Shade Swamp Sanctuary

Given a long enough timeline, nature will swallow most anything up, and such was the fate of an abandoned small zoo just off U.S. Route 6 in Connecticut. Now people drive by every day without knowing the remnants of a Depression-era menagerie are peeking out from the overgrowth surrounding the road.

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The little “zoo” was part of an 800-acre preserve called Shade Swamp Sanctuary, which started out as a wildlife rehabilitation center in the 1930s. Injured animals were cared for and released back into the wild. It housed birds, wolves, bears, and many other animals. Known to many as the “Farmington Zoo, it also featured a breeding program for critters like raccoons and rabbits that were commonly hunted off the busy highway during the Great Depression.

Shade Swamp’s reputation as a zoo spread, and soon people were bringing in exotic pets they didn’t want to care for anymore: monkeys, an alligator, and even a baby giraffe from a stranded carnival. The breeding program ended soon after the Depression, and the sanctuary was later abandoned in the 1960s after U.S. Route 84 took most of Route 6’s traffic.

A wooden shelter in the sanctuary was built in 1934 by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps. It’s thanks to this artifact that the area was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Now one of two trails runs from Route 6 to the deserted shelter and empty cages.