Wintergreen Woods

Chew on This
Wintergreen Woods, Wethersfield
December 2024

This trail is bonkers.

Well, that’s not true. This trail is decidedly not bonkers.

But what IS bonkers is the fact that you can go, right now, and read a 7,000 word essay on this trail. This 0.7 mile flat loop trail in the middle of suburban Wethersfield. You people think I write too much? Hoo boy, let me introduce you to the Wethersfield Historical Society and one Mr. Jim Meehan.

How can anyone write 7,000 words about a little patch of woods with a little loop trail coursing through it? Here’s how it starts:

The “Recreational Facilities” portion of the Wethersfield, Connecticut official town website describes Wintergreen Woods as “110.0 acres containing open space and nature trails”. The park’s main entrance is located at the north end of the portion of Folly Brook Boulevard that extends in that direction from Welles Road.

And it all began with ice.

The Wisconsin Glacial Episode, the most recent major advance of continental glaciers in the North American Laurentide ice sheet, began 70,000 years ago and ended 60,000 years later. This “glaciation” significantly changed the geography of North America north of the Ohio River. At its peak, ice covered most of Canada, the Upper Midwest, and New England – as well as parts of Montana and Washington. The marks left by these glaciers can be seen in New York’s Central Park – and in Wethersfield’s Wintergreen Woods.

Oh. That’s how. Jiminy Crickets Jim Meehan. This is just a nice little trail for neighborhood folks to walk their dogs and stuff. Let’s jump 69,500 years ahead…

Fast-forward to the 1600’s and the founding of Wethersfield.

Seventeenth century maps of the town referred to the land that is now partly occupied by Wintergreen Woods as “Great West Field” (south of “Nott’s Hill”) and “Tappin’s (Topping) Hill” (in the Jordan lane area). A stream labeled Beaver Brook ran north-south through the area to the Hartford border. There it turned east towards the Wethersfield Cove, and then southward along the east side of what is now the Silas Deane Highway.

Honestly dude, I only had like 15 minutes to check this place out. A guy was installing some new plumbing at my house and my wife wanted me home ASAP. Can we move it along a bit?

In August 1972 the Recreation and Parks Department hired Siah St. Clairas the town’s first park naturalist. “St. Clair [24 years of age] was elected from 37 applicants residing in various parts of the country. The position results from recommendations by the Wintergreen Wood [sic]study committee appointed by the town council last year. The job pays an annual salary of $7,500. St. Clair holds a master’s degree from the Department of Park and Recreational Resources at Michigan State University. His major area of study was in a newly developed course entitled ‘Environmental Interpretation.”

St. Clair reported to work in September 1972 carrying nine snake eggs.

I’ll admit, I’m becoming invested in the History of Wintergreen Woods by Jim Meehan. Something tells me if a bear did his business in these woods, Meehan would write about it. To reiterate, I walked this whole place in 15 minutes. It’s really cool! But the town hired some dude to environmentally assess the joint in the Year of My Birth, 1972. Let’s skip a few thousand more words.

The October 17, 1975 Wethersfield Post published a photo of “Young Mark Fontana and young Tom Linden took off on their raft, a la Huckleberry Finn, this weekend, on the new pond established just east of Western Boulevard, in Wintergreen Wood. The raft is made of two tire tubes fastened to the bottom of the raft.”

That pond is not raft-worthy. The 1970’s were wild.

How wild were they? This wild…

On Monday November 8, 1976, a two-alarm fire struck the Stillman building and “forced the evacuation from the building of the 12 snakes, two turtles and the Wethersfield Social Services Department. “One fireman said it was eerie to be in the smoke filled room on the second floor and hear the snakes thrash about. Six of the snakes – contained in a glass display – were poisonous. At least one had rattles, the fireman said. St. Clair said the snakes, turtles and fish caught in local streams all survived the smoke.”

Eleven days later, in a letter to Town Manager Ralph DeSantis, a group of more than 100 senior citizens accused the snakes of being responsible for the conflagration.

“Seniors Blame Snakes In Fire at Their Club[headline] The petition said the town keeps the thermostat there at anintense level because ‘there are snakes on the second floor that have tobe kept warm.

I don’t even know what’s happening anymore. The trail at Wintergreen Wood is very well maintained. There are long stretches of boardwalk over marshy and wet areas. I rather enjoyed my walk here.

The red fox pup killed recently on a Wethersfield road could have been scooped up and discarded by a town crew along with the fast-food litter. Instead, the unlucky critter was taken to a Rocky Hill taxidermy shop where it’s being prepared for a second life as an educational exhibi… Not just any road pizza can become an artifact for the ages. Some animals that are killed on the road, they just bounce off the tires and the fur and skin are intact. That we can work with,’ Carter said. ‘We can sew up small incisions, but any abrasions of the fur, we can’t really cover that up.

I give up.

At least in 7,000 words I’m sure we know why this place is called Wintergreen Woods? Surely it made the postcript in the essay about this place?

Surely?

If however the history of Wintergreen Woods is not a mystery, the back-story of the name is less certain. The designation was made official by the town council in 1963 in response to a 1961 petition from the Committee to Preserve Old Wethersfield – “historians in town had suggested that this area was originally known as Wintergreen Woods”.

I was however unable to find any documentation to support the history of that name other than one or two other similar second-hand statements. The land in general in that area is officially referred to as “Folly Brook Land (or Park)” in town documentation. Yet the town council seemed to unquestioningly accept the suggested name change.

And you know what? I’m going to unquestionably accept whatever this writer says about anything in Wethersfield. Arsonist snakes, mutilated foxes… whatever.

This is a nice little hike, but I can’t imagine anyone will bother with it who doesn’t live in the neighborhood.