Connecticut

Natural Attractions

East Haddam: 

  • ★ The Moodus Noises [RA] – Machimoodus State Park, Rumbling and thundering near where the Salmon and Moodus Rivers flow together, the noises have been perplexing and terrifying human listeners since before recorded history.
  • ★ Caplan Falls, Devil’s Hopyard State Park – access the waterfall from the top or bottom parking areas via a very short walk 

★ Kent: Kent Falls – dramatic (and multiple) falls. Stairs and observation decks will guarantee you a superior view of this wonder!

Groton: Bluff Point State Park – This untouched peninsula offers over 800 acres off the Long Island Sound for your enjoyment! Hike, bike, fish or lounge and enjoy the stunning sights of the trails, beach, and forest.

★ Rocky Hill: Dinosaur State Park – one of the largest dinosaur track sites in North America!

National Parks and Mounuments

Weir Farm National Historic Park –  is located in Ridgefield and Wilton. It commemorates the life and work of American impressionist painter J. Alden Weir and other artists who stayed at the site or lived there, to include Childe Hassam, Albert Pinkham Ryder, John Singer Sargent, and John Twachtman.

Top Attractions

Bristol: Lake Compounce – Family Theme Park – oldest operating amusement park in the United States and is home to a 1927 wooden roller coaster and a 1911 carousel.  Lake Compounce Amusement Park has operated for over 165 years. [RA]

East Haddam – Gillette Castle is the 1919 home of William Hooker Gillette, known for being the actor who played the original Sherlock Holmes. The 24-room home has the appearance of a medieval fortress from the outside. You can cross the Connecticut River from Chester on the Hadlyme ferry, with beautiful views as you approach the castle. [RA]

Groton: ★  Submarine Force Museum and the USS Nautilus – The United States Navy’s official submarine museum is on the Thames River, board and explore the USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine.

Hartford

  • The Mark Twain House & Museum – A tour reveals some of its innovative modern conveniences, as well as many of the writer’s eccentric habits (such as keeping kittens in the pockets of the billiard table). The Victorian Gothic mansion is a National Historic Landmark.
  • The restored home of author Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. You can tour the Gothic Revival cottage, where she lived from 1873 to 1896.
  • Wadsworth Atheneum – The country’s oldest free public museum, Gothic-style building

Ledyard: ★  Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center – a tribally-owned complex that presents exhibits on the Native American and natural history of southern New England. Visitors will encounter a 16th-century coastal Pequot village and learn about life on a reservation from 1675 to the 1970s

Mystic: ★  Mystic Seaport – Mystic Seaport recreates a historical seaport village as part of one of the most prominent maritime museums in the United States. A major part of the museum is its outstanding collection of floating craft, including the world’s last remaining wooden whaling ship, Charles W. Morgan (1841). Other historical ships featured are the Joseph Conrad, the schooner L.A. Dunton, and various steam vessels. The buildings on the 19-acre grounds are not only the houses and stores of a small village but also the sailmakers, shipbuilders, and others who provisioned the ships. Several museums feature ship figureheads, nautical art, the history of shipping, and ship models.

Ridgefield: ★  Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum features changing exhibits of thought-provoking contemporary art and does not collect art or hold a permanent collection. Also on the grounds is a two-acre outdoor sculpture garden.

Woodstock: Roseland Cottage – House and Gardens are a National Historic Landmark. The summer home of Henry and Lucy Bowen and their young family. Bowen was a successful New York businessman and often entertained prominent visitors here, including four U.S. presidents and other political figures.

Offbeat Landmarks and Oddities

Amston: Eagle Rock [RA] – Large outcropping of rock painted like a Bald Eagle.

Bethel: P.T. Barnum Statue [RA] – birthplace, In front of the public library.

