User:Harold Angel/sandbox

History
The park was created in 1964 when the Federal government offered to lease to the state of Maine lands along Whiting Bay that are part of Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge. The long-term agreement was arranged at no cost to the state.

History
The sandbar was once used by fishermen who built a shed and equipment for managing fishing lines to harvest the river's hickory shad runs. In 1918, Russell Dart donated the approximately 1.5 acre island to the Connecticut State Park Commission. The commission designated it as Connecticut's fifteenth state park and named it for its benefactor. The size of the park was subsequently rounded up to two acres in official publications while being rounded down to one acre when referred to unofficially. In 1924, it was touted, unofficially, as being the smallest state park in the United States, with but a single acre. In 1934, the State Register and Manual, the first annual issue to list parks and their sizes, set Dart Island State Park at two acres, and it remained listed at that size for nearly 80 years. The 2012 edition of the Register and Manual listed the park at 19 acre, the park's official size.

According to Middletown's Harbor Management Plan, Dart Island "is considered undevelopable by the ... State Parks Division, which has no plans for [its] active use or management."

Activities and amenities
The park may be used for bird watching, boating, and fishing. It is only accessible by water and has no facilities for the public.

Refs
Hard liquor may have been used as an inducement, an emolument or as an instrument to reach higher powers. "Like what happens to many towns when the main employer burns to the ground and is no longer viable, the residents of Factory Hollow started leaving. By the end of the 19th century, the town was essentially abandoned, and then was slowly swallowed up by the surrounding countryside. Finally, the land was sold by Emma Foster (one of the last descendants of those who lived there) to the state in 1943, with the stipulation that the area be renamed Gay City. A year later, Gay City officially became a state park." The park entered the roles as the 54th state park (680 acres) in 1946. A five-mile trail goes around the parks periphery.

The state park was acquired in 1955 using funds bequeathed by George Dudley Seymour that were to be used for the express purpose of purchasing public recreation areas for the people of the State of Connecticut.