Laura Ospina, Contributing Photographer

2024 marks the 100th anniversary of Sleeping Giant State Park in Hamden. On Oct. 30, the New Haven Museum honored the park’s centennial birthday by hosting a presentation on “The Founding of Sleeping Giant State Park,” led by Trina Mace Learned.

The presentation began with the Quinnipiac folklore of Mount Carmel within Sleeping Giant State Park. The legend personified the mountain as Hobbomock the hot-headed giant, who the spirit Keitan cast into an eternal slumber, giving the park its name. 

“Both we at the Association and the state, over the years, have made deliberate efforts to interact with and partner with tribal representatives,” Sleeping Giant Park Association Vice President Aaron Lefland said. “We can’t tell the story of the park without including that really significant part of its history.”

Learned’s own origins with Sleeping Giant began with her master’s thesis in photography at Wesleyan University. She has succeeded in years of primary source research and digitization of 2,000 historical records at the Hamden Historical Society, Whitney Library and the Yale School of Forestry archives. 

Currently, Learned holds a board position at the Sleeping Giant Park Association, or SGPA, and is the executive director of the Creative Arts Workshop of New Haven. Learned also holds a board position at the New Haven Museum, where she balances her non-profit managerial skills and experience as a historian. 

“I’m perpetually over-volunteering,” she said.

In 1910, most of Sleeping Giant State Park was privately owned forest land. Judge Willis Cook, a judge, postmaster, volunteer fireman and factory owner, lived on the Giant’s head. When his factory burned down in 1911, and Yale students began vandalizing his cabin near the Giant’s chin, Cook leased his 30 acres to a basalt traprock quarry company for a 20-year-long contract. With the rising need for basalt-paved roads, Mount Carmel Traprock Company extracted over one million cubic yards of traprock in two decades.

Park preservation began in early 1924 when private residents of Mount Carmel formed the SGPA. 

“Now this is a little bit curious,” Learned said, “because they had very specific issues.” 

The residents, according to Learned, wanted to acquire a state park system to preserve the forest land, but none of their demands mentioned the booming quarry that “scalped the giant” with dynamite. 

With the help of former President of the Yale School of Forestry James Toumey and many private donors, Judge Willis Cook’s wife, Nellie, was able to negotiate with the quarry proprietors to end their lease in 1933 and eventually donate the Sleeping Giant to the SGPA, head to toe. 

According to Lefland, the SGPA board leads hikes, runs events and maintains park trails to keep all 1,500 acres of Sleeping Giant in accessible condition. The centennial presented an opportunity for the SGPA to collaborate with local communities through education about the park’s history.

The New Haven Museum curates guest lectures on “a wide range of local, known, inclusive stories” such as Learner’s about Sleeping Giant, Programmings and Plannings Director Cynthia Riccio said. “We’re constantly in contact with community members to create relevant events.”

The New Haven Museum will host another Sleeping Giant event at their “What’s in the Whitney Library?” program with researcher Julie Hulten on Nov. 9.