Bridgeport: 

  • Barnum Museum: Centaur Skeleton [RA] – Tribute to the famous showman features a Merman made for a TV production; the walnut-shaped carriage of 29-inch-tall Commodore Nutt; and a mounted skeleton of a half-man, half-horse. Currently housed in a former bank during museum repairs.
  • First Airplane Flew Here [RA] – A small fountain topped with replica of an early flying machine prototype marks the spot where Gustave Whitehead supposedly flew the first airplane in 1901 (before the Wright Brothers).
  • Mermaid and Mer-Baby [RA] – The sculpture’s official name is The Nathaniel Wheeler Memorial. Wheeler made a fortune mass-producing sewing machines in Bridgeport, then went on to become a railroad and bank director as well. He’d been dead 20 years before Borglum completed the mermaid and mer-baby tribute.
  • P. T. Barnum Statue [RA] – he spent much time and owned several houses in Bridgeport. The circus wintered here for years.
  • Tom Thumb, P. T. Barnum Graves [RA] – Mountain Grove Cemetery
  • ★  Vatican Gardens Knockoff [RA] – St. Margaret’s Shrine, Built in the 1940’s as a peace monument, the Shrine contains copies of statues in grottoes containing mosaics, and replicas of famous pieces like Michaelangelos’ Pieta. Actually it is kitschy and beautiful at the same time!

Bristol: 

  • American Clock and Watch Museum [RA] – “The finest collection of American-manufactured clocks and watches on public display.” Open since 1954, with over 6,000 timepieces. Every Friday morning volunteers known as “Old Cranks” come in to hand-wind all the clocks.
  • New England Carousel Museum [RA] – Claims to have the largest collection of antique carousel pieces in the country, but you can’t sit on most of them. Ask one of the staff to play the Wurlitzer Band Organ.
  • North America’s Tallest Elevator Test Tower [RA] – 383 foot elevator test tower for Oits.
  • ★  Witch’s Dungeon Classic Movie Museum [RA] – On the first floor of the Bristol Historical Society building.. Original props and costumes from classic horror and sci-fi movies. Run by Cortlandt Hull seasonally since 1966.

Brookfield: Large Santa [RA] – A large, waving Santa is a year-round attraction outside a storage lot.

Cheshire: 

  • Barker Character, Comic, and Cartoon Museum [RA] – 80,000 items. The personal collection of Herb and Gloria Barker, who bought many of the exhibits for less than a dollar apiece at garage sales in the 1970s.
  • Muffler Man – Bunyan [RA] – holding an American flag.

Colchester: Miracle Survivor Mary Statue [RA] – In 2004, St. Mary’s Church was destroyed by an explosion, but a statue of the Virgin Mary was left standing. Miracle Mary still stands next to the rebuilt church.

Danbury:  Statue of the Teen Girl Paul Revere [RA] – Sybil Ludington was 16 years old in 1777 when she rode through the countryside, spreading the alarm about the British. Her bronze statue depicts her on horseback, screaming.

Danbury: World’s Tallest Uncle Sam [RA] – located at the Danbury Railway Museum, 35 feet tall. 

East Granby: ★ Old New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine [RA] – This unique attraction hybrid opened as America’s first copper mine in 1705, then was turned into Connecticut’s first prison. Tours available.

East Haddam: 

  • Lincoln Career Column [RA] – An outdoor metal column into which are cut Images of Abe Lincoln as an inventor, surveyor, storekeeper, lawyer, circuit judge, postmaster, and politician.
  • Lincoln Welcomes Your Conversation [RA] – Two rocks on a grassy berm: young Abe in bronze sits on one, his hand extended in a friendly gesture. You sit on the other rock.

East Windsor: Connecticut Trolley and Fire Museum [RA] – exhibits vintage trolleys and buses. 

Eastford: Frog Rock Roadside Park [RA] – Big rock painted like a frog since the 1800s. So loved it had its own roadside rest area. This rest stop on Route 44 has a small antique shop, food, picnic tables, playground, and, during summer weekends, has live music.

