The forest was dedicated in October 1924 with a riverside pageant attended by Governor Templeton and another 3,000 persons. The Civilian Conservation Corps made recreational improvements in the 1930s through the laying out of roads and trails and construction of a nature museum with an interior made of chestnut from trees killed by blight.[4]
Activities and amenities
Nature museum
The park features the Peoples State Forest Nature Museum, a stone-faced building built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1935 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[5] The museum's focus on native flora and fauna includes animal mounts and skulls, minerals and insect specimens along with displays concerning area pioneers, Native Americans, logging, quarrying, and the Civilian Conservation Corps.[6] The museum was open from 1935 to 1942. It reopened in 1992 under the name the Stone Museum. The name was changed back to the Peoples State Forest Nature Museum in 2007.[5]
^"Appendix A: List of State Parks and Forests"(PDF). State Parks and Forests: Funding. Staff Findings and Recommendations. Connecticut General Assembly. January 23, 2014. p. A-3. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
^ ab"Clues for Peoples State Forest". Connecticut State Forests Seedling Letterbox Series. Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. October 7, 2013. Retrieved December 27, 2018.