge River from a foot bridge at the southernmost point on the border between Connecticut's Gay City State Park and Meshomasic State Forest.
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