Goshen: Action Wildlife – Taxidermy Exhibit [RA] – The grounds are very large with a (you-drive-around-it) fenced in live exotic animal enclosure — deer, emu, duck pond, etc. You can park the car on the side of the dirt “road” to get a closer look at the wildlife or take pictures. Some of the animals are “friendly,” like the emu, and come right up to the fence to greet you. Then there is a large “museum” building with animals from Africa, etc. that are stuffed. Apparently, they were all collected by one of the owners over a period of 30 years. 

Hamden: 

  • Ernest Borgnine Park [RA] – Dedicated to the hometown Oscar-winning actor who appeared in “Marty,” “Escape from New York,” and the 1960s TV series “McHales’ Navy,” among others.
  • Jack, First Presidential Pardon Turkey [RA] – A sculpture walk along the Connecticut River, sponsored by an insurance company, pays tribute to Abraham Lincoln with 16 different works of art. Our favorite is Jack the Turkey, sculpted by Philip Grausman in 2006. Jack was the first turkey “pardoned” by a President, way back in 1863. He was destined for the Lincoln Christmas dinner table when son Tad tearfully pleaded for its life. Abe issued a handwritten “pardon” to the cook, and the turkey was spared.
  • Mini Lincoln Meets Harriet Beecher Stowe [RA] – Miniature versions of Lincoln and Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, face each other atop an outdoor table. 
  • ★ Museum of Natural and Other Curiosities, Old State House [RA]

Marlborough: Snake Rock [RA] – Large disembodied snake’s or lizard’s head painted on an outcropping of rocks.

Meriden: Traffic Control Tower [RA] – the Meriden Traffic Tower of was built in 1925 and controlled traffic at a busy downtown intersection for nearly 42 years.

Middletown: Sgt Stubby: Heroic Dog statue [RA] – He was the most decorated dog of World War I.

Milford: Mass Grave Monument To Smallpox Dead [RA] – In January 1777 a British prison ship dumped 200 smallpox-ridden Patriots on the beach. 46 were dead within a month. A tall sandstone obelisk, “The Soldiers Monument,” marks their mass grave.

Montville: Sparky the Firehouse Dog Rock [RA] – A rocky outcrop next to a firehouse is constantly painted to resemble its last dog mascot, who died in 1984.

Morris Cove: Mission Creep Fire Hydrant [RA] – a statue of a multitasking fire hydrant with wheels, and the water bursting from its sides has transformed — in the best sci-fi movie tradition — into tubular arms (or possibly fire hoses), one holding a hook, the other carrying a ladder.

Mystic: 

  • Mystic Pizza – As Seen in Movie [RA] – The Pizza Shop that inspired the Julia Roberts movie “Mystic Pizza.”
  • St. Edmund’s Severed Arm [RA] – (Possibly Closed) The severed arm of St. Edmund Rich, a 13th century archbishop of Canterbury, is on display in a glass case in a tiny outdoor chapel on Ender’s Island.

New Britain: 

  • Super Cow – Dairy Mascot [RA] – The heroic mascot of Guida’s Dairy, Supercow, leaps in costume across the roof of the main building.
  • ★ Avery’s Beverages, Tour a Tiny Soda Factory [RA] – Avery’s Beverages has been in the same location for over 100 years. Part of the tour is that you get to make three bottles of your own soda, and you get to keep your apron.

New Haven: 

  • ★ Soldiers and Sailors Monument atop East Rock Park [RA] – you climb 112 feet around and around inside a six-foot-wide tube before emerging on an observation deck to see — Connecticut.
  • ★ Home of the Hamburger [RA] – Louis Lunch, Several places claim to be the birthplace of America’s favorite meat-on-bread combo, but only here can you actually eat a 19th-century-style burger.
  • ★ Knights of Columbus Museum [RA] – Displays include “relics” from the re-internment of Knights’ founder Father McGivney, who was up for canonization. Pretty nice museum, free to get in and to park. A lot of old European artifacts and religious stuff. Pope John Paul is featured in a nice collection here.
  • Midnight Mary’s Grave [RA] – Mary had some sort of attack and fainted; her husband assumed she was dead and had her buried immediately. The night of the funeral, her sister woke up at midnight from a nightmare she had about her sister screaming from the grave. She begged to have her sister exhumed. When the casket was opened, Mary’s fingers were bloody, her fingernails were ripped off, and she had a petrified expression on her face.
  • Bodies Underfoot [RA] – The village green of New Haven used to be a cemetery. In the early 1800s the stones were removed and placed in Grove Street Cemetery, down the road. However, the bodies were never removed from the Green.

