History of Dinosaur State Park, Registered National Natural Landmark, One of North America's Largest in Situ Dinosaur Trackways, Rocky Hill, Connecticut

Although dinosaur tracks have been found in the Connecticut River valley for well over 100 years, the tracks found in 1966 in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, were something unique and special. Through the efforts of various university faculty, students, community leaders, and state officials, this location—that contains over 1,800 identified early Jurassic dinosaur tracks—was declared a state park in less than 1 month from the discovery of the tracks and made a Registered National Natural Landmark in 1968. The history of the park is complicated, yet the vision was simple: preserve the tracks and trackway in situ and develop a world class educational institution with one-of-a-kind access to a dinosaur trackway only 2 minutes away from an interstate highway and major national transportation thoroughfare. Although funding, staffing, and public awareness challenges have ebbed and flowed, Dinosaur State Park is still the unique and hidden gem that it was from its inception. The vision of the original planners from 1966 is still the vision for the current park almost 60 years later, even though future expansion is unclear due to limited state resources. This paper is written from the perspective of the state of Connecticut focusing on the political, educational, and community efforts to preserve and expand the park.