Sherwood Island State Park
| Sherwood Island State Park | |
| Connecticut State Park | |
 East Beach at Sherwood Island State Park
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| Country |  United States |
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| State |  Connecticut |
| County | Fairfield |
| Town | Westport |
| Elevation | 10 ft (3 m) |
| Coordinates | 41°06′56″N 73°19′42″W / 41.11556°N 73.32833°WCoordinates: 41°06′56″N 73°19′42″W / 41.11556°N 73.32833°W |
| Area | 238 acres (96 ha) |
| Opened | 1932 |
| Management | Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection |
  Location in Connecticut
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| Website: 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 238 acres (96 ha) 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.
The 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 6,000 feet (1,800 m) 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.
In 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.
Daniel Sherwood settled on Fox Island in 1787. During the 1800s, his large family farmed the uplands on the west side of the island and operated a gristmill on the Mill Pond. Many farmers shared the Machamux salt marsh. (See also Henry Burr Sherwood.) By the 1860s, the place was known as "Sherwood's Island." Gallup Gap Creek at one time ran north and south on the east side of the park but not far from the center. Some have said that what was known previously as Sherwood's Island was only west of that creek, which was later dammed up to help water flow at the grist mill.
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