Newington: Iwo Jima Survivors Memorial Park [RA] – New Britain’s Iwo Jima sculpture bears an uncanny resemblance to the one in DC, but was created based on the original photograph of the second flag raising, not the DC statue. And there are other touches to link the memorial more directly to Iwo Jima.

Norwalk: ★ Stew Leonard’s World’s Largest Dairy Store [RA] – crowded! Like any good tourist trap, Stew’s is set up so you can only move in one direction, past every item, before you reach the exit. Lots of animatronic scenes.

Norwich: 

  • Miantonomo Monument [RA] – Miantonomo was captured by the English in 1643 and killed with a tomahawk to the head. The monument, nestled between suburban homes, has marked his grave since 1841.
  • Muffler Man Cowboy: Big Bob [RA] – In front of Surplus Unlimited, holding American flag
  • Slater Memorial Museum [RA] – Slater Memorial Museum is famous for its “Cast Gallery,” a room filled with 150 full-size, accurate plaster replicas of famous classical sculptures from antiquity and the Renaissance. It’s also known for its collection of Norwich-area art and history, including the Norwich-invented exploding lance and whale bomb gun. Also has a mummified human arm.

Oakdale: ★ The Dinosaur Place at Nature’s Art [RA] – Over 40 life-size dinosaurs along 1.5 miles of wooded trails, plus an erupting volcanic island in a lake, and a fake cave inhabited by a Dilophosaurus that spits water on you if you get too close.

Old Lyme: Florence Griswold Museum, Woodrow Wilson’s Canoe [RA] – Used by Woodrow in his bucolic pre-U.S.-President days, when he was merely President of Princeton University.

Old Saybrook: Acton Public Library, Praying Mantis Reads Lord of the Flies [RA] – Large praying mantis was built out of scrap metal

Orange: ★ PEZ Visitor Center [RA] – Official PEZ museum features a 14 ft tall motorized PEZ dispenser, a timeline of PEZ history, a peek onto the factory floor.

Preston: 

  • Snoopy Rock [RA] – A boulder, probably left over from the Ice Age, has been painted with a smiling profile of famous cartoon dog Snoopy. A large plywood Charlie Brown stands adjacent, just in case you don’t see the resemblance.
  • Spotty the Rock Dog [RA] – Rock painted to look like a black and white dog. According to a small plaque, the rock has been painted as Spotty since 1935.

Putnam: Gertrude Chandler Warner Boxcar Children Museum, Museum in a Boxcar [RA] – Gertrude Chandler Warner wrote a series of books about kids who lived in a railroad boxcar, so that’s where her hometown built her museum. The boxcar was renovated in 2019.

Rockville: New England Motorcycle Museum [RA] – Largest motorcycle museum on the East Coast, inside a 200-year-old textile mill. The personal collection of Kenny “Kaplan America” Kaplan.

Scotland: D’Elia Antique Tool Museum [RA] – Personal collection of 1,500 woodworking planes, spanning 300 years.

Stafford Springs: 9/11 Beam Memorial to Local Flight Crew [RA] – A section of I-Beam from one of the WTC towers serves as a memorial to two local residents who were members of the crew of Flight 175.

Storrs: Museum of Puppetry [RA] – A global collection of 2,600 puppets (not all on display), Including Muppets and puppets from obscure children’s television shows.

Stratford: 

  • Stratford Train station, National Helicopter Museum [RA] – The history of the helicopter is told in this museum at the train station — nowhere near an airport or helipad.
  • Boothe Memorial Park, Obsolete Toll Booths On Display [RA] – This is a large park with many other eclectic sights, like a model railroad museum, windmill, models of presidents birth homes, Boothe estate tours, museum.

