Gay City State Park offers over 1,500 acres of recreational opportunities. Once an 18th-century village named after founding father John Gay, the area is believed to be haunted by spirits from its past. Stories tell of murders, one of a jewelry peddler and another of a blacksmith apprentice who was killed for being tardy. Apparitions of the victims are rumored to walk in the surrounding forests, and visitors have heard strange footsteps and seen misty shapes.
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Geographic Information
- Address:
- Gay City State Park
Hebron, CT
United States
Get Directions » - GPS:
- 41.7238889, -72.44194440000001
- County:
- Tolland County, Connecticut
- Nearest Towns:
- Manchester, CT (5.5 mi.)
Hebron, CT (6.0 mi.)
Terramuggus, CT (6.3 mi.)
Coventry Lake, CT (6.6 mi.)
South Coventry, CT (7.7 mi.)
Glastonbury Center, CT (8.3 mi.)
Glastonbury, CT (8.6 mi.)
Lake Pocotopaug, CT (9.4 mi.)
East Hartford, CT (9.7 mi.)
Rockville, CT (9.9 mi.)
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Disclaimer: The stories posted here are user-submitted and are, in the nature of "ghost stories," largely unverifiable. HauntedPlaces.org makes no claims that any of the statements posted here are factually accurate. The vast majority of information provided on this web site is anecdotal, and as such, should be viewed in the same light as local folklore and urban legends.
I went there once when I was in my early 20’s with some friends. We were just walking around, and all of a sudden I started getting this feeling like I was being watched. I looked in the direction of the feeling and saw a very thin black figure (which sort of resembled a mans shape) dart behind a tree. Shortly after we all heard low growls coming from the woods on either side of us. We kept looking for animals, but never saw any. Plus, the feeling of being watched got real strong. We backed away from the woods laughing to calm ourselves, but hurried to the car jumped in and got out of there very fast. I still won’t go back there, the whole place just gives off a creepy vibe.
Would you be willing to share more about this story? I’m making a documentary about the park.
Went here with family and friends when my mom’s friend said something has me we look to see an unknown force pulling her shirt! She yelled you let me the #%&$ Go and we all heard a loud smack and she hit the floor with a red hand print on her face! We all Ran
Are you allowed there at night to walk the park or do they have closing hours
They close the gate at around 8 in the summer months but they never used to. Park closes at sunset.
My wife and I went there on a cool summer morning and decided to take a walk. As we went past the cemetery at the entrance we heard many children laughing. But there was no one else in the park. It was 6:00AM and we were the only two there.
I grew up not far from Gay City off of rt. 85 in Bolton. There is something about this area that is just not right. I lived there from 1974 until 2012. I personally know of 5 suicides that took place within a one mile radius of this area in different households throughout the years I lived there. There is a specific area behind the package store/ convenience store on rt. 85 where I have witnessed paranormal activity on several occasions throughout my 38 years of living in a house on a dead end road which backs up to this property. My first experience was after deciding to camp out with a friend in this said property when I was 17 in the summer of ’92. We had a fire going and drank some beer we stole from my father earlier that night. Around 1am my friend was very intoxicated and didnt feel so well. He wanted to go home and sleep in his own bed after vomiting a couple of times. I decided to stay. He had a watch on but like I said, he left. Around what felt to be about two hours later I all of the sudden awakened with a very kind of anxious, almost panicky feeling. I lifted up my head to see an apparition of a male Native American entity which was semi transparent walk past the campsite about 40 feet away. It was a clear moonlit night and the embers from the campfire were still glowing. He was walking at a very fast pace like he was on some kind of mission right up the trail in front of my camp spot. As he reached the edge of the woods to the old hay field he faded into thin air. There was no noise coming from him stepping on the branches and leaves on the ground either. I stood up and I ran as fast as I possibly could through the woods to my house without falling in the dark. About a year later I was working for an old farmer who grew up working the surrounding fields. He told me he was born in 1910. Apparantly when he was about ten years old he and a friend found in his words ” a gulley loaded with all kinds of Native American artifacts”. When I pressed him on the exact location he said “Some things are better left alone”. At that point I could sense he knew something and it was more than he was willing to tell me. I never said anything about what I saw back there in those woods until many years later because I didnt want people in the small town to think I was crazy. On another occasion I was sitting in my yard on Halloween night of all the times it couldve been. I was sitting on a rock late at night and I saw a tall dark shadow figure I guessed to be about 7 feet drift past me out of the woods and across my lawn. I dont know why but I got the courage to try to go after it which was probably not the smartest move. This figure was black and semi transparent and made no noise. It didnt have visible features like moving legs and a body shape like the previous activity I encountered. As I went towards it I could no longer see it. The path it was on made no sense because it was headed so it would collide with my house. Talk about scared and confused as well. There was one room in my house that my dog on several occasions ended up barking at the doorway looking into the room with the hair stood up on her back almost like she was ready to attack something. Many times I was asked by friends and visitors if the house or the property was haunted because something seemed “very eerie or disturbing about the place” is what was the most common expression. I have experienced cold spots in the woods in one area at night and have seen orbs and a strange mist kind of small cloud floating about 12 feet in the air. I ended up dating a girl in my younger years who lived about a quarter mile from there. She had two rottweilers that would always go crazy in one of the bedrooms barking just like my dog did at home and nobody was there. The room was always freezing cold even when it shouldnt have been due to warm weather. At night in the early hours towards morning if you listened closely alot of times you could hear a man and a woman franticly whispering back and forth like they were arguing about something but it was just quiet enough to not be able to understand what they were saying. I stayed in the house frequently. One night we ended up arguing. I went outside on what I remember to be a muggy July night. I bought a tent earlier in the week and wanted to set it up in her back yard. I went in and lied down on the inflatable mattress I had in there. I ended up falling asleep. I remember feeling what I could best describe as a night terror. I woke up to see a demonic entity of a woman pretty much face to face hovering over me. I threw a punch at it as it startled me and I panicked. My fist and arm went right through it and it felt really cold on my hand and arm. It disappeared immediately after. A couple times after that I awoke at night in my girlfriends bedroom to see this same demonic entity walk past the foot of the bed and disappear into the wall. I now live in Massachusetts just over the border from Stafford Ct. My girlfriend at the time those things happened is the only one who knows about this story until now only because she has had some similar experiences and the things we witnessed together in her house. I was very depressed all my life growing up in that area. Every time I left the depression would ease away until I went back to the area for periods of time. I believe there is some sort of curse on the property in that area in Bolton, Connecticut. Am I crazy? Go see for yourself sometime.
It is definitely haunted I recorded many evp here.This was once a town with the Sumner And Gay Family.There is a cemetery here of the families.The Town died of after Civil War many people left.There was a community of people they would use alcohol while worshipping God as a way to get closer.
2 confirmed murders here also with the towns past.
I have photographed orbs in the park, mostly by the pond. I have been told there are 6 children ghosts early 1800’s and they speak an early Brittish English, difficult to understand, I was told this by a medium and the children told her, I know where something was buried by their ancestors. I wish I had the ability to communicate with them