Groton Open Space Association

New Haley Farm Trail Guide Is Boy Scout Project

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GROTON — The handsomely framed new Haley Farm State Park trail guide — an 18-square-foot color poster featuring a map flanked by historical information and photos — is the culmination an Eagle Scout project started in late 2007 by Peter Lewis of Noank.

Peter, working with family and friends, including fellow Scouts, built a sturdy framework and attached display case and put them in place near the park’s main entrance in August 2008. Peter himself spent nearly 40 hours on the project. Other volunteers worked a total of 100 hours on planning, building and staining. The project included restaining other state signboards at the entrance. Johnson’s Hardware of Groton donated stain and hardware valued at about $100, and Home Depot of Waterford contributed $75 in gift cards.

Both sides of the framework consist of twin six-by-six inch wooden posts held together by countersunk bolts. The cross beams supporting the cabinet are single six-by-sixes. The structure, including a shingled roof added later, stands a little over eight feet high and is nearly as wide. The design resembles, but doesn’t copy, that of a nearby older signboard that displays park rules. The side posts of the new framework, which weighs hundred of pounds, are sunk several feet into the ground, Peter says. Rocks excavated to make the holes were packed around the posts under ground to create a firm anchor — the pouring of cement footings not being allowed in the state park.

The project traces back to Fall 2007, when Peter wrote to Jonathan Lincoln, state park supervisor in this area, asking what he could do for the park as an Eagle Scout project. Mr. Lincoln suggested the trail guide framework and provided the design. He notified Sidney Van Zandt, a Groton Open Space Association director who had helped save Haley Farm from development in the 1960s and who now liaises with Mr. Lincoln on park matters. Among other things, GOSA finances yearly mowing of the farm’s fields.

Last fall, Mrs. Van Zandt called upon GOSA member Rusty Warner, a landscape specialist with expertise in graphic design, to create the poster. After going through many versions, the poster — coated and mounted on a foam backing — was ready for insertion into the cabinet in May, 2009.

Because it is essential to protect the display from rain and condensation, a few modifications to the original state design were required and were carried out by some GOSA members who contributed time and materials.

The center of the poster consists of a trail map that also names farm features. Panels at the right and left provide information and photos on the farm’s past. Across the bottom is a friendly reminder to visitors to pick up after their dogs. The 257-acre Haley Farm, which once served as a source of milk for the surrounding area, was slated for development as Coast Guard housing in the 1960s, but through the efforts of the Groton Open Space Association and the Connecticut Forest and Park Association was saved and made a State Park in 1970. To see more history, click

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Peter says he is now one merit badge away from qualifying as an Eagle Scout. After expected graduation from Fitch High School next January, he plans to study computer science at a technical college. Peter did the work on the sign as a member of Boy Scout Troop 55 in Gales Ferry. Peter, a Noank resident, wrote in his January 2008 project description that he wanted his Eagle work “located close to home so that I can witness the benefits that the project will have in the future.”