Terryville: Chute Gates Steakhouse, Smiling Steer in a Cowboy Hat [RA] – A big steer with a human grin stands on its hind legs, leaning against a sign advertising a steakhouse. The cowboy hat on the steer’s head is human-size.

Uncasville: 

  • Mohegan Sun Walk of Fame [RA] – Sidewalk stars note the famous who came to this large casino to entertain the lucky and the not-so-lucky.
  • ★ Tantaquidgeon Museum [RA] – The oldest Native-American-run Indian museum in the U.S. houses a collection of Mohegan artifacts and has a small Mohegan village on the outside grounds.
  • ★ Wells Dinosaur Haven [RA] – Non-commercial display. Over 35 hand-built dinosaur sculptures in a wooded garden setting, featuring a 40-foot T-Rex.

Union: Traveler Restaurant: Free Books [RA] – The sign out front announces, “Food and Books.” If you order a meal you can choose three used books to take with you for free. Thousands to choose from.

Waterbury: 

  • Button Museum [RA] – On the top floor of the Mattatuck Museum which is a fine art museum. 3,000 buttons on display, part of a 20,000-button collection amassed in the 1950s.
  • Holy Land USA [RA] – Holyland USA has been a post-nuclear Road Warrior vision of the Holy Land, perched on a bluff overlooking Waterbury and the interstate.
  • JFK: I’ll Be Back in 1964 [RA] – In 1962 President Kennedy stood near this spot, now marked with a bronze plaque, and promised a cheering crowd of 50,000 that he’d return to Waterbury on “the last week of the 1964 campaign.” JFK couldn’t keep his promise; he was assassinated in 1963.
  • Little People Village [RA] – Crumbling tiny structures in the woods, local lore says built to appease the elves. A local historical society debunking reveals it was an uncompleted “toy village” project of gas station owner William J. Lannen.

West Hartford: Conny, the Walk-Thru Outdoor Whale [RA] – At the Children’s Museum, 60 feet long, built of iron and cement in 1976, named “Conny.” Spurts water from its blowhole. The sperm whale is Connecticut’s state animal.

West Haven: 

  • Large Stanley Cup Statue [RA] – A replica of the prestigious hockey award trophy, the Stanley Cup, sits without an explanation behind an oil heating business.
  • Savin Rock Museum – Laff in the Dark [RA] – a former amusement park, view artifacts, memorabilia, a video documenting personal memories, amusement section, and “Silver Fox” one of the original carousel horses.

Westbrook: Westbrook Public Library, Art Carney Tribute [RA] – The local library features an exhibit on Art Carney, best known as the nutty sanitation engineer Ed Norton from 1950s TV in “The Honeymooners.”

Willimantic: Giant Frogs on Thread Spools [RA] – Decorative frog statues of sit atop spools of “thread” on this bridge into town.

Windsor: Tobacco Museum [RA] – the world’s finest cigar tobacco is in fact grown in Connecticut, and this museum lets you chew a bit on its addictive story. Built inside a tobacco shed.

Winsted: 

  • ★ American Museum of Tort Law [RA] – Pet project of Ralph Nader, who lives nearby. See exhibits on McDonald’s too-hot coffee, thalidomide, cigarettes, the unsafe-at-any-speed Corvair, deadly toys, and other dangerous products.
  • The Soldiers’ Monument and Memorial Park , Castle Tower Civil War Monument [RA] – An elaborate castle-like monument, with a Civil War soldier statue on its parapet, has stood on a hill overlooking this town since 1890. The tower is closed most of the year but is open for tours on Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, and Veterans Day. 
  • Diner Hot Dog Statue [RA] – An upright, anthropomorphized hot dog with a missing arm stands outside the door of the tiny Winsted Diner. Hand-carved from wood, painted, and kind of beat up.

Woodstock: Roseland Cottage, Oldest Bowling Alley [RA] – Inside a Gothic-revival house is what’s claimed to be America’s oldest indoor bowling alley, built in 1846.

References