Did You Know?

  1. That Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spent two summers 1944 and 1947 in Simsbury? He worked in the tobacco fields and lived in a farm off Firetown Road. Dr. King's writings strongly suggest that his call to the ministry crystallized during his stay in Simsbury. To learn more, watch this documentary created by some Simsbury High School Students.
  2. That Mark Twain used to regularly walk ten miles from his home in Hartford with his closest friend, the Rev. Joseph Hopkins Twichell to Talcott Mountain?
  3. That Simsbury is home to the McLean Game Refuge which is made up of 3,400 acres in Simsbury and Granby which Governor and Senator McLean had acquired preserved for the benefit of wildlife and people?
  4. That Simsbury is the site of the Heublein Tower in Talcott Mt. State Park and former home of the famous liquor magnate, Gilbert Heublein? 4 states are visible for 7 miles from the tower which is a 1.25 mile walk from a parking area on RT 185.
  5. That Simsbury is the birthplace of Gifford Pinchot (after whom the largest tree in the state on RT 185 is named)? An ardent environmental preservationist, he was the head of the US Forest Service and Governor of Pennsylvania for two terms.
  6. That Tariffville got its name from the protective tariffs which supported the first carpet factory in 1825?
  7. That the Farmington canal in the 1820’s ran from New Haven to Northampton, MA and operated where Hopmeadow now stands until the late 1840’s when the railroad took over?
  8. That Simsbury is one of the oldest towns in CT founded in 1670? You can experience its historical heritage in a museum complex in the center of town on the grounds of the Simsbury Historical Society.
  9. That Simsbury is the only Simsbury in the entire world? And we don’t really know how Simsbury came to have its unique name because documents from its earliest time were accidentally burned.

In Addition -

Simsbury is a short ride away from special historical sites like the Mark Twain House & Museum and Old Newgate Prison & Copper Mine (scheduled to reopen in the spring of 2014); art museums including the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hillstead and New Britain Museum of American Art; and special children’s’ attractions like the New England Air Museum and the Basketball Hall of Fame.