Sherwood Island State Park

Sherwood Island State Park is a public recreation area on the shore of Long Island Sound in the Greens Farms section of Westport, Connecticut. The state park offers swimming, fishing, and other activities on of beach, wetlands, and woodlands. The park is managed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Because state purchase of land at the site occurred as early as 1914, Sherwood Island is numbered as Connecticut's first state park.Geography & GeologyThe park is bounded on the west by the Sherwood Mill Pond and on the south by Long Island Sound. It is separated from the mainland by creeks and ditches. The park's beaches are 6000ft long, more than a mile. Waves on the beach separate three different colors of sand into separate lines — red (garnet), black (magnetite) and white (quartz) are sorted by the waves because each type has a different density and shape.HistoryIn the 1640s, several colonists from the Town of Fairfield, who came to be known as the "Bankside Farmers," settled in the area that included Fox Island, which was later renamed Sherwood Island, administering the island in common.