Dudleytown, Wyantenock State Forest

Cornwall Bridge, Cornwall, Litchfield, CT

Source: Laubach and Smith, #6

Directions:

From Cornwall Bridge, at the junction of Routes 4 & 7; drive 1.0 mile on Route 7 south to the intersection with Route 45 and turn left onto that road; drive 0.9 of a mile and turn left onto Bald Mountain Road; drive 0.7 of a mile to the end of the road and park along the street near the Dark Entry Forest Association’s sign.

History:

The land is owned and maintained by the Dark Entry Forest Association.

There is a "ghost town" here known as Dudleytown.

1738 -- Thomas Griffis first settles in what became Dudleytown

1747 -- The Dudleys came from England to the area before the French and Indian War.

Dudleytown was build on the charcoal industry needed to supply the Salisbury furnaces.

Some say Dudleytown was a cursed town because it seemed to have a large proportion of its people afflicted with mental illness. You will see some of the cellar holes of the town as you walk through the area.

A grandson of a Dudleytown resident was Samuel Tilden, the Democrat who was cheated out of the presidency in the election of 1876. The wife of Horace Greeley from Chappaqua, Westchester County, who lost his bid for the presidency in the 1872 election to Ulysses S. Grant, made her home in Dudleytown. There was also an advisor to George Washington who lived in the town.

Trails:

This is an out and back trail, 4 miles to echo rock using part of the Mohawk Trail heading onto Coltsfoot Mountain.

The trail starts from the dead end of the road northeast on the Dudleytown trail. It heads up to the 1,520-foot high Dudleytown Hill and then descends into the remains of the town of Dudleytown. The path crosses Bonney Brook and then at Stone Pond makes a horseshoe bend turn to head northwest and then north and then northeast crossing the Bonney Brook and its tributaries 3 times more from the first crossing. On the Mohawk Trail the path heads northeast and then southeast onto Coltsfoot Mountain and finally heads northeast to its final destination of echo rock.

PLANT LIST:

Trees:

Acer pensylvanicum (striped maple)

Acer rubrum (red maple)

Amelanchier arborea (shadbush)

Betula alleghaniensis (yellow birch)

Betula lenta (black birch)

Betula papyrifera (white birch)

Fraxinus sp. (ash)

Pinus strobus white pine

Prunus sp. (cherry)

Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock)

Shrubs:

Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)

Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel)

Mitchella repens (partridgeberry)

Rhus typhina (staghorn sumac)

Herbs:

Erythronium americanum (trout lily)

Maianthemum canadense (Canada mayflower)

Smilacina racemosa (false Solomon’s seal)

Trientalis borealis (starflower)

Trillium sp. (burgundy-flowered trillium)

Tussilago farfara (coltsfoot)

Veratrum viride (false hellebore)

Ferns:

Polypodium sp. (rock cap fern)

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