Hubbard Park
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Hubbard Park is a city park in Meriden, Connecticut that encompasses part of the Hanging Hills. It is comprised of approximately 1800 acres of carefully kept woodlands, streams, flower gardens, the James Barry bandshell and picnic spots, as well as its showpiece, Mirror Lake.
[edit] History
Most of the land was given to the city by Walter Hubbard, who was president of the Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Company. In his donation, the land was given outright, with the stipulation that everything connected with the park was to remain free for the people of Meriden, and that no concessions for profit were ever allowed within the park area.
Mr. Hubbard spent a large part of his time and energy creating the park. He personally spent between $400,000 and $500,000 to clear land, built roads, and construct Mirror Lake with the help of Frederick Law Olmstead who is best known for designing New York's Central Park. Hubbard built a tower on East Peak, known as Castle Craig, to resemble the towers built by the Turks along the Danube River in the 12th century.
[edit] Geography/Geology
The walk up the mountain is a challenging climb of over 500 feet. The road splits near the top of the hill. The less traveled road to the right leads to the radio towers and overlook area on West Peak. The road to the left leads to Castle Craig and the picnic area by the tower on East Peak. The Metacomet Ridge Trail circles the southern crest of the Hanging Hills. When the trail is dry it is a scenic alternative route to return to the parking area. From Castle Craig the trail descends steeply eastward from East Peak to the western shore of Merimere Reservoir.
East Peak/West Peak where Castle Craig is located is reportedly the highest mountain within 25 miles of the coastline from Cadillac Mountain in Maine to Florida. The Hanging Hills of Meriden are part of the Metacomet Ridge that is nearly continuous from Northhampton, Massachusetts to Branford, Connecticut. Geologically speaking in Connecticut, the ridge runs close to the west side of the Central Valley as far south as Meriden, then breaks up where it continues clear across the other side of the valley.
These areas, known as the Hanging Hills of Meriden on the west and Lamentation Mountain on the east, were formed by volcanoes 200 million years ago when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. Two of three major lava flows covered the red sandstone valley in Meriden. Each one cooled and hardened into traprock known as step (basalt) and was gradually covered by sand and mud eroded from the surrounding hills. Through time, these sediments were buried by new sediment and cemented into brownstone by the slow trickle of groundwater. One exposure of the contact between the sandstone and basalt is in the cliff Northeast of Mirror Lake, just south of the Southern tip of Merimere Reservoir. A two foot thick layer of sandstone covers light-brown to light-red-banded silt stone and lays on top of two inches of red clay with overlying basalt.
Once the volcanic activity stopped, the whole region was fractured and tilted to the west. Since then, hundreds of feet of the softer sandstone bedrock have eroded from the valley leaving the dense, hard volcanic traprock ridge layers standing out far above the surrounding landscape.
