Shooting Lady Slippers
Peoples State Forest is a Connecticut state forest occupying 3,059 acres along the West Branch Farmington River opposite American Legion State Forest in the town of Barkhamsted. It is managed for forest products, wildlife habitat, and recreational uses that include hiking, hunting, fishing, and snowmobiling.
The forest was dedicated in October 1924 with a riverside pageant attended by Governor Templeton and another 3,000 persons. The Civilian Conservation Corps made recreational improvements in the 1930s through the laying out of roads and trails and construction of a nature museum with an interior made of chestnut from trees killed by blight.
Nature museum
The park features the Peoples State Forest Nature Museum, a stone-faced building built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1935 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The museum's focus on native flora and fauna includes animal mounts and skulls, minerals and insect specimens along with displays concerning area pioneers, Native Americans, logging, quarrying, and the Civilian Conservation Corps. The museum was open from 1935 to 1942. It reopened in 1992 under the name the Stone Museum. The name was changed back to the Peoples State Forest Nature Museum in 2007.
Trails
The forest has about ten miles (16 km) of trails in the blue-blazed Peoples State Forest Trails system.
Now blooming along the trails are wild orchids, also known as Lady Slippers. Pink lady's slipper is a large, showy wildflower belonging to the orchid family. It has two opposite basal leaves with conspicuous parallel veins and a large flower at the end of an erect stalk. The flower is magenta to whitish-pink; sometimes the whitish pink flowers will have darker pink venation. Rarely the flower may be all white. This plant grows 6 to 15 inches tall and flowers generally between May and July.
The species name acaule is Latin, meaning, "stem less", referring to the plant’s leafless flowering stem. Another common name for this plant is moccasin flower.
Shooting Lady Slippers
Peoples State Forest is a Connecticut state forest occupying 3,059 acres along the West Branch Farmington River opposite American Legion State Forest in the town of Barkhamsted. It is managed for forest products, wildlife habitat, and recreational uses that include hiking, hunting, fishing, and snowmobiling.
The forest was dedicated in October 1924 with a riverside pageant attended by Governor Templeton and another 3,000 persons. The Civilian Conservation Corps made recreational improvements in the 1930s through the laying out of roads and trails and construction of a nature museum with an interior made of chestnut from trees killed by blight.
Nature museum
The park features the Peoples State Forest Nature Museum, a stone-faced building built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1935 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The museum's focus on native flora and fauna includes animal mounts and skulls, minerals and insect specimens along with displays concerning area pioneers, Native Americans, logging, quarrying, and the Civilian Conservation Corps. The museum was open from 1935 to 1942. It reopened in 1992 under the name the Stone Museum. The name was changed back to the Peoples State Forest Nature Museum in 2007.
Trails
The forest has about ten miles (16 km) of trails in the blue-blazed Peoples State Forest Trails system.
Now blooming along the trails are wild orchids, also known as Lady Slippers. Pink lady's slipper is a large, showy wildflower belonging to the orchid family. It has two opposite basal leaves with conspicuous parallel veins and a large flower at the end of an erect stalk. The flower is magenta to whitish-pink; sometimes the whitish pink flowers will have darker pink venation. Rarely the flower may be all white. This plant grows 6 to 15 inches tall and flowers generally between May and July.
The species name acaule is Latin, meaning, "stem less", referring to the plant’s leafless flowering stem. Another common name for this plant is moccasin flower.