Connecticut i a little state with big heart.

There are many well-known wonders to be found here, but what about the less recognizable finds hiding in plain sight?

There's adventure around every corner if you're willing to find it.

Let's explore Connecticut's Hidden Gems.

This is a hidden gem.

Let me tell you.

Hidden.

GEM!

We're a little state with a lot of history, from the dinosaurs who walked before us to the Mashantucket Pequot tribes that call this land home to the more recent arrivals like my family.

We're lucky to live in a place with hidden history in plain sight.

We are starting our journey to the past with the oldest Connecticut residents we can think of.

Here we are at the Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill, Connecticut.

We're going to get the insid scoop from Mike Ross right now.

Let's go.

Dinosaur State Park was discovered.

Well, it was established in 1966 after they discovered over 1800 dinosaur tracks.

And it was actually one of the quickest state parks that was established.

The tracks were discovered by accident by a excavation operators name was Ed McCarthy.

And they were buildin the basement of the foundation for a state laboratory, D.O.T.

laboratory.

And so when he flipped over one of those rocks as they were removing them, he found a couple of tracks.

And then it just started to expand out from there.

So in our exhibit center here, we have about 753 of those tracks on display.

We also have some other geology exhibits, other fossil exhibits.

We have some live animals as well.

We also have an arboretum that displays over 230 different specie of Jurassic era plants as well.

So we're really kind of focused on the ancient history of Connecticut.

these were preserved so well that in several of the tracks you can actually see the texture of the foot of the dinosaur.

And particularly in this on you can see the little dimples and the other texture there.

So that is literally the dinosaurs like fingerprint, its footprint there.

Oh!!

I was curiou about the interactive portion.

Sure.

this is an interactive sandbox and.

And if you dig down the it senses you're digging down.

And you can expose wate as you dig down into the sand.

And then when you expose enough water, then you start to get the aquatic animals as you're exposing the water, digging down, you'r creating a mountain over here.

And if you're big enough then you can create a volcano.

Next we're traveling through time a cool 65 million years to check out the Mashantucket Pequot Museum.

The Mashantucket Pequot Museum is the largest Native American museum in the world.

We're our own sovereign nation here at Mashantucket.

So that means we're a government within the United States government.

So we have our own laws.

We have our own police force, fire department, postal service and zip code.

You're in a whol different place at Mashantucket.

We're going about 18,000 years back in time right now.

So you get the feel of the glaciers melting when you walk through here.

You can hear the sounds of th glacier going across the land.

Oh, my goodness.

And one of the things that the glaciers left behind was our great cedar swamp which is important ceremonially and for archeological knowledge that was used for the foundation of the museum.

So this is a 16th century Pequot villag in the summer prior to contact.

So you'll hear people talking.

They get very chatty when you're trying to give a tour.

It was a very communal society.

So everybody helped out.

This is incredible.

You can learn so muc just going to a different corner of every like.

If you rotate around, you learn something new.

Our tour through time has one more stop.

Okay.

Well, welcome to the lighthouse here at Historic Stonington.

My name is David Naumec.

I am the museum manager her at the 1840 Lighthouse Museum.

Here at the lighthouse, it was an operating lighthouse from 1840, the time it was built, to 1889.

It was replacing an earlier structure at the end of the point, possibly where you park today right down there.

And after 1889, it was basically a dwelling house, only for the lighthouse keepers, where the light was moved out to the breakwater behind you, out to the west there.

We offer free tours to educational institutions.

So the middle schools the high schools, even colleges, like if they're associated with a school or university, we just, you know, waive admission.

It's tough enough sometimes just to, you know, get the transportation to get here.

And that really limits people.

This is al just a fraction of what historic Stonington has in our archives as a historical society.

It's one of the older in the state.

1895 it was established.

And when the lighthous was decommissioned in the 1920s.

Historically, the Stonington Historical Society purchased lighthouse in 1925.

I first, I believe it was first open for tours and tea and sandwiches around 1927.

It operated pretty continually, except for about one year around, right after World War II and just became one of the centerpieces for the collections to tell the story of the whole town.

Avoid the rope, which is original to the place, probably.

Who knows.

18-whatever.

29 steps to the top.

But you wouldn't know it.

It's very nic little walk, not claustrophobic.

And the window through there where you can again view the second floor we were just at.

Whoa!

Okay.

Oh my gosh.

Okay.

Oh, wait.

The slide to the right.

Yeah.

Oh.

Oh my God Yes right here.

Oh, perfect.

Rest of that Connecticu shoreline heading towards Mystic Not everyone makes it to the top, but most do.

But again everybody from town will see us up here too.

And we can see everything.

It's one of the few lighthouses really open to the public in the region.

And this is als why we get so many visitors here just for this experience.

And the rest is history.

What are your favorite history rich spots in Connecticut?

Let us know and thanks for watching Connecticuts Hidden Gems.