Wikipedia Trail: From William Kidd to Hammonasset Beach State Park

1. William Kidd - also known as Captain Kidd. He was a sailor who became a pirate. He buried treasure in various parts of New England, including Connecticut which is where I grew up. I didn't know this until I started researching him for my project.

2. Charles Island - an island right off the coast of Milford, CT. Ironically despite how small CT is, and all the beach trips in my 22 years there, I have never been to Charles Island, but as it's part of Long Island Sound I have seen it from different beaches. Captain Kidd was supposedly there in 1699 and left some treasure behind that he didn't want to take with him to Boston.

3. Silver Sands State Park - public recreation area of beaches and woods in Milford, CT. Charles Island is just off of the coast and considered a part of the park. Walnut beach is also attached to Silver Sands, and I haven't been there either. Again, Captain Kidd's treasure is mentioned. Maybe I should have hung out at the beach with the Milford kids when I was young. It never sounded like the cool thing to do, so I didn't.

4. Beaches of Connecticut - There wasn't much information here, and many beaches I know of are missing. But it got me to the place I wanted to end up...

(Photo from my personal collection of Hammonasset Beach.)

5. Hammonasset Beach State Park - Long Island Sound, Madison, CT. This is the beach I grew up going to. As a kid my parents would take us, as a teen I went with my friends, in my early 20's I went in the off season just to walk or sit and think. It was closed and turned into an Army base during WWII. I haven't seen the new Meigs Point Nature Center because it's been a few years since we visited. We have taken my daughter there many times on our visits to see family, including one spring break trip where it was way too cold to put our feet in the water, but we did anyway.

(Photo from my personal collection of Hammonasset Beach.)